Title: The impacts of specificity investments on relationship learning and competence building: the supplier's perspective

Authors: Wann-Yih Wu, Su-Chao Chang, Ya-Jung Wu

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, Ta-Hsueh Road, Tainan 701, Taiwan. ' Department of Business Administration, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, Ta-Hsueh Road, Tainan 701, Taiwan. ' Department of Business Administration, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, Ta-Hsueh Road, Tainan 701, Taiwan

Abstract: This paper develops a research model to integrate supplier|s specificity investments and relationship learning, as well as competence building, and, further tests the model using collected data from 148 exporting suppliers in Taiwanese manufacturing industries. The study concludes that while the direct effect of supplier|s specificity investments on competence building is not verified, the indirect effect, which is mediated by way of relationship learning, is positive.

Keywords: specificity investments; relationship learning; competence building; Taiwan; manufacturing; suppliers; buyer-supplier relationship; transaction cost theory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2006.008823

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 2006 Vol.3 No.3, pp.244 - 263

Published online: 27 Jan 2006 *

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