An Empirical Study of Buyer-Supplier Relationships within Small Business Organizations

Abstract

A paradox exists in small business organizations; although effective buyersupplier relationships are essential to the success of small businesses, these organizations may not have the purchasing and selling power in terms of managerial resources to implement them. This provides us an opportunity for research to determine how well developed are buyer-supplier relationships within small business organizations. Grounded in transaction cost and resource dependence theory, this paper presents and empirically tests a model that examines the relationships between buyer and supplier specificity and long-term buyer-supplier relationships and the latter's impact on organizational performance from the buyers' perspective. The results of this study provide insight into the development and impact of buyersupplier relationships within small business organizations. Several managerial implications can be determined.

Improving learning alliance performance for manufacturers: Does knowledge sharing matter?

“…We posited that adaptability and openness to trading partners, effective communication with a firm's partners, and innovation orientation within an organization are associated with the improvement of the buyer-supplier relationship, which is also conducive to tacit and explicit knowledge sharing between buyers and suppliers and resultant learning alliance performance. While the findings of this study are consistent with and supportive of prior research (e.g., Adams, Khoja, andKauffman, 2012, Nyaga andWhipple, 2011) and offers new sights in governing a dyadic relationship for supply chain practitioners, this investigation was subject to several limitations which restricts the interpretation of the research results. First, this study examined only the links between several primary intra-organization factors affecting the improvement of buyer-supplier relationship in the context of manufacturers in China.…”

Role of power in supply chain performance: evidence from agribusiness SMEs in Uganda

“…Furthermore, there is a limited research on role of power in SCP in the context of 17 SMEs (Adams et al, 2012;Sukwadi et al, 2013). Large organizations are often well 18 equipped and prepared to play the power games in their favor.…”

“…The RDT is therefore relevant in this study and has been used in previous studies to assess 24 power relationships in supply chains (Fynes et al, 2005;Adams et al, 2012;Sanfiel-Fumero 25 et al, 2012;Cai et al, 2013;Chicksand, 2015;Liu et al, 2015). The application of the RDT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 4 We define SCP as the operational measures that improve for each member, as well as for the 5 whole chain as result of participation in a supply chain relationship (Arzu Akyuz and Erman 6 Erkan, 2010; Molnár et al, 2010;Whipple et al, 2010;Gagalyuk et al, 2013).…”

Do Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Have Their Unique Buying Behavior Variables? — A Qualitative Approach

“…When SMEs give an important purchasing decision, relationship related factors such as trust, loyalty, communication quality, relationship duration become really significant for the decision makers. As [45] find that small buyers can develop long-term relationships with their respective suppliers, the result of this study also shows that the relationship with a particular supplier tends to be trustworthy, strong and long-term in which SMEs become loyal to that supplier. Also, SMEsupplier relationship is likely to be both commercial and personal.…”