Resource Scarcity Perceptions in Supply Chains: The Effect of Buyer Altruism on the Propensity for Collaboration

Abstract

When faced with potential resource scarcities, purchasing managers have to make decisions regarding how to react to such scarcity threats. This can be challenging as there is often uncertainty surrounding the potential scarcity. Buyers’ mitigation decisions are impacted by their perceptions, which may lead to potentially ineffective mitigation responses. Resource dependence theory as well as supply chain literature emphasize the importance of collaborating with supply chain partners to secure access to scarce resources. However, behavioral research argues that the scarcity mindset causes individuals to behave more competitively, rather than collaboratively. This research examines the extent to which buyers’ perceptions of scarcity threats affect the decision to act altruistically towards the major supplier as well as to choose to collaborate with a major supplier in order to mitigate the scarcity. The research uses a scenario‐based role‐playing experiment with respondents serving as purchasing managers. The research demonstrates the complexity of resource scarcity management and illustrates that when faced with resource scarcity, buyers are actually less prone to collaborate with critical resource suppliers. This effect is robust, regardless of the level of relational capital present in the buyer–supplier relationship and regardless of individual factors, such as work experience and previous purchasing experience.

Exploring the Determinant Factors of Impulsive Buying Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Indonesian Consumers

“…Previous studies related to panic buying behavior shows that there was a positive relationship between perceptions of scarcity, panic buying, fear appeal (Li, Zhou, Wong, Wang, & Yuen, 2021;Omar et al, 2021;Wiedmer, Whipple, Griffis, & Voorhees, 2020), and impulsive buying behavior (Addo et al, 2020;Iyer et al, 2020;Kim & Su, 2020). The result of direct and indirect hypotheses testing in Table 2 shows that most of the proposed premises (six of nine) in this study are in line with the conclusion of previous works.…”

Green supply chain management, supplier environmental commitment, and the roles of supplier perceived relationship attractiveness and justice. A moderated moderation analysis

“…The present paper contributes to a stream of literature that has emphasized the importance of perceptions in management studies (Elsbach, 2003;Henriques & Sadorsky, 1999), and in supply chain research in particular (Czakon & Kawa, 2018;Matopoulos et al, 2019;Oosterhuis et al, 2013;Wiedmer et al, 2020), by deepening the role of suppliers' perceptions in shaping the relationships between green supply chain management and supplier environmental commitment.…”

How COVID-19 pandemic has shaped buyer-supplier relationships in engineering companies with ethical perception considerations: A multi-methodological study

“…Ethical perception enables an open relationship between buyers and sellers based on trust and mutual understanding, resulting in the quick resolution of challenges ( Bendixen & Abratt, 2007 ). In an uncertain environment, the propensity for collaboration helps the buyers to overcome the problem of resource scarcity ( Wiedmer et al, 2020 ) and this altruistic behaviour is well-treasured ( Choi & Zhang, 2022 ). Appropriate resource-sharing mechanisms are essential to keep the supply chain running during a pandemic ( Kumar et al, 2020 ).…”