Supplier absorptive capacity: learning via boundary objects in sustainability-oriented supplier development initiatives

Supplier development or supplier switching?

We study a firm’s cost-based sourcing decision of whether to invest in an incumbent supplier or switch to an alternative supplier in order to realise lower purchasing costs. In isolation, it can be shown that the development of an incumbent supplier (i.e., a cooperative investment) becomes more attractive, the higher the uncertainty about the price the buying firm can realise on the market and ...

Supplier Development for Different Supplier Segments

In order to standout from competition in the global market, companies must rely on competent suppliers. The supplier development program is designed to create and maintain a network of competent suppliers, which has a major influence on the competitive advantages of a buying company. The existing literatures on supplier development all adopt “one-size-fit-all” strategies. However, to allocate s...

A Framework for Assessing and Managing Large Purchaser – Minority Supplier Relationships in Supplier Diversity Initiatives

Supplier Selection via Tournaments

I this paper, we study the performance of a sourcing mechanism gaining popularity in industrial procurement environments; a tournament. Under a tournament, a buyer initially procures her parts from two suppliers with possibly different quality levels, for T time periods, i.e., she parallel sources. During this time, the buyer is able to observe noisy signals about the suppliers’ quality. At tim...

Supplier development: Improving supplier performance through knowledge transfer

The dynamic business environment today requires organizations to effectively use all available resources to remain competitive. The quality and cost of a product or service offered in the market is a function, not only of the capabilities of the firm, but also the supplier network providing inputs to the enterprise. To remain competitive, organizations are increasingly implementing supplier dev...