Multi-level buyer-supplier relationships and their influence on supply chain risk management

Fan, Yiyi and Stevenson, Mark (2018) Multi-level buyer-supplier relationships and their influence on supply chain risk management. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This thesis investigates the role of buyer-supplier relationships (BSRs) at two different levels: the inter-organisational and inter-personal levels, in supply chain risk management (SCRM). The research is framed within the field of SCRM that is aimed at developing strategies for the identification, assessment, mitigation, and monitoring of risk in supply chains to achieve desirable outcomes (e.g. more resilience). The thesis contributes to an emerging debate that examines how multi-level BSRs affect the SCRM process. The thesis has a particular focus on the risk identification stage, and examines how multi-level BSRs influence supply-side resilience as the desirable outcome of SCRM. Previous research studies have mainly acknowledged the use of traditional intra-organisational practices, such as increasing operational slack or building strategic stock in SCRM. While a few studies have highlighted the inter-organisational collaboration in SCRM, influence from inter-personal relationships and the interplay between the two levels of BSRs have been overlooked. This thesis, therefore, aims to fill this particular gap through a sequential exploratory mixed methods approach in order to offer insights into the theoretical and practical value of studying the role of multi-level BSRs in affecting the process and outcome of SCRM. The overarching research question asked in this thesis is: How does the BSR affect the process and outcome of SCRM? To answer this, three inter-related papers are proposed: (1) a systematic literature review on SCRM; (2) a multiple case study paper on the role of BSRs on both the organisational and individual levelsin risk identification in the SCRM process; and (3) a survey paper examining the effect of multi-level BSRs on supply-side resilience as the desirable outcome of SCRM. The three studies complement each other and, together, provide a comprehensive understanding of the impact of multi-level BSRs on the process and outcome of SCRM. By using the social capital theory and signalling theory lenses, the findings highlight the ‘too much of a good thing’ effect of multi-level BSRs on the process and outcome of SCRM. From this, the practical contribution is drawn that organisations aiming to effectively manage supply chain risks (SCRs) need to deploy both inter-organisational and inter-personal relational practices in combination in order to achieve better SCRM performance.