Paper info

The impact of alternative financial supply chain practices on supply risk: a relationship quality-buyer relative power perspective

Saeed Najafi Tavani, Pete Naude and Elmira Parvizi-Omran

The paper was published at the 35th IMP-conference in Paris, France in 2019.

The business-to-business marketing and supply chain literature both show increasing attention being paid by researchers in considering financial supply chain management (FSCM) practices as a key concept that enables firms to gain competitive advantage. Despite a large body of research on the concept of buyer-supplier relationships, only a limited numbers of studies have addressed the potential association between FSCM practices and business-to-business relationship consequences. The literature lacks insights into how FSCM practices can help buying firms to manage their supply-side risk. This study empirically examines the impact of financial supply chain practices on supply risk using the relationship quality-buyer relative power matrix. Based on cross-sectional survey of 256 manufacturing firms in Iran, and employing both multivariate regression and cluster analysis, we found that depending on the quality of the buyer-supplier relationship and the level of the buyer’s relative power, different FSCM practices can be implemented to mitigate supply risk. Our empirical findings present important implications for both theory and practice.