Paper info: The new Global Supply Chain Relationships Paradigm: Social Control Mechanisms, Formal Interactions and the Mediating role of Culture
Title
The new Global Supply Chain Relationships Paradigm: Social Control Mechanisms, Formal Interactions and the Mediating role of Culture
Authors
Des Doran and Mihalis Giannakis
Place of Publication
The paper was published at the 27th IMP-conference in Glasgow, Scotland in 2011.
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
This paper reports the preliminary results of a study that examines how multi-national firms in China can establish successful relationships with Chinese suppliers. A survey has been conducted that investigates several factors that inhibit and enable effective supplier relationship management (SRM) between western organizations and Chinese suppliers, followed up by an in-depth case study analysis of the business relationships characteristics of three organisations in China. The research highlights the importance of the social control side of governance structure and stresses that both social and formal control mechanisms should be implemented for more effectively relationships with Chinese suppliers. It also demonstrates that need for western companies to recognize the importance of Guanxi and several cultural characteristics of the Chinese style of management in SRM and advocates the need for the development of a hybrid Sino-Japanese and western global SRM paradigm that will incorporate elements from the existing SRM models.
This paper reports the preliminary results of a study that examines how multi-national firms in China can establish successful relationships with Chinese suppliers. A survey has been conducted that investigates several factors that inhibit and enable effective supplier relationship management (SRM) between western organizations and Chinese suppliers, followed up by an in-depth case study analysis of the business relationships characteristics of three organisations in China. The research highlights the importance of the social control side of governance structure and stresses that both social and formal control mechanisms should be implemented for more effectively relationships with Chinese suppliers. It also demonstrates that need for western companies to recognize the importance of Guanxi and several cultural characteristics of the Chinese style of management in SRM and advocates the need for the development of a hybrid Sino-Japanese and western global SRM paradigm that will incorporate elements from the existing SRM models.