Enduring buyer–supplier relationship and buyer performance: the mediating role of buyer–supplier dyadic embeddedness and supplier external embeddedness

Xun Li, Qun Wu, Thomas J. Goldsby and Clyde W. Holsapple

European Journal of Management Studies, 2022, vol. 27, issue 3, 291-316

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this research is to investigate the causal mechanisms that explain the relationship between the long-term buyer–supplier relationship and buyer performance. Building on the growing body of research on social capital in supply chain management (SCM), the authors examine how a buyer achieves superior performance in forming the enduring partnership with a supplier through two different forms of supplier embeddedness: buyer–supplier dyadic embeddedness and supplier external embeddedness. Design/methodology/approach - The bootstrapping method is utilized in data analysis to examine the mediating effects of the two different forms of supplier embeddedness simultaneously on the linkage between the duration of buyer–supplier relationships and buyer performance outcomes. Findings - The authors find that the two forms of supplier embeddedness serve as distinct conduits for the buyer to translate the long-term buyer–supplier relationship into performance effectiveness. Notably, dyadic embeddedness only mediates the linkage between the duration of buyer–supplier relationships and buyer economic performance, while supplier external embeddedness solely mediates the linkage between the duration of buyer–supplier relationships and buyer innovation performance. Originality/value - This study empirically demonstrates that different forms of supplier embeddedness may benefit a buyer differentially when directed at distinct performance goals. If a buyer can leverage both buyer–supplier dyadic embeddedness and supplier external embeddedness, the buyer will overcome value creation limitations of social capital from a single source, obtaining more comprehensive performance benefits sought by developing long-term buyer–supplier relationships.

Keywords: Buyer–supplier relationship; Dyadic embeddedness; Supplier external embeddedness; Buyer economic performance; Buyer innovation performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ejmspp:ejms-03-2022-0020

DOI: 10.1108/EJMS-03-2022-0020

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Management Studies is currently edited by Tiago Cardão-Pito and Gurpreet Dhillon

More articles in European Journal of Management Studies from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().