Modeling a New Supplier Preference Paradigm: A Business-to-Business and African Developing Economy Context

Rodney Duffett () and Myles Wakeham
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Rodney Duffett: Marketing Department, Faculty of Business and Management Sciences, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town 8000, South Africa
Myles Wakeham: Marketing Department, Faculty of Business and Management Sciences, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town 8000, South Africa

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-27

Abstract: The recent COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent invasion of Ukraine by Russia, has demonstrated to the world the volatile and fragile nature of global supply chains. Hence, this study is based on research gaps that propose new sustainable business-to-business (B2B) procurement/supplier models that consider different factors across industries and uses the triple bottom line (TBL) framework as the theoretical underpinning. The study used a quantitative methodological approach and convenience sampling to survey 445 organizations in a B2B procurement context in South Africa. The data were analyzed via structural equation modeling. The inquiry revealed that service quality was important to determine access to personnel and environmental sustainability, which had a favorable influence on personal relationships and gifts and, in turn, positively influenced relationships with salespeople and management. Culture, employment equity, and affirmative action positively affected Black Economic Empowerment status which had a favorable influence on the preference of suppliers’ salespeople. Several other positive associations were revealed, which resulted in a unique theoretical supplier preference contribution to the TBL framework. The study also provides organizations with a number of practical benefits stemming from the associations between the new sustainable B2B procurement/supplier constructs that are important as value-added business activities in an African developing economic context.

Keywords: business-to-business (B2B) procurement; supply chain management; triple bottom line (environmental, social, and economic); 3Ps (planet, people, and profit); salesperson preference; service quality; management relationships; environment sustainability; Black Economic Empowerment (BEE); employment equity (EE); affirmative action (AA); personal relationships and gifts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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