Performance Improvement Through Supply Chain Collaboration: Conventional Wisdom Versus Empirical Findings

Ann Vereecke and S. Muylle
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S. Muylle: -

Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium from Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Abstract: Supply chain collaboration is claimed to yield significant improvements in multiple performance areas: it is believed to reduce costs, to increase quality, to improve delivery, to augment flexibility, to cut procurement cost and lead time, and to stimulate innovativeness. Yet empirical support for the relationship between supply chain collaboration and performance improvement is scarce. Our research adds to this emerging stream of research by providing empirical evidence from the engineering/assembly industries, based on data collected through the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) in Europe. The study reveals that supply chain collaboration is no guarantee for success: performance improvement is only weakly related to the extent of collaboration with customers or suppliers. However, strong improvers in multiple performance areas are found to be heavily engaged in collaboration projects with customers and suppliers, through extensive information exchange and higher levels of structural coordination.

Keywords: supply chain management; collaboration; performance improvement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2005-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec and nep-ino
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Performance improvement through supply chain collaboration: conventional wisdom versus empirical findings (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rug:rugwps:05/291

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