Uncertainties of supply chains are caused by the fact that supply chains are formed based on relationships among different companies. In this study, relations among factors caused by uncertainties of supply chain and effects on performance of supply chain by relationship variables derived from the perspective of organization behavior are analyzed.
Previous studies on relationship variables in supply chains integrate buyers and suppliers or only consider either buyers or suppliers. However, relationship variables should be considered based on relationships among companies.
Companies specialized in fire protection in which small number of buyers (58 buying companies) selects large number of suppliers (128 supply companies) providing materials to buyers are used for this study. Structural Equation Model (SEM) and Path Analysis(PA) are used to grasp relations among attributes of relationship variables in supply chains.
In conclusion, we find that attributes in relationship variable for buyers are different from those for suppliers. Relations between ‘dependency’ and 'trust' and relations between 'trust' and 'performance' are shown to be high for buyers and suppliers. On the other hand, relations between ‘dependency’ and ‘conflict’ and relations between ‘conflict’ and ‘performance’ are shown to be high only for suppliers. Relations between ‘conflict’ and ‘trust’ are shown to be high only for buyers. Finally, the mutual interdependence between buyers and suppliers are not independent and the response to relationship variable are found to be more sensitive as the magnitude of force is getting low.