Contractor practices for managing extended supply chain tiers
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how contractor firms manage their relationships with extended supply chain tiers and investigate the range of ICT technologies used to facilitate such practices.
Design/methodology/approach
An on-line questionnaire survey was conducted to gather information about supply chain management operations, supplier relationship management and the ICT technologies used by contractor firms to manage their extended supply chain tiers.
Findings
The extended supply chain relationships of contractor firms are primarily composed of contractual, technical and financial entities, but findings suggest that the vision to consider extended supply chain firms when selecting suppliers are still myopic. Majority of ICT technologies are used between Tier 1 supply chain firms and there is an inconsistency in the number of technologies adopted with the extended supply chain tiers. Despite having a high involvement relationship with Tier 2 downstream firms, findings indicate a lack of use of ICT technologies to manage the organisational, personal and technological interactions with these firms.
Research limitations/implications
On the basis of different relationship types this study develops an initial framework for management of supply chains that are facilitated by relevant ICT technologies.
Originality/value
This paper provides insights into the management of extended supply chain firms by contractor firms from a relationship-centric perspective and develops an initial framework for relationship-centric supply chain management.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) for their support of this research and all the respondents who participated in the survey. Received 26 April 2013 Revised 19 August 2013 27 August 2013 Accepted 30 August 2013
Citation
Pala, M., Edum-Fotwe, F., Ruikar, K., Doughty, N. and Peters, C. (2014), "Contractor practices for managing extended supply chain tiers", Supply Chain Management, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 31-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-04-2013-0142
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited