Impact of supplier development on supplier’s performance

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of supplier development (SD) on supplier’s performance by sharing implicit knowledge in mentorship under the influence of supplier’s organizational culture (OC).

A survey questionnaire was employed to collect data from 226 employees of participating suppliers after conducting mentorship training at the suppliers’ site. The data were analyzed by the partial least squares structural equation modeling with software SmartPLS Ver. 3.0.

The empirical analysis indicates that SD by mentorship partially mediates the total effects of OC – power distance and uncertainty avoidance – on performance. It completely mediates the collaborative culture on performance.

This study may confirm that the SD program by mentorship is a viable strategy to enhance the performance of supply chain partners and the selection of suppliers.