IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/apb/jabsss/2019p179-192.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Developing relationship management strategies in a network context

Author

Listed:
  • Hadi Rezaei Vandchali

    (Department of Maritime and Logistics Management, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia)

  • Stephen Cahoon

    (Sense-T, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia)

  • Shu-Ling Chen

    (Department of Maritime and Logistics Management, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia)

Abstract

In today’s turbulent business environment, firms are becoming increasingly interdependent and are no longer expected to compete simply as an isolated business entity. The firm’s boundaries continue to extend as they out- source to reach out to one another’s resources across the Supply Chain (SC). The SCs have often been considered as a series of independent organizations which are connected through dyadic ties, often conceptualized as a simple linear system. Although this linear perception of dyadic interactions is worthy of investigation, it does not represent the realities of today’s complex SCs. A firm is a part of the overall network, and its business strategies depend on its embeddedness in the network structure and how it interacts with other participants. Accordingly, in analyzing the firms’ business environment, firms should not be considered in isolation but as being embedded in the network context. As a result, to effectively implement strategies, firms need to address issues in their Supply Chain Network (SCN) and develop effective relationships with different SCN actors to gain necessary resources that are not possessed by themselves. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyze the current Relationship Management Strategies (RMS) that firms apply to govern the whole SCN. The paper conducts a comprehensive review of Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) and SCN literature to explore how firms develop relationships with various actors with the SCN. The findings reveal that the linear perspective is not enough to truly understand the SC and emphasize that firms need to consider a network perspective to analyze their SC, which paves the way to shift from the SC towards an SCN context. By providing the main distinctions between an SCN and an SC, this paper also clarifies the actor’s characteristics of the SCN and enhances the understanding of the SCN actor. It furthermore identifies different existing RMS models that firms apply to manage their SCN, synthesizing knowledge involving the RMS and SCN. Finally, by outlining further research directions this paper alerts researchers, for example, to investigate RMS in the network context while considering various contingency variables in their future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Hadi Rezaei Vandchali & Stephen Cahoon & Shu-Ling Chen, 2019. "Developing relationship management strategies in a network context," Journal of Administrative and Business Studies, Professor Dr. Usman Raja, vol. 5(3), pages 179-192.
    • Handle: RePEc:apb:jabsss:2019:p:179-192
    DOI: 10.20474/jabs-5.3.5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://tafpublications.com/platform/Articles/full-jabs5.3.5.php
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://tafpublications.com/gip_content/paper/Jabs-5.3.5.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.20474/jabs-5.3.5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jammernegg, Werner & Kischka, Peter, 2005. "Dynamic, customer-oriented improvement of supply networks," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(2), pages 413-426, December.
    2. Ritter, Thomas & Gemunden, Hans Georg, 2003. "Interorganizational relationships and networks: An overview," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(9), pages 691-697, September.
    3. Jukka Partanen & Sylvie K. Chetty & Arto Rajala, 2014. "Innovation Types and Network Relationships," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(5), pages 1027-1055, September.
    4. Kwabena Sarpong Anning & Stephen Okyere & Jonathan Annan, 2013. "Demand Chain Management Model: A Tool for Stakeholders’ Value Creation," International Journal of Business and Social Research, MIR Center for Socio-Economic Research, vol. 3(12), pages 37-47, December.
    5. Plambeck, Erica L., 2012. "Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through operations and supply chain management," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(S1), pages 64-74.
    6. Pan, Feng & Nagi, Rakesh, 2013. "Multi-echelon supply chain network design in agile manufacturing," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 969-983.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Davis-Sramek, Beth & Robinson, Jessica L. & Darby, Jessica L. & Thomas, Rodney W., 2020. "Exploring the differential roles of environmental and social sustainability in carrier selection decisions," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    2. Hashem Omrani & Farzane Adabi & Narges Adabi, 2017. "Designing an efficient supply chain network with uncertain data: a robust optimization—data envelopment analysis approach," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(7), pages 816-828, July.
    3. Chan, Ying Tung & Zhao, Hong, 2023. "Optimal carbon tax rates in a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with a supply chain," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    4. Zhanwei Tian & Guoqing Zhang, 2021. "Multi-echelon fulfillment warehouse rent and production allocation for online direct selling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 304(1), pages 427-451, September.
    5. Juanjuan Qin & Liguo Ren & Liangjie Xia, 2017. "Carbon Emission Reduction and Pricing Strategies of Supply Chain under Various Demand Forecasting Scenarios," Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research (APJOR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 34(01), pages 1-27, February.
    6. Akcomak, Semih & Erdil, Erkan & Cetinkaya, Umut Yılmaz, 2018. "Knowledge convergence in European regions: Towards cohesion?," MERIT Working Papers 2018-027, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    7. Ji, Guojun & Gunasekaran, Angappa & Yang, Guangyong, 2014. "Constructing sustainable supply chain under double environmental medium regulations," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(PB), pages 211-219.
    8. Longinidis, Pantelis & Georgiadis, Michael C., 2014. "Integration of sale and leaseback in the optimal design of supply chain networks," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 73-89.
    9. Wen, Wen & Zhou, P. & Zhang, Fuqiang, 2018. "Carbon emissions abatement: Emissions trading vs consumer awareness," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 34-47.
    10. Fernando, Yudi & Hor, Wei Lin, 2017. "Impacts of energy management practices on energy efficiency and carbon emissions reduction: A survey of malaysian manufacturing firms," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 62-73.
    11. Strese, Steffen & Gebhard, Philipp & Feierabend, David & Brettel, Malte, 2018. "Entrepreneurs' perceived exit performance: Conceptualization and scale development," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 351-370.
    12. Vishal V. Agrawal & Atalay Atasu & Luk N. Van Wassenhove, 2019. "OM Forum—New Opportunities for Operations Management Research in Sustainability," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 1-12, January.
    13. Ford, David & Mouzas, Stefanos, 2008. "Is there any hope? The idea of strategy in business networks," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 64-78.
    14. Ren, Xiaohang & Xiao, Ya & Xiao, Shitong & Jin, Yi & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2024. "The effect of climate vulnerability on global carbon emissions: Evidence from a spatial convergence perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    15. Bertazzi, Luca & Bosco, Adamo & Laganà, Demetrio, 2015. "Managing stochastic demand in an Inventory Routing Problem with transportation procurement," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 112-121.
    16. Maria Kocot & Damian Kocot, 2022. "Determinants of the Success of an Outsourcing Project in the Field of IT Separations – The Experience of Companies in the Silesian Voivodeship," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1), pages 208-225.
    17. Berling, Peter & Eng-Larsson, Fredrik, 2017. "Environmental implications of transport contract choice - capacity investment and pricing under volume and capacity contracts," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 261(1), pages 129-142.
    18. Nuno Campos Pereira & Nuno Araújo & Leonardo Costa, 2016. "A counting multidimensional innovation index for SMEs," Working Papers de Economia (Economics Working Papers) 01, Católica Porto Business School, Universidade Católica Portuguesa.
    19. Siglé, Maarten A. & Goslinga, Sjoerd & Speklé, Roland F. & van der Hel, Lisette E.C.J.M., 2022. "The cooperative approach to corporate tax compliance: An empirical assessment," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    20. Liangjie Xia & Tingting Guo & Juanjuan Qin & Xiaohang Yue & Ning Zhu, 2018. "Carbon emission reduction and pricing policies of a supply chain considering reciprocal preferences in cap-and-trade system," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 268(1), pages 149-175, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:apb:jabsss:2019:p:179-192. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Professor Dr. Usman Raja (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://tafpublications.com/platform/published_papers/9 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.