IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v52y2006i10p1472-1482.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Vendor Certification and Appraisal: Implications for Supplier Quality

Author

Listed:
  • Iny Hwang

    (College of Business, Minnesota State University, Mankato, Minnesota 56001)

  • Suresh Radhakrishnan

    (School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas, SM41, Richardson, Texas 75083)

  • Lixin (Nancy) Su

    (School of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Business, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong)

Abstract

We examine the buyer's problem of inducing the supplier's quality effort using two arrangements: the appraisal regime and the certification regime. In the appraisal regime, the buyer inspects the units supplied and either charges a penalty for defective units identified during inspection or pays the unit price for good units. In the certification regime, the supplier obtains vendor certification and the buyer pays the unit price for all units supplied. The inspection technology and the certification process provide noisy information on the supplier's quality effort. In the appraisal regime, the buyer implements the supplier's high-quality and low-inspection. The supplier's expected profit is greater than his reservation profit because of an additional agency cost: The buyer has to prevent the supplier from performing unwanted/preemptive inspection (which gives rise to indirect costs from delay, etc.). This additional agency cost arises precisely when the effectiveness of inspection is high. This provides a moral-hazard-based rationale for the increasing use of certification (such as ISO 9000) in spite of (in fact, because of) the increasing effectiveness of inspection. The potential for additional agency cost incurred by the buyer in the appraisal regime highlights an indirect cost associated with inspection.

Suggested Citation

  • Iny Hwang & Suresh Radhakrishnan & Lixin (Nancy) Su, 2006. "Vendor Certification and Appraisal: Implications for Supplier Quality," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(10), pages 1472-1482, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:52:y:2006:i:10:p:1472-1482
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1060.0557
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1060.0557
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.1060.0557?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. Dowdell, Thomas D. & Govindaraj, Suresh & Jain, Prem C., 1992. "The Tylenol Incident, Ensuing Regulation, and Stock Prices," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(2), pages 283-301, June.
    2. Michael A. Cusumano & Akira Takeishi, 1991. "Supplier relations and management: A survey of Japanese, Japanese‐transplant, and U.S. auto plants," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(8), pages 563-588, November.
    3. Nöldeke, Georg & Schmidt, Klaus M., 1995. "Option contracts and renegotiation," Munich Reprints in Economics 19329, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    4. Stanley Baiman & Paul E. Fischer & Madhav V. Rajan, 2000. "Information, Contracting, and Quality Costs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(6), pages 776-789, June.
    5. Donald B. Hausch & Yeon-Koo Che, 1999. "Cooperative Investments and the Value of Contracting," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 125-147, March.
    6. Stevenson, Thomas H. & Barnes, Frank C., 2001. "Fourteen years of ISO 9000: impact, criticisms, costs, and benefits," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 45-51.
    7. Baiman, S & Demski, Js, 1980. "Economically Optimal Performance Evaluation And Control-Systems," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18, pages 184-220.
    8. Edlin, Aaron S & Reichelstein, Stefan, 1996. "Holdups, Standard Breach Remedies, and Optimal Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 478-501, June.
    9. Diane J. Reyniers & Charles S. Tapiero, 1995. "The Delivery and Control of Quality in Supplier-Producer Contracts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(10), pages 1581-1589, October.
    10. Joel S. Demski & Hans Frimor & David E. M. Sappington, 2004. "Efficient Manipulation in a Repeated Setting," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1), pages 31-49, March.
    11. Kashi R. Balachandran & Suresh Radhakrishnan, 2005. "Quality Implications of Warranties in a Supply Chain," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(8), pages 1266-1277, August.
    12. Georg Noldeke & Klaus M. Schmidt, 1995. "Option Contracts and Renegotiation: A Solution to the Hold-Up Problem," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 26(2), pages 163-179, Summer.
    13. Anil Arya & Jonathan Glover & K. Sivaramakrishnan., "undated". "The Interaction between Decision and Control Problems and the Value of Information," Corporate Finance & Organizations _016, Ohio State University.
    14. Stanley Baiman & Paul E. Fischer & Madhav V. Rajan, 2001. "Performance Measurement and Design in Supply Chains," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(1), pages 173-188, January.
    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. José Sousa & Xavier Fairise, 2014. "On the value of partial commitment for cooperative investment in buyer–supplier relationship," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 111(2), pages 151-171, March.
    2. Stanley Baiman & Paul E. Fischer & Madhav V. Rajan, 2000. "Information, Contracting, and Quality Costs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(6), pages 776-789, June.
    3. Göller, Daniel & Stremitzer, Alexander, 2014. "Breach remedies inducing hybrid investments," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 26-38.
    4. Watson, Joel, 2006. "Contract and Mechanism Design in Settings with Multi-Period Trade," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series qt63s1s3j6, Department of Economics, UC San Diego.
    5. Bester, Helmut & Krähmer, Daniel, 2012. "Exit options in incomplete contracts with asymmetric information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 147(5), pages 1947-1968.
    6. Temin, Peter & Maxwell, James, 2003. "Corporate contracting for health care," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 403-420, November.
    7. Brooks, Richard & Stremitzer, Alexander, 2009. "On and Off Contract Remedies," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 290, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    8. Robert Gibbons & John Roberts, 2012. "The Handbook of Organizational Economics," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 9889.
    9. Sandeep Baliga & Tomas Sjöström, 2009. "Contracting with Third Parties," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 75-100, February.
    10. Alexander Stremitzer, 2012. "Standard Breach Remedies, Quality Thresholds, and Cooperative Investments," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 28(2), pages 337-359.
    11. Robert Evans, 2008. "Simple Efficient Contracts in Complex Environments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 76(3), pages 459-491, May.
    12. Chongwoo Choe, 2006. "Optimal CEO Compensation: Some Equivalence Results," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(1), pages 171-201, January.
    13. Evelyn Korn & Stephan Meisenzahl, 2009. "Contracting still matters! Or: How to design a letter of intent," MAGKS Papers on Economics 200909, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    14. Joel Watson, 2013. "Contract and Game Theory: Basic Concepts for Settings with Finite Horizons," Games, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-40, August.
    15. Bester, Helmut, 2013. "Investments and the holdup problem in a matching market," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 302-311.
    16. Sergei Guriev & Dmitriy Kvasov, 2005. "Contracting on Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(5), pages 1369-1385, December.
    17. Andreas Roider, 2006. "Delegation of Authority as an Optimal (In)Complete Contract," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 162(3), pages 391-411, September.
    18. Neeman, Zvika & Pavlov, Gregory, 2008. "Renegotiation-Proof Mechanism Design," Foerder Institute for Economic Research Working Papers 275717, Tel-Aviv University > Foerder Institute for Economic Research.
    19. Castaneda, Marco A., 2006. "The hold-up problem in a repeated relationship," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 953-970, September.
    20. Patrick W. Schmitz, 2005. "Should Contractual Clauses that Forbid Renegotiation Always be Enforced?," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 21(2), pages 315-329, October.

    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:inm:ormnsc:v:52:y:2006:i:10:p:1472-1482. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    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.