Douglas K. Macbeth

Implementing Collaboration Between Organizations: An Empirical Study Of Supply Chain Partnering

Many managers attempt to develop collaborative alliances with other organizations. Such strategies are difficult to implement: they are as likely to fail as to succeeed. Implementing and managing an alliance is harder than deciding to collaborate. This paper explores the topic empirically through a study of one form of alliance – supply chain partnering. It presents an interaction model of partnering which shows seven contextual factors that shape, and are shaped by, human action. This context can both help and hinder the emergence of co-operative behaviour. The model is illustrated through a case study of two organizations (customer and supplier) attempting to co-operate more closely. The case shows how the cultural and other differences between the parties at first caused difficulty. Actions were taken to change aspects of the context to facilitate more co-operative behaviour. Improving interpersonal relations led to further actions to create more formal mechanisms which would support future co-operation. These appear to have contributed to the relationship exceeding the initial expectations of the partners. The interaction model illuminates both the content and process of supply chain partnering.

Success and failure in implementing supply chain partnering: an empirical study

Abstract An increasing number of companies subscribe to the idea that developing long-term collaboration and cooperation, partnering, can take significant wastes out of the supply chain and provide a route to securing the best commercial advantage. However, the implementation of partnering involves radical changes which can demand considerable work and are hard to implement. There is an extensive literature on project management and the implementation of change, though few of the many prescriptions have been supported by empirical research. This paper provides some quantitave evidence that some of the practices recommended in literature do make a difference to the implementation of partnering. It suggests six underlying barriers to partnering based on the results of the study.

Barrier impact on organizational learning within complex organizations

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to examine the manner in which employees access, create and share information and knowledge within a complex supply chain with a view to better understanding how to identify and manage barriers which may inhibit such exchanges.Design/methodology/approach – An extensive literature review combined with an in‐depth case study analysis identified a range of potential transfer barriers. These in turn were examined in terms of their consistency of impact by an end‐to‐end process survey conducted within an IBM facility.Findings – Barrier impact cannot be assumed to be uniform across the core processes of the organization. Process performance will be impacted upon in different ways and subject to varying degrees of influence by the transfer barriers. Barrier identification and management must take place at a process rather than at the organizational level.Research limitations/implications – The findings are based, in the main, on an extensive single company study. Althoug...

The role of purchasing in a partnering relationship

Abstract The paper aims to explore the nature of partnership sourcing or partnering and the implications for the changing role of the purchasing function in the new situation. Partnering has evolved as a solution to changing market requirements. The change to collaboration as the operating paradigm changes the required operational job roles within the purchasing function. The paper concludes that purchasing becomes central to the whole cost-reducing, innovation-enhancing, market-competitive positionining of an organization. Purchasings role may then evolve to business relationship management within a high-visibility, strategic context. The need is a business need, not a functional one.

Prescriptions for managing change: a survey of their effects in projects to implement collaborative working between organisations

This paper reports on a quantitative study of 100 companies which had attempted to move towards a more collaborative relationship with another organisation. Judged on criteria set out in the survey 46 had succeeded and 54 had failed in their attempt to implement supply chain partnering. A questionnaire invited respondents to indicate which project management practices (drawn from a review of the change management literature) they had used. Statistical analyses showed that four practices accounted for most of the difference between successful and unsuccessful implementation. These concerned project goals, resources, structures and controls. Many conventional change management prescriptions had no statistically significant effect on the outcome. The paper relates these results to theories of change management and draw the practical implications. These are likely to apply to many other types of change project.

Emergent strategy in managing cooperative supply chain change

There is much debate about the nature of strategy formulation as content or process. This paper takes a process view informed from insights from non‐linear dynamics, complexity and chaos theory and applies it to a well tested management of change process in cooperative supply chain management to draw illustrations from two case examples which reinforce the utility of this use of complexity in formulating emergent strategies.

Partnering and relationships within an international network context

This paper uses an empirical study of the collaborative business relationships between Opel Portugal as a subsidiary the American automotive manufacturer General Motors and its Portuguese‐based direct suppliers (PBDS) as a means of exploring the contributions of the three research traditions of supply chain management, multinational theory and, crucially, the role of the IMP approach. Within this research, the supply chain management concept of partnering is used to provide a bridge between the dyadic and network perspectives. Also, due to its potential in describing complex business networks and in capturing the nature of dyadic business relationships, the analytical tool related to the IMP work, the ARA (activities‐resources‐actors) model, by Hakansson and Snehota, is a major influence on the development of the conceptual framework presented in this study. The case results indicate the possibility of mapping the constructs of the partnering approach onto the ARA model to understand the dyad within a network context where the MNCs structure and operation exerts an often constraining role on the possible dyadic interactions.

Framework for relationships and networks

Purpose – The paper seeks to provide a framework for analyzing business relationships and networks within organizational, spatial, relational and network contexts.Design/methodology/approach – A single case study method is applied to highlight the applicability of the relationship/network framework applying. The case was a large multinational organization, with this research focusing on its European subsidiaries. Business relationships and the industrial network into which the case firm is embedded provided many different types of relationships to analyze.Findings – The results highlight how the different types of relationships can be analyzed using the framework. The framework proved useful for all types of relationships raised in the case study.Research limitations/implications – The method used a single case study, and further testing with other cases would highlight the generalizability of the framework.Practical implications – The framework is a useful tool to assist managers when analyzing the varie...

Getting the Message Across? Supplier Quality Improvement Programmes: Some Issues in Practice

Supply chain management is examined and why supplier quality improvement is sometimes more apparent in speech than in action. The concern is that to obtain the required higher quality the suppliers are simply “running faster” on the traditional treadmill. A guide to managing the supply chain is provided and recommendations made for future “best practice” in the light of existing processes.

Strategic Aspects of Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management can be seen as an approach to obtaining the benefits of Vertical Integration without ownership. Vertical Integration has the potential to offer benefits of increased control as well as cost reduction, but supply chain approaches can theoretically provide these same benefits through effective organisation. The concerns with supply chains are discussed under the headings of: innovation, competence and value added, investment flexibility, networks rather than single chains, proprietary design knowledge and dependence. The conclusion is that, where supply chains are identified (even within vertically integrated organisations), then an approach based on effective management of each of the customer‐supplier relationships is key to success. Reference is made to work and materials produced by the Supply Chain Management Group at the University of Glasgow Business School which emphasises the need to implement “best practice” at each point in each chain.