An examination of strategic supply management benefits and performance implications

There has been a growing body of literature documenting the impact of strategic supply management on firm performance. Yet, despite of its importance, there has been little research on how this impact is achieved from a social network perspective and on the link between strategic supply management and customer responsiveness. This study develops and empirically tests a conceptual model employing two increasingly important constructs that reflect intermediate benefits of having a strategic supply management function: relational embeddedness and network scanning. We then explore the relationships between those intermediate benefits and customer responsiveness using structural equation modeling from a sample of 204 US manufacturing firms. The research findings indicate that organizations engaging in strategic supply management are able to directly achieve greater levels of customer responsiveness by scanning their supply base network, and indirectly by having socially embedded relationship ties with those suppliers.