مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

 مجله تحقیقات بازاریابی – Journal of Business Research

The intensive global market competition encourages manufacturers to establish strategic long-term relationships with their suppliers to have more efficient and effective performance and thus attain higher competitive advantages (Tseng, 2014). Supplier relationship management (SRM) process integration (Barua, George, Motilal, Porter, & Vann, 2013; Croxton, Garcia-Dastugue, Lambert, & Rogers, 2001; Vanpoucke, Vereecke, & Boyer, 2014) can help achieve this objective. Berente, Vandenbosch, and Aubert (2009) define integration as a synchronizing action that coordinates two or more organizational processes with the goal of performance improvement. Similarly, Forslund and Jonsson (2007) define integration as a process in which two or more enterprises jointly conduct and carry out the activities and processes within the supply chain. (See Tables 1 and 2.)

Given the benefits of the SRM integration, several researchers (Bharadwaj & Matsuno, 2006; Kato & Schoenberg, 2014; Vanpoucke et al., 2014) have called for further studies about this integration within the supply chain actors. In this context, Park et al. (2010) provide a framework for the SRM process integration. Kato and Schoenberg (2014) study the impact of the SRM process integration on the customers. Perols, Zimmermann, and Kortmann (2013) conduct a research on SRM process integration focusing on time-to-market aspects in healthcare and information technology (IT) industries. Despite these efforts, no case-based research focuses on SRM process integration between the manufacturer and its first upstream tier of suppliers within the construction equipment industry of Sweden. Existing research merely discusses the importance of electronic supply chain management in Swedish firms (Oghazi, 2014) or investigates the antecedents and consequences of enterprise systems exploitation in Swedish service firms (Oghazi, 2013). Nevertheless, these studies draw on surveys and do not explicitly reflect the notion of SRM process integration between the manufacturer and its first upstream tier of suppliers.

Furthermore, SRM process integration could face potential obstacles. Forslund and Jonsson (2009) discuss obstacles in performance management process integration within a dyad. Katunzi (2011) discusses potential obstacles for manufacturers in integrating with their supply chains partners. Despite these efforts, no studies explicitly study the obstacles to the SRM process integration between the manufacturer and its first upstream tier within the Swedish construction equipment industry.