Impact of Buyer-Supplier Relationships on Quality Practices and Quality Performance

The research questions addressed in this study are: (a) to what extent do quality practices impact upon the various dimensions of quality performance and in turn, business performance? (b) to what extent is the relationship between quality practices and quality performance contingent upon the nature of buyer-supplier relationships? We undertook comprehensive reviews of the literature in the domains of both quality management and buyer-supplier relationships. The review of the quality management literature revealed that much of it is anecdotal, prescriptive and methodologically suspect, and that theory construction and rigorous empirical testing is a relatively recent development. On the other hand, the field of buyer-supplier relationship has evolved rather differently. This literature, which traditionally has attracted the attention of industrial and distribution channel marketing scholars, is more rigorous both in terms of theory construction and empirical testing. Drawing on these reviews, we develop a theoretical model that integrates both the quality management and buyer-supplier relationship streams of research. The central proposition in our theoretical research model is that the strength of the relationship between buyer and supplier is a key intervening variable between quality practices and quality performance. This is operationalised as a path model incorporating quality practices, design quality, conformance quality, external quality-in-use, product cost, time-to-market, customer satisfaction and business performance. Fifteen hypotheses link these theoretical constructs. The model was tested with data collected from 200 suppliers in the electronics sector in the Republic of Ireland. The analytical procedure used included reliability analysis, factor analysis, path (regression) analysis and subgroup analysis to test for the moderator effects of relationship strength. Data analysis of the data indicates that eleven of the hypotheses are supported. In particular, previously untested hypotheses incorporating design quality are supported. Similarly, the key hypothesis that buyer-supplier relationship strength moderated the quality practices-design relationship is also supported. An important contribution to knowledge of this study is that it provided the first empirical evidence that constructs from within the buyer-supplier 2 relational paradigm could explain the relationship between quality practices and design quality. In particular, the conceptualisation and measurement of design quality as a key dimension of quality performance, combined with the role of buyer-supplier relationships in product design and development, represents a new extension to theory development in this field. In addition, the study adds to existing theoretical development of the quality performance construct by including variables such as product cost and time-to-market. Methodologically, the study is amongst …