Supply Chain Relatiionship Dynamics and Performance of Supplier Base Management in Public Entities

Abstract

Despite several efforts done by different scholars on procurement field for more than two decades, supplier base management has been performing poorly. The study was carried out with the major aim of finding out the relationship between supply chain relationship dynamics and the performance of supplier base management. It specifically targeted to identify types and nature of supply chain relationships that prevails in the public procurement subsector, to examine how different types of supply chain relationships influence the supplier base management performance and lastly to determine the roles of suppliers in improving supplier base management performance. The study was guided by two theories which were Kraljic's theory and transactional cost economics theory. Both theories tried to explain and show the relationship between supply chain relationships and the supplier base management performance. The case study design was used and data were collected through interview and self-administered questionnaire tools. Data were further analysed by using SPSS in which descriptive statistics and factor analysis were used to examine the study variables. The study revealed that supply chain relationship dynamics have a larger impact on the supplier base management performance where, as the type of relationship change, its impact to the management performance also changes. It also discovered that long term and short-term supply chain relationships are mostly preferred and make a large contribution to the supplier management performance which is contrary to transactional relationship. Also, majority of the suppliers are not aware of their roles in the improvement of the supplier base management performance.