Research On Supply Chain Partnership Management And Its Impact On Supply Chain Performance

In recent years companies face great competition and threats due to the impacts of globalization, trade liberalization and information technology on the business environment. Furthermore, consumer needs change rapidly. An individual company is not able to face this unpredictable market by itself. The competition among enterprises has already evolved into the competition among supply chains. By taking the opportunity of integrating the supply chain, build a strategic partnership with suppliers and maximize the synergy created by the integrated supply chain, enhance company performance and supply chain performance and seek sustainable competitive Advantage, and thus supply chain partnership appears.Based on the literature, in this research, the process of supply chain partnership management is divided into four stages: partner requirements analysis, partnership establishment, partnership operation and partnership termination. During the stage of partner requirements analysis, from a strategic perspective the company should confirm the supply chain partnership will be more efficient than other modalities of cooperation to achieve the strategic objectives and achieve the analysis of necessity of supply chain partnership. During the stage of partnership establishment, the company needs to know the future Partner's objectives, resources, organizational culture, management style and so on, and establish the supply chain partnership from strategic fit, organizational fit and operating fit with partners. During the stage of operation, the company needs to use three kinds of sustainable management capabilities to manage supply chain partnership. They are relationship adaptation capability, relationship stability capability and conflict resolution capability. During the stage of operation, this research put forward the concept of relationship termination costs. Because of the relationship termination costs, companies will not easily terminate the relationship between supply chain partners, and maintain the partnership. Relationship termination costs have a great impact on supply chain partnership operation.According to mentioned research background, this paper hopes to constructe the structure model of the relationship between supply chain partnership management and supply chain performance. The objectives of this study are finding out the components of supply chain partnership management and the relationship between supply chain partnership management and supply chain performance.According to mentioned research background this paper reviews transaction cost theory, resource dependence theory, resource-based theory, strategic behavior theory and network theory, and provides theoretical bases for supply chain partnership. According to literature review and theory background, the process of supply chain partnership management is divided into four stages, and for every stage, this paper defines the management meaning as follows: the analysis of necessity of supply chain partnership, the fit of supply chain partnership, the sustainable management capabilities of supply chain partnership and the termination costs of supply chain partnership. And this paper has clarified the characteristics of every management meaning.Based on the theoretical and conceptual discussion, the model of supply chain partnership management has been showed. The model of supply chain partnership management is composed of the analysis of necessity of supply chain partnership, the fit of supply chain partnership, the sustainable management capabilities of supply chain partnership and the termination costs of supply chain partnership. The fit of supply chain partnership consists of strategic fit, organizational fit and operational fit. The sustainable management capabilities of supply chain partnership consist of relationship adaptation capability, relationship stability capability and conflict resolution capability. This paper has discussed the internal relationship among components of supply chain partnership management and the relationship between supply chain partnership management and supply chain performance. And the hypotheses to be tested in this study have been proposed. The exploratory study in some corporations in China has tested the research model initially.This research pointed out 650 questionnaires and received 281 effective feedbacks. The assessment of reliability and validity of each variable used in this study has been performed using Cronbach's alpha and confirmatory factor analysis. Then the state of supply chain partnership in Chinese corporations has been analyzed by demographics of collected data. And the hypotheses in this research have been tested by correlate analysis, linear regression analysis and structural equation modeling. This paper obtains some valuable research findings, and research findings and contributions of this paper mainly lie in some areas as follows.This paper constructs the structure model of the relationship between supply chain partnership management and supply chain performance in enterprises. This paper clearly defines the analysis of necessity of supply chain partnership, the fit of supply chain partnership, the sustainable management capabilities of supply chain partnership and the termination costs of supply chain partnership, and defines strategic fit, organizational fit and operational fit, also defines relationship adaptation capability, relationship stability capability and conflict resolution capability.Based on the literature review, the scales of the analysis of necessity of supply chain partnership, the fit of supply chain partnership, the sustainable management capabilities of supply chain partnership, the termination costs of supply chain partnership, supply chain performance and environmental uncertainty are developed. And this paper describes the major research activities with regards to, the operationalization of the research model constructs, the sample design and the questionnaire design. This paper also includes description of respondent profile and the chosen statistical analysis methodology. And the assessment of reliability and validity of all the scales has passed. These scales are appropriate to assess Chinese enterprises.This paper has evaluated the status quo of supply chain partnership management and supply chain performance in Chinese enterprises. This research shows that superiors in Chinese enterprises have better performance of the analysis of necessity of supply chain partnership, but they don't attach importance on the fit of supply chain partnership, the sustainable management capabilities of supply chain partnership, the termination costs of supply chain partnership. The findings reflect that the state quo of supply chain partnership management in Chinese enterprises is not satisfying. This condition is not conducive to the enhancement of supply chain partnership management and supply chain performance, the supply chain partnership management is urgently needed in Chinese enterprises.This paper has revealed the effect mechanism between supply chain partnership management and supply chain performance in Chinese enterprises.Through empirical research, this paper has confirmed that the analysis of necessity of supply chain partnership has direct positive impact on the fit of supply chain partnership; the fit of supply chain partnership has direct positive impact on the sustainable management capabilities of supply chain partnership; the analysis of necessity of supply chain partnership has direct positive impact on the sustainable management capabilities of supply chain partnership; the sustainable management capabilities of supply chain partnership has direct positive impact on supply chain performance.This research's findings have significant implications to both supply chain theory and practice. As to academic implications, the research on supply chain partnership management is a important subject of supply chain issues, and the research in a new angle of view on supply chain partnership sustainable management have brought forth new ideas in supply chain partnership theory and methodology. As to managerial implications, the research shows that corporations could improve supply chain performance by developing supply chain partnership sustainable management capabilities. And the significance of supply chain partnership management has been cleared. The results from research on supply chain partnership management can provide the theoretical base of practical work in developing the supply chain partnership sustainable management capabilities.