A Study On Supply Chain Synergy Based On Relationship Capital And Interactive Learning

Since the 1990s, supply chain synergy has become a new supply chain management strategy. Supply chain synergy requires the node enterprises in the supply chain to coordinate and make efforts with each other to improve the overall competitiveness of the supply chain. Suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers and customers share information dynamically and work closely towards a common goal. In the era of knowledge-based economy, it requires not just the simple connection of the resources such as node businesses in the supply chain and technical skills, more importantly, the knowledge collaborative innovation. Therefore, in order to achieve the supply chain synergy, each of the node enterprises should establish the "win-win" sense and cooperate on the basis of trust and commitment. Also, node enterprises should carry out information sharing and knowledge innovation. So, building a theoretical framework of supply chain synergy based on the relationship capital and interactive learning, realizing the supply chain relationship synergy and knowledge collaborative innovation are of great significance to improve the methods of the supply chain synergy system and to provide theoretical guidance for the supply chain synergy management practices. On the basis of the existing theory of supply chain synergy and the relevant theory, the paper builds up a theoretical framework of supply chain synergy based on the relationship capital and interactive learning, through empirical study to examine the realization of the supply chain relationship synergy, and to realize the innovation of supply chain knowledge synergy. The supply chain synergy measure based on relationship capital and interactive learning was also studied in order to increase the overall performance of supply chain. The main content or possible creativities of the dissertation are as follows:(1) A theoretical framework of supply chain synergy based on the relationship capital and interactive learning has been constructed. By analyzing the synergy theory and its derivative ones of the complex adaptive systems theory and the harmony management theory, the supply chain was brought into the research of synergy theory in an attempt. The framework mainly includes three levels: the first is the layer of the core concept, the second is the layer of support system, and the third is the layer of the fundamental theory. There is a close relationship between the two components of the support system (the relationship capital and the interactive learning). Relationship capital based on mutual trust is helpful to promote the interactive learning in the supply chain organization and between the organizations, establish and maintain long-term and stable exchange of knowledge, and realize the knowledge sharing and create jointly new knowledge. Interactive learning can also enhance the trust among the staff as well as the trust among the enterprises, and rich the accumulation of relationship capital in a virtuous circle. The theoretical framework points out that supply chain synergy system is composed by the economic network, social network and knowledge networks. The establishment and maintenance of synergy may be realized not only by relying on personal networks or social interaction factors, but also by the interactive learning and knowledge innovation among the supply chains.(2) The connotation of supply chain synergy relationship capital was explained from the perspective of "the relationship dimension" of the social capital, and the relevant empirical analysis has been made to study the factors infecting the supply chain relationship capital and the relationship between the relationship capital and supply chain synergy. The conclusions of the empirical analysis are as follows: the relationship capital of supply chain is of a significant role in promoting supply chain synergy. In the order of the impact degree, the factors affecting the relationship capital of supply chain in alignment is respectively the supplier's reputation, the input of specific capital, transfer costs, supplier capacity. However, its impact on the organization adaptability is not significant. In order to achieve supply chain synergy in practice, the mutual trust and commitment with partners should be attached great importance, investment in specific capital investment should be increased, and it also requires building reputation mechanism and taking the match of supplier's ability into consideration.(3) The momentum model and the process model of the supply chain interactive learning have been established with the analysis of its momentum mechanism. On the further study of supply chain knowledge synergy, a realization mechanism of supply chain knowledge synergy sharing was built up from three aspects such as knowledge, organization and culture. After the study of the differences between the supply chain knowledge innovation and enterprise knowledge innovation, the SECI model for supply chain synergy knowledge innovation was constructed and improved creatively. The dynamic process of organization learning and synergy knowledge innovation was studies on the analysis of the four levels of supply chain organization learning on the principle of system dynamics. By the analysis of the typical cases on Toyota supply chain knowledge synergy, the deficiency of the supply chain enterprises in China was pointed out, and the several recommendations were made for China's supply chain business on how to achieve supply chain knowledge-sharing and synergy innovation.(4) The supply chain synergy measure model based on relationship capital and interactive learning has been constructed with case studies as an illustration. The supply chain synergy measure model grasps the coordinating situation by measuring the orderly changes of the parameter ordering system in sub-system, through testing the characteristics of the synergy degree of supply chain system and the changing trends in reality, which can provide a measure or evaluation criteria for implementation of supply chain system management. The multi-level experts group to assess the decision-making methods were performed, the method of proportion of matrix consistency empower was used and combined with the law of empowerment from the cluster of experts. The method of empowers of proportion of consistency was performed in the category, and empowerment from the cluster of experts was used among the categories. In such way, the results of the assessment could be more reliable to eliminate the subjective assessment of experts group effectively. The degree of order of the sub-system (elements) was calculated to obtain degrees of the supply chain synergy system. The supply chain with Sany Heavy Industry Co.,Ltd. as the core enterprise was investigated on its synergy measures, on this basis, the validity and feasibility of the index system and models were confirmed theoretically and practically.