Impact Of Supply Chain Management Practices On Performance:Case Of Companies In The Cotton Sector In Mali

These last decades are marked by a significant development of Supply Chain Management(SCM)in academic research and managerial practices.The rise of the SCM was born of the concern of the companies to control the costs,to improve the quality of the services offered to the customers by reducing the times of answers to their requests.In this context,the notion of the supply chain,governed by an idea of inter-organizational partnership,is gradually replacing that of "isolated enterprise," thus modifying the structure of competition.This has resulted in a new competitive model that further opposes supply chains between them.The objective of this study was to empirically evaluate the impact of supply chain management on the performance of enterprises operating in the cotton sector in Mali.We favored an approach that links four SCM practices across a variety of dimensions of performance.In our methodology,we used the two-step approach of performing a descriptive analysis of the data,followed by econometric regression analysis.In the first step,an exploratory analysis of the data was done to highlight the early trends and identify practices that have a potential impact on business performance.In the second step,we tested our four hypotheses formulated in the first part using econometric regression analysis.Of the descriptive analysis,several results emerge.First,most of the companies in our sample show that the different practices of the SCM have a high impact on their financial and non-financial performance.Second,large firms believe that SCM practices influence both their financial performance and their non-financial performances.On the other hand,some small and medium-sized enterprises claim the opposite,although the majority recognize the favorable effect of SCM practices on their financial and non-financial performances.Third,the SCM's practices are more profitable for large cotton-sector companies.Fourth,the supplier partnership,the Exchange and sharing of information and customer guidance would improve the performance of companies with low experience in the cotton sector;On the other hand,those with greater experience value less the import.Contrary to our expectations,the tests identified a negative impact of the management of the client relationship on non-financial performance,including social performance,a result that could be explained by the existence of internal conflicts of companies in the cotton sector.These conflicts would have hindered employee satisfaction,which is considered a potential vehicle for performance and productivity.Finally,the quality of shared information does not yet play a role in any dimension of the(non-financial)performance of companies operating in the cotton sector.This study showed that the management practices of the supplier relationship and exchanging and information sharing are two more-generating practices of supply chain management performance in the cotton sector in Mali.Moreover,among the dimensions of reporting performance,financial performance and customer satisfaction are the two variants are more sensitive to the SCM practices.