| Buyer-supplier collaboration is an important element of successful supply chain management. Previous research on facilitators or determinants of interorganizational collaboration has typically focused on firm-level variables. However, a distinct difficulty with supply chain collaboration is that many of the enablers and barriers are related to people, and reside at the interpersonal level.;The goal of this study is to provide a deeper understanding of the extent to which key contact employees are able to facilitate collaborative practices between buyers and suppliers. A dual level of analysis is employed, comparing the effects of interpersonal relationship quality between key contact employees and interorganizational relationship quality. Relationship quality is measured as a second-order construct consisting of trust, relationship commitment, and relationship satisfaction. Four collaborative practices are considered: information sharing, joint problem solving, joint performance measurement, and flexibility.;Data were collected from purchasing managers at 169 firms using a cross-sectional survey. Firms were sampled across a wide range of industrial sectors and consisted primarily of manufacturers. The results show that even after taking interorganizational relationship quality into account, the level of interpersonal relationship quality with key contact employees at the supplier has a significant impact on the level of collaboration at the buying firm. Higher interpersonal relationship quality has a direct, positive influence on information sharing and an indirect, positive influence on joint problem solving, joint performance measurement, and flexibility.;Overall, the empirical results confirm that interorganizational and interpersonal relationship quality can be differentiated, and that both types of ties play an important role in shaping collaborative practices between firms. |
