Strategic supplier management in nascent firms: an examination of how nascent firms improve customer attractiveness to obtain strategic supplier collaboration

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the activities that nascent firms undertake to improve customer attractiveness and gain collaborative commitment from strategic suppliers.Design/methodology/approachData from a grounded theory study consisting of 26 participants from 15 firms and a review of extant literature were used to develop a theoretical model that explains how a nascent firm increases its customer attractiveness to elicit commitment and collaboration from strategic suppliers.FindingsThe authors find that social capital, born of close social ties and social history, enhances the effectiveness of a nascent firm's relationship-building practices. This counteracts a supplier's collaborative risk and consequently increases the nascent firm's customer attractiveness, thus enabling it to obtain strategic supplier collaborative commitment.Practical implicationsThis research helps managers by providing direction on what practices nascent firms pursue to gain strategic supplier resources and collaboration. Given the reality of resource constraints in nascent firms, it is suggested that this insight is essential to obtaining crucial external resources needed to survive and grow.Originality/valueExtant research on buyer–supplier collaboration is mostly confined to the context of mature firms and does not account for the unique inter-organizational relational challenges faced by nascent firms. This research uncovers the idiosyncrasies of supplier management in nascent firms, and elucidates on the actions that nascent firm managers take to gain supplier collaborative commitment.

Supply Chain Collaboration Technology Principles

<p>Effective and Secured Supplier Collaboration is always a critical element for any organizations revenue and its value. In these changing times, businesses are operating remotely, it is essential to lookout the effective collaborative solution for sharing and securing the data with suppliers. In this article, I am elaborating few business solution principles for effective supplier collaborations in the context of manufacturing sector. However, these principles can be applicable common across any industry with minor changes.</p>

Supply Chain Collaboration Technology Principles

<p>Effective and Secured Supplier Collaboration is always a critical element for any organizations revenue and its value. In these changing times, businesses are operating remotely, it is essential to lookout the effective collaborative solution for sharing and securing the data with suppliers. In this article, I am elaborating few business solution principles for effective supplier collaborations in the context of manufacturing sector. However, these principles can be applicable common across any industry with minor changes.</p>