Xiande Zhao

This chapter addresses the relationship between a supplier and the manufacturers that it serves, from the perspective of transaction cost economics theory (TCE). TCE deals with relationships between organizations, such as customers, manufacturers and suppliers. It states that investment in transaction-specific assets opens the door for opportunistic behavior by an organization’s partners. Interpreted from the perspective of a supplier, the supplier’s investments in transaction-specific assets, such as dedicated plant and equipment, workforce with transaction-specific skills and the development of transaction-specific relationships, will lead to opportunistic behavior on the part of the manufacturers that they serve, providing an environment where behaviors intentionally designed to take advantage of the supplier will flourish. Because the supplier will not be able to redeploy those investments to a different manufacturer if the relationship is discontinued, manufacturers will be motivated to capitalize on this vulnerability by employing behaviors such as seeking unfair price concessions, sharing proprietary information with competitors or other unethical behaviors. This study advances the application of TCE to the context of supply chain management by breaking investments in transaction-specific assets into investments in transaction-specific tangible assets, such as plant and equipment, and transaction-specific intangible assets, such as relationships and the development of human resources, and examining their impact on opportunistic behavior separately. These relationships are examined using a survey of 230 suppliers in the household appliances industry in China. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that there was a positive relationship between suppliers’ investment in transaction-specific tangible assets and opportunistic behavior by the manufacturers that they serve, but that there was a negative relationship between suppliers’ investments in transaction specific intangible assets and opportunistic behavior by their manufacturers. The moderating role of contracts and relational norms was also examined.

Effect of Customer Power on Supply Chain Integration and Performance: 10.4018/978-1-61692-862-9.ch009: Supply chain integration (SCI) has received increasing attention from academic researchers and practitioners in recent years, however, our knowledge of what

Supply chain management has become one of the most popular approaches to enhance the global competitiveness of business corporations today. Firms must have clear strategic thinking in order to effectively organize such complicated activities, resources, communications, and processes. An emerging body of literature offers a framework that identifies three kinds of supply chain strategies: lean strategy, agile strategy, and lean/agile strategy based on in‐depth case studies. Extant research also suggests that supply chain strategies must be matched with product characteristics in order for firms to achieve better performance. This article investigates supply chain strategies and empirically tests the supply chain strategy model that posits lean, agile, and lean/agile approaches using data collected from 604 manufacturing firms in China. Cluster analyses of the data indicate that Chinese firms are adopting a variation of lean, agile, and lean/agile supply chain strategies identified in the western literature. However, the data reveal that some firms have a traditional strategy that does not emphasize either lean or agile principles. These firms perform worse than firms that have a strategy focused on lean, agile, or lean/agile supply chain. The strategies are examined with respect to product characteristics and financial and operational performance. The article makes significant contributions to the supply chain management literature by examining the supply chain strategies used by Chinese firms. In addition, this work empirically tests the applicability of supply chain strategy models that have not been rigorously tested empirically or in the fast‐growing Chinese economy.

Survey research is often deployed in the study of situational issues facing organizations and functions within organizations. One particular survey research approach can be described as follows: (1) survey questionnaires involving perceptual questions about a situational issue are administered to key informants, one key informant per unit of analysis; (2) key informants vary in a transparent manner across units of analysis such that groups of these key informants are discernible; and (3) perceptual responses, after data collection, are then pooled to create a single larger data set for subsequent statistical manipulations. In this methodological note, we draw attention to this particular survey research approach and ask the question: When is it appropriate to pool data provided by key informants with transparently different demographics across units of analysis so as to create a single larger data set for statistical manipulations? We use a simple example and data from a published study to motivate the relevance and gravity of this methodological question. Offering the concept and empirical assessment of measurement equivalence as the answer to this methodological question of data pooling, we prescribe and demonstrate, with the total quality management→customer satisfaction relationship, the procedural steps for evaluating the seven subdimensions of measurement equivalence. In conclusion, we highlight methods that should be adopted, before data collection, to minimize the risk of violating measurement equivalence. After data collection and for the instances when the empirical assessment for measurement equivalence advises against pooling of such data, we also offer suggestions for analyzing such data and presenting associated statistical results.

As China becomes increasingly important to the global economy, it is critical to conduct high‐quality research on important decision sciences issues there. This article provides an extensive review and critique of the extant China‐based literature on supply chain management, logistics, and quality management, based on the foundation established by Zhao, Flynn, and Roth (2006). In general, decision sciences research in China is in its infancy. Although there have been some very interesting and well‐executed articles, the majority are descriptive and focus on status updates. We provide a set of propositions to guide future research in logistics, supply chain management, and quality management in China, as well as guidelines for dealing with some of the unique challenges of conducting empirical research in China.

This article focuses on decision sciences research in China, providing an overview of current research and developing a foundation for future China‐based research. China provides a unique research opportunity for decision sciences researchers, owing to its recent history, rapid economic development, and strong national culture. We examine recent economic reforms and their impact on the development of research questions in the decision sciences, as well as discuss characteristics of the diverse regions in China and their potential as sites for various types of research. We provide a brief overview of recent China‐based research on decision sciences issues relating to national culture, supply chain management, quality management, production planning and control, operations strategy, and new product development and discuss some of the unique methodological challenges inherent in China‐based research. We conclude by looking forward to emerging research opportunities in China.

By developing an empirical taxonomy of quality management systems (QMS) in selected service industries in China, we compare the taxonomy of QMS developed in the service industries to that found in previous studies in manufacturing industries. We further investigate contingency relationships between the development of a QMS and its organizational contexts. Based on cluster analyses of quality management practices measured by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) criteria, we found four patterns of service quality management practices: undeveloped, accommodating, strategic, and soft quality systems. Our research indicates that the type of quality system adopted by an organization is highly associated with organizational contextual factors. Our results indicate that environmental uncertainty shapes the development of a QMS in the early stage, while the perceived importance of quality induces the further development of a QMS to a strategic quality system. The results also show that small service firms that compete locally can achieve very good performance results using a soft quality system, a QMS with no formal process management systems. This research provides empirical evidence on contingent relationships among quality management practices, organizational context, and business performance, thus contributing to contingency theory in quality management.