The role of supply chain management practices in building successful logistics partnerships: a Mexican study

Abstract

Past research on international logistics partnerships has focused primarily on the extent to which behavioural characteristics of partnering businesses (including levels of trust and commitment) and external environmental factors (including economic and political factors) are important in deciding the success or not of these types of business relationships. Recent articles from the field of supply chain management have, however, suggested that it is also important to consider the extent to which integration of business processes across partnering businesses (called component integration) influences the ultimate success or not of these relationships. Thus the aims of this research were two-fold, namely; to develop an integrated framework of the logistics partnering process that combined both behavioural characteristics and component integration dimensions, and to use this framework as the basis for assessing the extent to which these elements were instrumental in affecting perceived partnership quality and success; and secondly to assess the moderating impact of external environmental factors on the perceived quality and success of these relationships. In order to achieve these objectives, behavioural characteristics pertaining to logistics partnerships, elements of component integration and relevant moderating variables in the external environment were identified from a cross-disciplinary review of the relevant management, marketing and supply chain management literatures. Altogether, five behavioural characteristics of partnerships, seven elements of component integration and the most important external environmental factors were explicated. It was hypothesised that the degree of supply chain management component integration mediated the relationship between behavioural characteristics of partnerships and the perceived quality and success of these partnerships, and that external environmental factors moderated the strength of the relationship between component integration and perceived quality and success. Altogether a series of seven hypotheses were posited in order to test the significance or not of the proposed relational structure of the model constructs. Qualitative empirical research was conducted to test these seven hypotheses, and a mail survey questionnaire was developed, utilising measures based on past empirical research referenced in the relevant literature. A total of forty-three international partnerships, based in Mexico City, participated in this study. The proposed hypotheses were tested using correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis (including moderated regression analysis). In the event, none of the seven hypotheses were supported by the data. Theoretical and methodological implications arising from these findings were discussed, and recommendations for best practice given. These included the suggestion that managers formally measure the level of supply chain management practice in their organisations, using the component integration framework presented in this research study. Whilst it is obviously useful for managers to understand the overall degree to which their existing logistics practices conform to ideal practice, it may well be that the component integration framework presented here could help identify specific areas where improvements in practice can be made. Potential limitations to this research were also outlined, and avenues for future study, in this area highlighted.