Effect of information and knowledge sharing on supply chain performance through supplier - buyer relationship

Abstract

Supply chain is an integration of both tangible and intangible resources including material, information and capital. The material flow is focused in supply chain practice while information flow is focused in information sharing. The main concentration of supply chain in last decade was on material movement. Recently information sharing is attaining the concentration of the researchers. Majority of the research work has emphasized the individual effect of information and knowledge sharing on supply chain (specifically buyer) performance and the individual effect of information and knowledge sharing on buyer-supplier relationship. The combined effect of information and knowledge sharing needs to be analyzed. This paper aims to focus on the combined effect of information and knowledge sharing on supplier s performance through supplier-buyer relationship. A conceptual model was formulated based on previous literature. A questionnaire based survey was performed. The questionnaire was developed based on the previous literature and the expert opinion. Data from 30 Bangladeshi Readymade Garments Industry were collected through interview and mail survey. The content validity; construct validity, and reliability are tested by the literature review and in-depth interviews conducted with business executives and researchers, exploratory factor analysis and measuring internal consistency with Cronbach s alpha. Structural Equation Modeling is performed for the identification of the validity of the model. The results show that (1) effective information sharing enhances the effective knowledge sharing and (2) effective supplier-buyer partnership type relation improves the supplier s operational performance. The findings show that information sharing is a prerequisite for knowledge sharing and the close supplier-buyer relationship is a vital factor for escalating the supplier s operational performance.