Author(s): Santanu Roy, Kunal K. Ganguly
Purpose: Happy suppliers are the beginning of good buying relationships which has now been proved to be quite important in the supply chain performance. The relationship between firms and suppliers now takes more than just the transactional form exhibiting intricate interdependencies. This research is going to fill a major gap as it will examine suppliers since most research focuses on buyers. Research Approach: It is important to know the factors that the suppliers are delighted with in order to establish healthy buying relationships. Our tool was one that we have selected after going through the literature and also discussing with people in the supply chain. We have sampled 42 supplier firms in United Arab Emirates (UAE). belonging in the following industries - medical devices, industrial/construction, auto parts, laptop accessories, lighting and food machinery. The majority of the companies that we sampled are older than three years. We attempted to examine this problem by developing a model which considers the influence of purchasing policy, payment policy, coordination policy, cooperation and use of technology on supplier happiness. We tested the model with partial least squares path modelling. Findings and Originality: The measurement and structural models were seen to be reliable and valid. The findings indicate that the significance of cooperation on supplier happiness is the largest. It translates into the fact that the relationship between the buyer and supplier can be maintained by knowing their needs and creating a long-lasting relationship between a supplier and buyer. Others are the coordination, pay policy and purchasing policy which are significant. The results indicate that a good coordination with suppliers and good financial and purchasing policies on buyers have a significant impact on the happiness of the suppliers. Research Impact: Supplier happiness has had little consideration as far as buying relationships are concerned. This paper attempts to address this gap. It brings out the importance of collaboration and trust among partners in leading to a long-term buyer supplier relationship, which it can provide the two supply chain partners with a competitive advantage. As such, the buyers ought to be concerned with building skills and resources to facilitate this. Practical Impact: This paper examines the value added by cooperation, equitable policies, clear communication, and coordination to purchasing relationships by buyers. The findings provide the managers in the buyer firms with practical suggestions on how cooperation with suppliers can be enhanced to enhance supplier happiness by paying attention to the factors that we have determined.