The relationship between supplier management and firm's performance: A multidimensional perspective

This paper presents an empirical study which examines the relationships between supplier management practices and firm's performance. Specifically, this study focuses on three supplier management practices, namely strategic long-term relationship, supplier assessment, and logistics integration, and tests their effects on four different operational performance measures, namely quality, delivery, flexibility, and cost. The data were drawn from 232 manufacturing firms in Australia. The findings demonstrate the unique effect of different supplier management practices on different dimensions of performance, and they provide practical insights for managers to understand the effectiveness as well as the limitation of different supplier management practices in enhancing different types of performance in the firm's operations.