How supplier knowledge impacts on organizational capabilities and willingness

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to conduct a survey on the knowledge for supplier correlation with their capabilities and willingness as segmentation criteria. There are many contexts for sharing knowledge. What are more beneficial contexts? Design/methodology/approach After developing the research hypothesis, a structured questionnaire was adopted to gather primary data from suppliers. The draft questionnaire was sent to five academic and industry experts to comment on the content. Received feedback was used to change the layout of the questionnaire. Instead of the traditional partial least squares, the state-of- art consistent partial least square technique was put into practice. Findings By definition, knowledge for supplier has a large impact on supplier capabilities. The Important-Performance Matrix Analysis (IPMA) prioritizes the indicators and suggests to focus on knowledge sharing about manufacturing processes, development expertise and marketing expertise. Results showed that supplier willingness for sharing confidential knowledge and longtime relationship depends on development programs. Practical implications Having a communication mechanism for each of the partnerships’ specific contexts was suggested to maximize the knowledge flow. Originality/value For maximizing the knowledge flow and studying the effect on the segmentation criteria such as capability and willingness, the main contribution of the paper is to survey the supplier knowledge in depth. The IPMA was implemented to highlight the indicators.