SUPPLIER DEVELOPMENT

In past years, the multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) approaches have been extensively applied by researchers to the supplier evaluation and selection problem. Many of these studies were performed in an uncertain environment described by fuzzy sets. This study provides a review of applications of MADM approaches for evaluation and selection of suppliers in a fuzzy environment. To this aim, a total of 339 publications were examined, including papers in peer-reviewed journals and reputable conferences and also some book chapters over the period of 2001 to 2016. These publications were extracted from many online databases and classified in some categories and subcategories according to the MADM approaches, and then they were analysed based on the frequency of approaches, number of citations, year of publication, country of origin and publishing journals. The results of this study show that the AHP and TOPSIS methods are the most popular approaches. Moreover, China and Taiwan are the top countries in terms of number of publications and number of citations, respectively. The top three journals with highest number of publications were: Expert Systems with Applications, International Journal of Production Research and The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology.

The study examined how multinational companies, operating in developing countries, can leverage on supply chain and supplier development to improve upon their business performance as well as gain competitive advantage at the global market place. The search light was on the operations of Fan milk Ghana, a subsidiary of Swiss delicacy multinational company, operating in the African sub-region. Among the specific objectives of the study, are to examine the factors that enhance supply chain and supply development management in addition to identify strategies for enhancing performance and gaining competitive advantage in the global business place. In conducting the study purposive sampling technique was employed in selecting key officials of the marketing, procurement, stores as well as finance and quality control of Fan milk Ghana, for their views on the study. The questionnaire technique afforded the respondents the requisite flexibility for using their leisure time in co-operating with the study. Findings of the study indicated that strategies such as integration of ICT, frequent review of operational equipment, and factory lay-out, enhancing shipping mechanisms as well as sustaining effort at building a capacity of human resource, all work together towards enhancing the supply chain function of an organization leading to improvement in business performance and gaining competitive advantage to withstand industry competition.

We live in a world where change is constantly taking place and organisations face tough competition in their quest to grow market share and revenue. Corporations must adapt to these changes if they are to remain profitable and to do this they must utilise resources available to them, identify their capabilities and build alliances. To respond to market trends and economic forces within the external environment, organisations need to gain a competitive advantage by identifying their customer value proposition with the ultimate goal of increasing profitability.
For the purpose of this assignment we will dissect the company Massmart with the purpose of studying its anatomy in the context of Enterprise Development (ED) and Supplier Development (SD).
We will shed light on the aforementioned through the use of strategic concepts such as the hardware and software of strategy. We will analyse the benefits of ED and SD to an organisation as well as Massmart’s effective use of both concepts as a strategic tool.
In preparing this assignment we engaged with the Builders Superstore Executive at Massmart, Mr. Mncane Mthunzi, who provided invaluable insight on Massmart’s strategy and the use of ED and SD by the company in its quest to gain a competitive edge.

Purpose – This article explores contextual barriers to supplier development for sustainability (SDS) in global supply chains and managerial remedies to mitigate such barriers.

Design/methodology/approach – A dyadic case study design was adopted with a Western European buyer and six of its Chinese suppliers. The database consists of 41 interviews and 81 documents.

Findings – Contextual barriers to SDS in global supply chains derive from complexities in the sustainability concept, socio-economic differences, spatial and linguistic distance, as well as
cultural differences between buyers and suppliers. Partial remedies include effective joint communications, an open organizational culture, and the fostering of cross-contextual
understanding.

Research implications – The findings contribute to theory development at the intersection of sustainable and global supply chain management research. They help to explain why scarce sustainability-related progress in global supply chains has occurred in recent years.

Practical implications – The identified barriers facilitate managerial decision making that will expedite SDS progress in global contexts.

Social implications – By diffusing knowledge regarding available remedies, the study contributes to improving SDS effectiveness, thereby fostering sustainability capabilities and performance of suppliers.

Originality/value – This research highlights the criticality of contextual barriers to SDS. The barrier effects that stem from differing real-world conceptions of sustainability may inform future sustainable supply chain management research within and beyond SDS.

Food and Agribusiness Multinational Enterprises (F&A MNEs) increasingly wish to source from smallholders to secure and stabilize the supply of agricultural commodities in high value-adding supply chains, while contributing positively to smallholder livelihood. In the literature we found that many F&A MNEs have been involved in supporting smallholder farming systems in developing countries for a long time. However, these projects have principally been driven by Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies. Moreover, despite many pilots to include smallholders in high value-adding supply chains, scaling or scaling up successful pilots has so far proven elusive. The aim of the present article is to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) that can help F&A MNEs to design and implement sourcing strategies for sustainable smallholder supply from a business perspective, and to scale up successful pilot projects from a business perspective.

El presente trabajo expone avances de conocimiento sobre el entramado empresarial vinculado al sector hidrocarburífero en la Cuenca Neuquina. Se hace especial referencia a las pequeñas y medianas empresas, así como las formas que adoptan las relaciones que entablan tanto con otras PyMEs como con las grandes operadoras multinacionales, como también con las instituciones.

Purpose – This article investigates how buying firms facing low supply chain visibility can utilize their stakeholder network to identify salient supply chain sustainability risks (SCSR).

Design/methodology/approach – The study employs a design science approach to develop a procedural model for identifying SCSR as a new artifact. A small-scale field-testing study in a food supply chain of a Swiss retail firm demonstrates its applicability and pragmatic validity.

Findings – When stakeholder knowledge external to the supply chain is regarded as a valuable resource, a generic understanding of a buying firm’s supply chain suffices to identify SCSR hotspots without creating complexity for the SCSR management.

Research limitations/implications – The article contributes to the study of SCSR by identifying mechanisms buying firms can employ to identify SCSR hotspots and fostering the nascent understanding of responsibility attribution by stakeholders. Moreover, the emerging theory of the supply chain is enriched by paving a way to extend the supply chain visibility boundary. The procedural model is presumably most useful in contexts of elevated stakeholder pressure and low supply chain visibility. Future research should seek to validate
and improve the effectiveness of the newly designed artifact.

Practical implications – The procedural model is directly applicable in corporate practice to the identification of SCSR. Moreover, its application fosters the understanding of a firm’s supply chain and its stakeholder network.
Originality/value – SCSR is an increasingly important phenomenon in corporate practice that has received only scarce research attention. The design science approach represents a valuable means for generating theoretical insights and emergent solutions to the real-world problem of SCSR identification.

Multinational firms are always under pressure to find the most profitable ways to bring products to market. To effectively compete, organizations must continuously improve their performance by reducing costs, enhancing quality, and differentiating their products and services. Increasingly, this means relying on third parties management and outsourced services have to lead to a highly collaborative working relationship with their suppliers. This study therefore aimed at to determine the role of supplier management practices in the optimization of operational performance in telecommunication service industry in Kenya. A case of Safaricom Kenya. The independent variable of this study are supplier selection process, supplier involvement practices, supplier development practices, and supplier monitoring programs while the dependent variable of the study is optimization of operational performance. Theories relevant to this study were Transaction Cost Theory, Resource Dependency Theory, Social Capital Theory and Deming's theory of Total Quality Management. Study variables were discussed under the conceptual framework after that operationalized. The target population constitutes of Safaricom employees involved in procurement operation and suppliers of both at headquarters and other customer care centers with a sample size of 50 staffs and suppliers. Stratified random sampling was carried out. The research instruments that were used included printed questionnaires. Data collected were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical tools, and SPSS version 21 was used to process the collected data which was then to be presented in the form of tables. Correlation analysis was conducted to describe the strength of the linear relationship between two variable which indicated that 76.2% of change of Optimization of Operational performance was explained by the four variables namely; supplier selection process, supplier development programs, supplier involvement, supplier monitoring programs and revealed that they play a significant role in optimizing of operational performance. The study recommends that management of companies in telecommunication industry should embrace overall effective and efficient supplier management practices that focus on long-term goals of the organization.