Do buyer’s supporting efforts for sub-supplier make prime supplier’s performance better?

Abstract

It is widely accepted that capable suppliers do important role for buyer’s competitiveness in today’s business environment. Moreover, not only the importance of supplier development but also the importance of sub-supplier development has been emphasized. This study examines how buyer’s efforts of supporting sub-supplier development impacts on performance of prime supplier. The study results show that while buyer’s effort of monitoring and information sharing to sub-suppliers improve the performance of prime supplier, buyer’s effort of knowledge sharing do not improve prime supplier’s performance.