Abstract
Technological advancements in information systems over the past few decades have enabled firms to work with the major suppliers and customers in their supply chain in order to improve the performance of the entire channel. Tremendous benefits for all parties can be realized by sharing information and coordinating operations to reduce inventory requirements, improve quality, and increase customer satisfaction; but the companies must collaborate effectively to bring these gains to fruition. We consider two alternative methods of managing these interfirm supply chain relationships in this article. The first, which we have named “dictatorial collaboration,” occurs when a dominant supply chain entity assumes control of the channel and forces the other firms to follow its edicts. We compare and contrast this method with “sustainable collaboration,” in which the parties share resources and engage in joint problem solving to improve the performance of the system as a whole. We use a virtue ethics lens to describe these methods of relationship management to suggest that sustainable collaboration is preferable to dictatorial collaboration both operationally and ethically in the long run.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aristotle: 1998a, Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by David Ross with Introduction. Revised by J. L. Ackrill and J.␣O. Urmson (Oxford University Press, Oxford)
Aristotle: 1998b, Nicomachean Ethics Books VIII and IX. Translated With Commentary by Michael Pakaluk (Clarendon Press, Oxford)
Atkinson W. 2004 Medrad Knows How to Treat Suppliers. Purchasing 133(21), 44–46
Bernstein M. 2005 Using the Supply Chain to Help Your Suppliers Reduced Your Total Cost of Ownership. World Trade 18(6), 46–49
Chopra S., P. Meindl 2007 Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning, and Operation, 3rd edition. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ
Claro D. P., P. B. de Oliveira Claro, G. Hagelaar 2006 Coordinating Collaborative Joint Efforts with Suppliers: The Effects of Trust, Transaction Specific Investment and Information Network in the Dutch Flower Industry. Supply Chain Management 11(3), 216–224
Constantinou M. 2005 From Mess to Mastery: How Danka Rebuilt Its Supply Chain. Supply Chain Management Review 9(1), 38–45
Cox A. 2004 The Art of the Possible: Relationship Management in Power Regimes and Supply Chains. Supply Chain Management 9(5), 346–356
Coyle J. J., E. J. Bardi, C. J. Langley 1996 The Management of Business Logistics, 6th edition, (West Publishing Company, Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN), pp. 24–29
Fanning, D.: 1988, ‹Monkey Wrench at Snap-On Tools’, Forbes, June 27, 126
Fawcett S. E., G. M. Magnan, A. J. Williams 2004 Supply Chain Trust Is Within Your Grasp. Supply Chain Management Review 8(2), 20–26
Holmlund M., S. Kock 1996 Buyer Dominated Relationships in a Supply Chain – A Case Study of Four Small-Sized Suppliers. International Small Business Journal 15(1), 26–40
Hoyt J., F. Huq 2000 From Arms-Length to Collaborative Relationships in the Supply Chain: An Evolutionary Process. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management 30(9), 750–764
Johnston D. A., D. M. McCutcheon, F. I. Stuart, et al. 2004 Effects of Supplier Trust on Performance of Cooperative Supplier Relationships. Journal of Operations Management 22, 23–38
Kapur, N. B. 1991 Why Is It Wrong to be Always Guided by the Best: Consequentialism and Friendship. Ethics 101(3), 483–504
Kidd J., F.-J. Richter, M. Stumm 2003 Learning and Trust in Supply Chain Management: Disintermediation, Ethics and Cultural Pressures in Brief Dynamic Alliances. International Journal of Logistics Management: Research and Applications 6(4), 259–275
Lee H. L., P. Padmanabhan, S. Whang 1997a Information Distortion in a Supply Chain. Management Science 43(4), 546–558
Lee H. L., P. Padmanabhan, S. Whang 1997b The Bullwhip Effect in Supply Chains. Sloan Management Review 38(3), 93–102
Liker J. K., T. Y. Choi 2004 Building Deep Supplier Relationships. Harvard Business Review 82(12), 104–113
McKone-Sweet K. 2004 Lessons from a Coffee Supply Chain. Supply Chain Management Review 8(7), 52–59
Moore, G. 2005 Humanizing Business: A Modern Virtue Ethics Approach. Business Ethics Quarterly 15(2), 237–255
Munson C. L., M. J. Rosenblatt, Z. Rosenblatt 1999 The Use and Abuse of Power in Supply Chains. Business Horizons 42(1), 55–65
Robson I., V. Rawnsley 2001 Cooperation or Coercion? Supplier Networks and Relationships in the UK Food Industry. Supply Chain Management 6(1), 39–47
Rose, R. L.: 1989, ‹Deere, Dealers Cross Swords Over Plows’, The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 7
Silver A. 1990 Friendship in Commercial Society: Eighteenth-Century Social Theory and Modern Sociology. American Journal of Sociology 95(6), 1474–1504
Simchi-Levi D., P. Kaminsky, E. Simchi-Levi 2000 Designing and Managing the Supply Chain (Irwin McGraw-Hill, Boston, MA), pp. 82–93
Slade F. 1997 Ends and Purposes. In R. F. Hassing (ed.), Final Causality in Nature and Human Affairs: Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, Volume 30 (Catholic University Press, Washington, D.C.), pp. 83–85
Sokolowski R. 2004 What is Natural Law? Human Purposes and Natural Ends. The Thomist 68, 507–529
Wailgum, T.: 2004, ‹Tag, You’re Late: Why Wal-Mart’s Suppliers Won’t Make the Jan. 1 Deadline for RFID Tagging’, CIO 18(4), http://www.cio.com/archive/111504/rfid.html
Acknowledgments
This article benefited greatly from discussion with Howard Harris and other attendees at the 2007 Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Annual Meeting as well as from the editor and two anonymous referees.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Drake, M.J., Schlachter, J.T. A Virtue-Ethics Analysis of Supply Chain Collaboration. J Bus Ethics 82, 851–864 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9597-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9597-8