The role of Supplier Relationship Management in a lean and agile Supply Chain Strategy

Background: The increasingly dynamic and unpredictable supply chain environment forces companies to have a suitable Supply Chain Strategy (SCS) to deal with these circumstances. Successfully realising the selected SCS can be supported by supply chain practices like Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) which can be regarded as an essential practice since modern supply chains can only be successful by focussing on relationship management. Thus, the alignment of SCS and SRM has the potential to raise the company performance. Purpose: In order to add new insights into the role of SRM in a lean and agile SCS, this research investigates, which SRM dimensions are important in a lean and agile SCS. Furthermore, it is investigated which kind of relationships are likely to occur in lean and agile supply chains. Methodology/Approach: Following a deductive approach, the research employs a mono method quantitative study strategy. Hypotheses were derived from literature and data were obtained by means of a questionnaire, addressing professionals in SCM, Procurement and related fields. The obtained sample data were analysed using Exploratory Data Analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings: Findings show that all SRM dimensions are important to improve lean and agile SCS criteria. Furthermore, it can be stated that the entity of SRM dimensions, but particularly Supplier Selection (SS), is more important to improve lean than agile SCS criteria. Additionally, lean supply chains have rather long-termed relationships and tend to a rather high than low relationship intensity whereas agile supply chains especially focus on a high relationship intensity and rather tend to short-term relationships. Practical implications: The evidence from this study indicates the importance of SRM and its dimensions to improve lean and agile characteristics. An alignment between SCS and SRM is essential and can lead to an improved company performance. Managers should be aware of the potential of properly and adequately implementing SRM dimensions. Originality/Value: This research adds new insights into the role of SRM in a lean and agile SCS as it allows a holistic view on this topic and as it considers the most representative SRM dimensions and links them to the lean and agile SCS. Previous literature only focused on single SRM dimensions. Further research: As this study is geographically limited to Germany, it could be examined if the gained results are transferable to other countries. To support generalisability of the findings, a bigger sample could be selected or alternatively, a case study could be carried out using the example of a few companies to gain an even deeper understanding of the topic