Understanding the Relationship between a Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) and its Suppliers: A Case Study of a Food Industry SME Company in Kedah, Malaysia

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are aware of the need to implement proper supply chain management practices, especially to maintain good relationships with their suppliers. Previous studies indicated that a close relationship between SME owner-managers and suppliers can avail various benefits,...

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Main Authors: Nurul Muna Najiah Sued, Muhammad Rosni Amir Hussin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: UUM PRESS 2020-06-01
Series:Journal of Business Management and Accounting
Subjects:
Online Access:https://e-journal.uum.edu.my/index.php/jbma/article/view/11034
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author Nurul Muna Najiah Sued
Muhammad Rosni Amir Hussin
author_facet Nurul Muna Najiah Sued
Muhammad Rosni Amir Hussin
author_sort Nurul Muna Najiah Sued
collection DOAJ
description Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are aware of the need to implement proper supply chain management practices, especially to maintain good relationships with their suppliers. Previous studies indicated that a close relationship between SME owner-managers and suppliers can avail various benefits, such as operations and performance improvement, smooth delivery of goods and services to final destinations, and better negotiation of price and delivery schedule. Thus, this paper presents an understanding of the relationship between an SME in the food industry and its suppliers. By employing the Social Exchange Theory (SET) as the underlying theory, this study highlighted the importance of SMEs in managing relationships with suppliers. This study also revealed the roles that factors, such as trust, communication, commitment, and bargaining power, play in the SME-supplier relationship. By employing qualitative methodology and single case study method, this study indicated that this SME is aware that maintaining a good relationship with suppliers can lead to the survival of the business for a longer period of time, and enable them to benefit in terms of cost, quality, and services in the future. Among all factors, loyalty under the commitment factor is considered to be not unduly important to maintain the relationship with the suppliers by the SME owner-manager. However, trust and communication are the most crucial factors to maintain this relationship.
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spelling doaj.art-a21824d43b644f8a93109e34fa3a16792023-11-16T02:38:27ZengUUM PRESSJournal of Business Management and Accounting2231-92982636-92492020-06-0110110.32890/jbma2020.10.1.4Understanding the Relationship between a Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) and its Suppliers: A Case Study of a Food Industry SME Company in Kedah, MalaysiaNurul Muna Najiah Sued0Muhammad Rosni Amir Hussin1Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz School of Accountancy, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah, MalaysiaTunku Puteri Intan Safinaz School of Accountancy, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are aware of the need to implement proper supply chain management practices, especially to maintain good relationships with their suppliers. Previous studies indicated that a close relationship between SME owner-managers and suppliers can avail various benefits, such as operations and performance improvement, smooth delivery of goods and services to final destinations, and better negotiation of price and delivery schedule. Thus, this paper presents an understanding of the relationship between an SME in the food industry and its suppliers. By employing the Social Exchange Theory (SET) as the underlying theory, this study highlighted the importance of SMEs in managing relationships with suppliers. This study also revealed the roles that factors, such as trust, communication, commitment, and bargaining power, play in the SME-supplier relationship. By employing qualitative methodology and single case study method, this study indicated that this SME is aware that maintaining a good relationship with suppliers can lead to the survival of the business for a longer period of time, and enable them to benefit in terms of cost, quality, and services in the future. Among all factors, loyalty under the commitment factor is considered to be not unduly important to maintain the relationship with the suppliers by the SME owner-manager. However, trust and communication are the most crucial factors to maintain this relationship. https://e-journal.uum.edu.my/index.php/jbma/article/view/11034Buyer-supplier relationship (BSR)supply chain management (SCM)small and medium enterprises (SMEs)social exchange theory (SET)
spellingShingle Nurul Muna Najiah Sued
Muhammad Rosni Amir Hussin
Understanding the Relationship between a Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) and its Suppliers: A Case Study of a Food Industry SME Company in Kedah, Malaysia
Journal of Business Management and Accounting
Buyer-supplier relationship (BSR)
supply chain management (SCM)
small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
social exchange theory (SET)
title Understanding the Relationship between a Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) and its Suppliers: A Case Study of a Food Industry SME Company in Kedah, Malaysia
title_full Understanding the Relationship between a Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) and its Suppliers: A Case Study of a Food Industry SME Company in Kedah, Malaysia
title_fullStr Understanding the Relationship between a Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) and its Suppliers: A Case Study of a Food Industry SME Company in Kedah, Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Understanding the Relationship between a Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) and its Suppliers: A Case Study of a Food Industry SME Company in Kedah, Malaysia
title_short Understanding the Relationship between a Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) and its Suppliers: A Case Study of a Food Industry SME Company in Kedah, Malaysia
title_sort understanding the relationship between a small medium enterprise sme and its suppliers a case study of a food industry sme company in kedah malaysia
topic Buyer-supplier relationship (BSR)
supply chain management (SCM)
small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
social exchange theory (SET)
url https://e-journal.uum.edu.my/index.php/jbma/article/view/11034
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