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, s...

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Main Authors: Sued, Nurul Muna Najiah, Hussin, Muhammad Rosni Amir
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: UUM Press 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/29971/1/JBMA%2010%2001%202020%2065-80.pdf
https://doi.org/10.32890/jbma2020.10.1.4
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author Sued, Nurul Muna Najiah
Hussin, Muhammad Rosni Amir
author_facet Sued, Nurul Muna Najiah
Hussin, Muhammad Rosni Amir
author_sort Sued, Nurul Muna Najiah
collection UUM
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 uum-299712023-11-27T09:18:28Z https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/29971/ Understanding the Relationship between a Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) and its Suppliers: A Case Study of a Food Industry SME Company in Kedah, Malaysia Sued, Nurul Muna Najiah Hussin, Muhammad Rosni Amir HF Commerce 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. UUM Press 2020 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc4_by https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/29971/1/JBMA%2010%2001%202020%2065-80.pdf Sued, Nurul Muna Najiah and Hussin, Muhammad Rosni Amir (2020) 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 (JBMA), 10 (1). pp. 65-80. ISSN 2231-9298 (e2636-9249) https://e-journal.uum.edu.my/index.php/jbma/article/view/11034 https://doi.org/10.32890/jbma2020.10.1.4 https://doi.org/10.32890/jbma2020.10.1.4
spellingShingle HF Commerce
Sued, Nurul Muna Najiah
Hussin, Muhammad Rosni Amir
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 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 HF Commerce
url https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/29971/1/JBMA%2010%2001%202020%2065-80.pdf
https://doi.org/10.32890/jbma2020.10.1.4
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