Relational Resource Antecedents and Operational Outcome of Supply Chain Collaboration: The Role of Environmental Turbulence

Based on the theoretical underpinnings of the relational view of competitive advantage, the current study investigates the performance implications of three critical relational resource elements in supply chain partnerships: resource specificity, resource complementarity, and supply chain collaboration. The research also explores the interrelationship dynamics among these sources of relational rent—critical to the understanding of superior supply chain performance. The study models environmental dynamism and complexity to investigate the nature of the relationships among relational resources as they interact with technological and market turbulence factors. Operational productivity improvements are the primary outcome measures in the current research. Empirical evidence, based on the survey data of a cross-section of US manufacturing firms from a wide range of industries, supports a majority of our arguments, thus providing critical theoretical and managerial insights. The findings reiterate the importance of collaborative initiatives in the supply chain for operational benefits and high levels of customer service. The results also shed light on the interrelationships among relational resource elements, filling inadequacies in previous literature: resource specificity and complementarity are found to be antecedents of collaboration. The findings also suggest that complementary resources facilitate coordinated partner activities under highly turbulent technological environments.