Purchase offering quality: The effects of buyer behaviour on organizational supplying behaviour

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the supply chain management problem of understanding the response of suppliers to buyer behaviours and characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the relevant literature in search of references to critically assesses the effects of applying the mirror images of the concepts of customer value, satisfaction and product or service quality, developed in the field of marketing, to the field of operations management.

Findings – The study suggests that the new concept of purchase offering quality is worthy of further development in the supply chain management area and that supplier value and supplier satisfaction are useful concepts for understanding supplier behavioural intentions.

Practical implications – The study will help organisations to improve supply chain performance through an enhanced ability of organisations-as-buyers to influence supplier behaviour by modifying aspects of their own behaviour. It should be of particular interest to all organisations in their dealings with recalcitrant and unresponsive suppliers, or buyers with very low levels of power trying to improve the responsiveness of more powerful suppliers.

Originality/value – The paper introduces two new concepts: “purchase offering quality” that describes supplier perceptions of the characteristics and behaviours of buyers offering supplier benefits, and “supplier behavioural intentions” that is a term referring to the responses of suppliers to buyer characteristics and behaviours. This work can form the foundations of an extensive area of new study into organisational supplying behaviour.