Obtaining supplier commitment: antecedents and performance outcomes

Effective management of the supply network is essential to assure market success for modern supply chains;starting from this, the paper aims to shed light on the dynamics of buyer-supplier industrial relationships byexploringtheantecedentsofsuppliercommitment–arequisitetoimproveperformanceobtainedfromsuppliers.The paper develops a theoretical framework, grounded on Transaction Cost Economics and Social ExchangeTheory,whichistestedusingsurveydatafrom305internationalcompaniesandapplyingaStructuralEquationModelling approach. Results show that goals alignment, buyer commitment and supplier collaboration in-itiatives are all drivers of supplier commitment, which, in turn, positively affects innovation performance en-sured by suppliers. These findings confirm the relevant role of buyer-side initiatives in driving supplier com-mitment, giving managers focus points to look at when the objective is to gain a preferred customer status