How Organizational Culture and Inter-Organizational Trust Shape Cost and Differentiation Competitive Advantage through Supply Chain Collaboration
Abstract
The paper examines the role of organizational culture and inter-organizational trust in helping firms achieve cost and differentiation competitive advantage based on supply chains collaboration. Although previous studies have studied these constructs independently, little empirical evidence has been provided to comprehend how cultural and relational resources are converted into different competitive results through collaborative processes. It is significant to fill this gap because more and more firms are turning to inter-firm collaboration as a way of staying competitive in complex supply chain settings. The survey data collected on managers engaged in supply chain activities was used as the method of a quantitative, cross-sectional research design. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the proposed conceptual model. Issues of reliability, validity and structural relationships were evaluated, such as direct, mediating, and boundary effects. The findings have shown that organizational culture ( β= 0.364, p = 0.001), and inter-organizational trust (β = 0.432, p = 0.001) are significant factors that promote supply chain collaboration and they collectively determine 73.3 percent of the variance. Supply chain collaboration has a great impact on cost competitive advantage ( β= 0.766, p = 0.001) and the impact on differentiation competitive advantage (β = 0.207, p = 0.006), and cost advantage also intensifies differentiation ( β= 0.666, p = 0.001). The insignificant effect is seen on firm size. The research adds a process-based account to the competitive advantage, through the validation of supply chain collaboration as a mediating process, which proves to be empirically. It shows that the cost and differentiation advantages are the complementary effects of collaboration, which provide theoretical and managerial implications and orientation of future studies.
Keywords: Organizational Culture; Inter-Organizational Trust; Supply Chain Collaboration; Cost Competitive Advantage; Differentiation Competitive Advantage; PLS-SEM.
