Supplier relationship management and firm performance in developing economies: A moderated mediation analysis of flexibility capability and ownership structure

Collaborative practices between firms and their suppliers are becoming increasing important in the light of short product life cycles, intense global competition, the need for sustainability, and the ever-increasing demands of customers. Although supplier relationship management (SRM) and its purported benefits have been widely studied in the literature, most of the studies have focused on examining its direct relationship with firm performance. Interestingly, there is scare research on the applicability and effectiveness of such relationships in less developed countries. Thus, we use data collected from firms in Ghana, a less developed country, and apply rigorous, robust, and consistent analytical procedures to examine moderated-mediation relationships between SRM, operational flexibility, ownership structure, and firm performance (FP). We demonstrate that operational flexibility capability mediates the supplier relationship management – firm performance link. Additionally, our moderated mediated analyses show that SRM's influence on firm performance is stronger for locally-owned firms (domestic) than foreign owned firms, indicating that domestic firms stand to gain more from investments in SRM than firms with foreign ownership. This finding is particularly interesting and vital given that locally owned firms might not have the needed resources to invest in SRM practices and thus, the need for these firms to comprehend the benefits and advantages of SRM.