First-Tier Supplier as a Bridge for Innovation: Unpacking the Moderating Role of "Trust Imbalance"

Vikram Bhakoo, Giles Hirst, Thomas Y Choi, Ivan Butar Butar

    Research output: Contribution to journalMeeting Abstractpeer-review

    Abstract

    Just as the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) as a buyer relies on its suppliers (first-tier) for innovation, these first-tier suppliers rely also on their suppliers (second-tier) for innovation. With trust between buyer and supplier emerging as a key construct that affects supplier innovation, we investigate such buyer-supplier trust across the two tiers of a supply chain with the first-tier supplier as a bridge between OEM and second-tier supplier. We examine a moderated mediation model with commitment with second-tier supplier as a mediator and trust imbalance as a moderator. Trust imbalance is built on a perspective that trust is an embedded construct where too much trust with the OEM would affect the level of trust with second-tier suppliers and is operationalized as the difference in trust that the first tier supplier has with the OEM and the second tier supplier. We collect data from two tiers of the supply chain involving the OEM and its top-tier suppliers in the Indian bicycle industry. Our results bring to the fore the moderating role of trust imbalances in which higher trust imbalances interact with commitment and trust with the second tier supplier to generate a negative impact on innovation. We therefore argue it is not so much about how much an organization trusts its partners but whether one trusts them similarly, in doing so we break new ground and provide fresh insights to firms that are embedded in close trusting relationships on how they can dismantle the innovation inertia.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)0
    JournalThe Power of Words
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014
    Event74th Annual Academy of Management Conference - Philadelphia, USA
    Duration: 1 Jan 2014 → …

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