Supplier connectivity and collaboration - Driving Digitalisation and Building Resilient Supply Chains
Shikha Kalesh is a PhD student in the Department of Entrepreneurship, Technology, Management. (Co)Promotors are prof.dr. H. Schiele from the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences and dr. N. Kiratli-Schneider from Maastricht University.
Recent years have witnessed unprecedented challenges in global supply chains, driven by disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflicts, and crises like the Suez Canal blockage. Traditional supply chain management approaches have struggled to cope with ever-increasing complexity and volatility. In response, the rise of Industry 4.0—with technologies such as IoT, cloud systems, AI, and blockchain—offers new opportunities for digital transformation and collaboration. Despite the rapid digitalisation of supply chains, current research rarely examines the supplier perspective on buyer-driven digital integration and the factors shaping supplier adoption. There is a lack of investigation on digitalisation intervention effects on operational excellence and supplier satisfaction over time. Furthermore, the strategic impact of preferred customer status on supplier resilience during disruptions is underexplored. This thesis addresses these gaps by investigating the long-term and relational effects of digitalisation and supplier collaboration within complex, multi-tier supply chains.
To address these gaps, this dissertation combines systematic literature review, qualitative interviews, and quantitative surveys with suppliers in the automotive and industrial sectors. The first study maps the relationships between digitalisation, operational excellence, supplier satisfaction, and resilience, highlighting a lack of integrated and quantitative perspectives in existing literature. The second study identifies key factors influencing supplier acceptance of digital supply chain systems, using a mixed methodology approach that combines qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys to uncover what drives successful digital integration from the supplier’s perspective. Eleven acceptance factors were identified as critical drivers of supplier digitalisation from this study.
The third study employs a longitudinal quasi-experimental approach to evaluate the actual impact of digital integration on forecasting, order processing, process quality, and supplier satisfaction before and after implementation. Results demonstrate significant operational improvements for digital system users and supplier satisfaction remains stable, emphasising the importance of continuous supplier relationship management. The final study investigates how preferred customer status with suppliers influences resilience during disruptions, showing that strategic buyer-supplier relationships can result in prioritisation and support from suppliers when supply chains are under stress.
Overall, this dissertation offers practical recommendations for managers: engage suppliers closely in digital transformation and cultivate trusted supplier relationships to secure competitive advantages during crises. By shedding light on supplier perspectives and the dynamic interactions between digitalisation and collaboration, this research advances both theoretical understanding and applied strategies for achieving resilient, digitally enabled supply chains.
