quality:correction, quality:corruption, information:filtering
Power in supply chain management

Andrew Cox, Joe Sanderson and Glyn Watson argue that the power resources of buyers and suppliers should be analyzed in order to understand how a supply chain relationship operates. In some cases, a purchasing firm may exercise more power over its suppliers, in other cases, suppliers may have more power; yet again there will be cases where buyers and suppliers may be interdependent or may have no real power over each other. Cox, Sanderson and Watson have written extensively on the operation of power regimes within a supply chain context; they have described their work for themselves as "a new perspective on managing in supply chains and networks". Other studies of power in supply chain relationships have looked at drivers impacting on the potential integration of supply chains. A study by Michael Maloni and W. C. Benton in 1998 looked at whether potential asymmetries in inter-firm power within a supply chain could prevent the implementation of effective supply chain execution. Maloni and Benton note that until their research, "little power research" had been presented in the supply chain literature. Using French and Raven's typology of the sources of power in the context of the automotive industry, they aimed to analyse the effects of distinct power strategies on relationships between buyers and sellers, and upon supply chain performance and satisfaction. Their findings showed that: