Competitive Advantage: Exploring the Role of Partnership with suppliers, Customer Relationship and Information Sharing as Antecedents

Abstract

The objective of the present research is to explore the impact of information sharing, supplier partnership and customer relationship with a competitive advantage in the Indonesian rubber industry. Moreover, current study also explored the mediating role of flexibility of the supply chain among of information sharing, supplier partnership and customer relationship and competitive advantage. Moreover, of information sharing, supplier partnership and customer relationship are studied as the independent variables in the present study. Survey based approach was adopted for the collection of data whereas SEM-PLS was used for the analysis of the data. The findings of the study pointed out that customer relationship and supplier partnership have significant impact on the flexibility of the supply chain and to develop competitive advantage. Moreover, the results of the study do not support the relationship of information sharing with flexibility and competitive advantage. The findings of the present study are beneficial for the policy makers of the Indonesian rubber industry. By the findings of the study, they can adopt different strategies to develop a competitive advantage. The present study will increase the past literature of the supply chain.