Our study investigates how buyer power affects supplier relationship commitment. When a buyer exerts power on a supplier, the supplier response can be either simple compliance or commitment at a deeper level. Theoretically, the latter pertains to a supplier's intrinsic motivation. Building on cognitive evaluation theory, our model proposes the distinctive yet interactive nature of reward power and coercive power, commonly considered together as mediated powers. It also posits that nonmediated powers (expert, referent, and legitimate) amplify the influences of reward and coercive powers. An empirical investigation, based on large‐scale multinational survey data, provides support for our theoretical arguments. We discuss the practical implications for how buyers can use reward and coercive powers to improve supplier relationship commitment.

While supplier development has become a prominent strategy, it has also been shown to not always be successful. We take a contingency perspective in the present research to investigate why this may be the case. Unlike most prior studies, we examine the issue from the viewpoint of the supplier as the recipient of buyer‐driven knowledge transfer, and assess factors that may attenuate or hamper its effect on the supplier's operational performance. We suggest, basing our arguments on the theoretical framework of motivation–opportunity–ability (MOA), that while buyer‐driven knowledge transfer activities provide an opportunity for enhancing the supplier's operational performance, the degree to which this opportunity is realized depends upon both the relative absorptive capacity (ability), as well as the supplier's trust in the buyer, and the supplier's innovativeness (motivation). Specifically, we theorize that the supplier's perceived overlapping knowledge and its perceived cognitive congruence with the buyer (reflective of the supplier's relative absorptive capacity) and the supplier's trust in the buyer serve as positive moderators, and the supplier's own innovativeness as a negative moderator. We assess these hypotheses within a unique context, namely that of small‐ and medium‐sized suppliers of large South Korean conglomerates (so‐called chaebols), using hierarchical linear modeling. Our findings extend the academic literature in supplier development by providing insight into important contingencies influencing the effectiveness of buyer‐driven knowledge transfer activities for improved operational performance of suppliers, based on the MOA framework, and offer valuable lessons for practitioners in crafting more effective supplier development strategies.

In the 1980 inaugural issue of the Journal of Operations Management, Powell and Johnson stressed the need to introduce behavioral factors into research models of operational processes and performance. While some progress has been made since then, contemporary authors argue that limited dialogue between operations management and behavioral researchers continues to restrict the interpretability of such studies. Drawing on expertise from both operations and behavioral research, and motivated by a case example, we intend to further this dialogue. In doing so, we outline interdisciplinary commonalities and several methodological pitfalls that those studying the links between resource constraints and operational performance should take into account when developing new research. These issues range from appropriate model conceptualization to operationalization for empirical studies. Recommendations for appropriately confronting methodological concerns related to these issues are provided. #