Academics and practitioners agree that excellence in supply management results in better quality, customer service, and channel performance. Yet, most of these studies are either conceptual in nature or actual case studies. The primary objective of this research is to test the impact of a supply management orientation (SMO) on the suppliers' operational performance and buyers' competitive priorities (cost, quality, delivery, flexibility). Three major research hypotheses associated with SMO, Supplier Performance (SP), and Buyer Performance (BP) are tested using a confirmatory structural equation modeling approach. The results of this research support the conclusion that an improvement (increase) in the SMO improves both the suppliers' and buyers' performance (i.e., a win–win situation for the supply chain). In addition, the influence of SMO on delivery‐ and quality‐related performance is more statistically significant than on cost or flexibility performance. In fact, when volume and process flexibility are top competitive priorities, a supply chain management orientation may not be an effective way to achieve the desired flexibility. The article ends by discussing other conclusions and suggests directions for future research.

The objective of this research is to test the theory and causal performance linkages implied by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA). The survey instrument used a comprehensive set of 101 questions that were directly tied to specific criteria in the 1995 MBNQA Criteria. Results reported here represent the first published article that tests the MBNQA performance relationships and causal model using comprehensive measurement and structural models.In general, our research concludes that (1) The underlying theory of the MBNQA is supported that "leadership drives the system that causes results"; (2) Leadership is the most important driver of system performance; (3) Leadership has no direct effect on Financial Results but must influence overall performance "through the system"; (4) Information and Analysis is statistically the second most important Baldrige category; ( 5 ) the Baldrige category, Process Management, is twice as important when predicting customer satisfaction as when predicting financial results; and (6) a modified "within system" set of five Baldrige causal relationships is a good predictor of organizational performance. Subject Areas: Performance Measurement, Quality Management, and Structural Equation Modeling.

Research on trust in buyer–supplier relationships has tended to focus on the performance outcomes of a trusting relationship, as well as the processes that serve to build trust. Largely absent from the buyer–supplier literature is an in‐depth examination of activities that break down trust, and the resulting effect on supplier trust in the buyer. The authors propose and test a model that evaluates psychological contract violations between a buyer and a supplier as a mediating variable of the effect of unethical activities on trust within a partnership. Survey data was collected from 110 tier one suppliers of major corporations in the state of Ohio. Our results show how a supplier's perception of a violation of the psychological contract either partially mediates or fully mediates the relationship between the buyers unethical activity and the suppliers trust in that buyer. We discuss how suppliers may demonstrate bounded ethicality when they overlook perceived unethical behaviors by the buyer.