An Empirical Examination of Access Flexibility Fit, Trust and Performance Between Supplier and Distributor

Abstract

More thoroughly understanding how interorganizational value can be created by relationship and bilateral behaviors is critical for supply chain management. Based primarily on partnership and supplemented by the channel view, this study investigates how interorganizational access flexibility fit can create relational quality (i.e., trust) and distribution performance in the supply chain context by using dyed data. The findings show that good coalignments between actual and expected flexibility (flexibility fit) have a greater influence on trust between suppliers and distributors, furthermore, flexibility fit directly takes effect on distribution performance by mediating by trust.