The importance of procurement relationships in food supply chains is increasing in importance due to issues of food safety, food security, changing consumer preferences, ethical concerns and greater awareness of the environmental impact of food production. Despite the considerable research on buyer-seller relationships in the marketing and management literature, only a small proportion of this has focused on procurement relationships between producers and buyers in food supply chains. Hence, this paper specifically focuses on examining the impact of relationship quality on supplier performance in the context of food supply chains. The theoretical framework is derived from the tenets of the resource-based view and the relational view of firms. Using this framework, the definition, measurement and structural dimensions of relationship quality is established in the context of food producers and buyers. This construct is then tested in relationship to supplier performance. Utilizing data from a mail survey of 954 red meat producers in New Zealand, the model of supplier-buyer relationship quality and its effects on supplier performance is tested using structural equation modelling. The results demonstrate that relationship quality is an essential factor in procurement relationships with suppliers in food supply chains and shows that, as hypothesized, higher quality relationships lead to positive performance outcomes. The results support the theoretical framework indicating that relationship quality, conceptualized and defined in this context, is indeed a valuable relational resource due to its impact on supplier performance. Managerially, this resource can be manipulated to improve supplier performance, and hence potentially provide firms with competitive advantage that has high replication barriers.

中文翻译：

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食品供应链中的关系质量和供应商绩效

由于食品安全，食品安全，消费者偏好的变化，道德问题以及对食品生产对环境影响的认识，采购关系在食品供应链中的重要性日益提高。尽管在营销和管理文献中对买卖双方关系进行了大量研究，但其中只有一小部分着重于食品供应链中生产者与买方之间的采购关系。因此，本文特别关注在食品供应链的背景下研究关系质量对供应商绩效的影响。该理论框架是从基于资源的观点和企业的关系观点的宗旨中得出的。使用这个框架，定义 关系质量的度量和结构维度是根据食品生产者和购买者确定的。然后测试此构造与供应商绩效的关系。利用来自新西兰954家红肉生产商的邮件调查数据，使用结构方程模型测试了供应商与买方之间的关系质量模型及其对供应商绩效的影响。结果表明，关系质量是与食品供应链中供应商的采购关系的重要因素，并且表明，如假设的那样，更高质量的关系会带来积极的绩效结果。结果支持理论框架，表明在这种情况下概念化和定义的关系质量由于对供应商绩效的影响而确实是宝贵的关系资源。