College of Business at Illinois

The UK Federation of Small Businesses has backed the Groceries Code Adjudicator’s probe into Tesco Plc’s relationship with its suppliers.

In this paper, we explore the concept of the sourcing hub as a value-enabling mechanism in the upstream raw material supply chain by exploring when (i.e. under what market and economic conditions) a firms's active management of relationships with direct suppliers and raw material suppliers can result in a more eefficient supply chain.

The depreciation of organizational knowledge can mute the effects of a company's quality performance initiatives, says research co-authored by Anupam Agrawal, a professor of business administration at the University of Illinois.

With increased outsourcing of manufacturing activities, many firms have implemented programs to ensure quality in their supply chains, yet despite these efforts, quality issues persist in supply chains.

Firms can manage their sourcing better by developing relationships not only with their suppliers but also with their suppliers' suppliers, according to two papers co-written by a University of Illinois expert in supply chain management.

A firm’s raw material sourcing knowledge can be a strategic resource, and therefore we explore how firms can capture and use this knowledge. We examine the sourcing experiences of four firms in four different countries in the automotive industry and identify the raw material sourcing knowledge‐related parameters with appropriate theoretical explanations.