Opportunism in buyer–supplier exchange: a critical examination of the concept and its implications for theory and practice

Abstract

Claims that opportunism is widespread in the process of buyer–supplier exchange are commonplace, but direct supporting evidence for such claims is largely absent from the relevant literature. This article offers a critique of the treatment of opportunism in supply chains by re-establishing the importance of guile in the concept and investigates existing published, empirical measures of buyer and supplier opportunistic behaviour. This article offers evidence that, despite the frequency with which the concept is discussed in the literature and applied in research and the emphasis given to the risks it generates for management, opportunism with guile between buyers and suppliers appears to be rare in practice. This article is the first critical assessment of the concept’s treatment in the Operations Management field, and it argues that practitioners are currently being poorly advised with respect to the phenomenon, as well as drawing conclusions for both practitioners and researchers that differ radically from the prevailing consensus on the subject.

Keywords:

• Opportunism
• guile
• buyer–supplier exchange
• critique

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephen Kelly

Stephen Kelly is a Senior Lecturer at Edge Hill University Business School where he focuses on Purchasing & Supply Chain Management, Strategic and Operations Management. Prior to his education career, he worked for over a decade in organisations such as Siemens, GEC and the NHS. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS), a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), an Executive Committee member of the International Purchasing & Supply Education & Research Association (IPSERA) and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI). His research interests are related to buyer-supplier interaction and Purchasing and Supply Management processes and he has published in the International Journal of Operations & Production Management.

Beverly Wagner

Beverly Wagner joined the Department of Marketing, University of Strathclyde in September 2007 and is currently Deputy Head of Department and Director of the Department’s postgraduate MSc programmes. Her research interests are related to supply chain management, sustainability and innovation management focusing on inter and intra firm collaboration. She has published widely in high quality international journals such as the Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Business Research and International Journal of Operations Management. She has been involved in research into formation and implementation of partnering and business alliances in the Drinks and Packaging sector, Microelectronics and the Oil and Gas Industries.

John Ramsay

John Ramsay has had a number of careers including a decade spent working in the Purchasing Function of a large British component supplier to the European car industry. He was a Reader for Staffordshire University where he taught a variety of subjects including South East Asian economic development and negotiation. He is widely published in the Purchasing field with practitioner papers dating back to the 1970s when he was junior buyer, developing in more recent years into academic work in his research area of Buyer–Supplier interaction.