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The roles of locus of causality and buyer attribution in resolution of recurrent supplier‐induced disruptions

Qiong Wang1; Li Cheng2; Christopher W. Craighead3; Julie Juan Li4

1 Division of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, The Price College of Business University of Oklahoma Norman Oklahoma USA · 2 Department of MIS, Operations Management and Decision Sciences, School of Business University of Dayton Dayton Ohio USA · 3 Department of Supply Chain Management, Haslam College of Business, 311 Stokely Management Center University of Tennessee Knoxville Tennessee USA · 4 Department of Marketing City University of Hong Kong Tat Chee Avenue Kowloon Hong Kong SAR

Journal of Operations Management 2022

AbstractWhile the literature tends to take a dichotomous view of supplier‐induced disruptions, we take a continuum perspective: a buyer perceives a disruption induced by the supplier to varying degrees (i.e., attributing varying levels of responsibility to the supplier), thus affecting the buyer's decisions in switching suppliers. By focusing on the recurrent disruptions, we argue that imputed buyers' attributions of responsibility are characterized by disruptions' recurrent nature and locus of causality—whether the disruptions were repeatedly triggered by recurrent events internal or external to the supplier. Furthermore, while previous studies have identified either buyers' attributions of disruptions or suppliers' justice approaches (to resolve disruptions) as independent factors driving buyers' decisions, we integrate attribution and justice theories and investigate their combined effect—how responsibility attributions affect buyers' switching intentions given suppliers' justice approaches. Using three vignette‐based studies of 705 purchasing managers (supplemented by three robustness check studies), we show that distributive justice attenuates the damaging impact of disruptions triggered by suppliers' internal incidents (internal locus) on buyers' switching intentions, whereas procedural and interactional justice are more instrumental in disruptions triggered by external events (external locus). We conclude by offering substantive guidance for suppliers regarding appropriate actions in preserving the relationship.

DOI
10.1002/joom.1165
Volume
68 (1)
Pages
55-93
Language
en
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