The Influence of Inertia on Supply Chain Partner Selection

　　在供應鏈管理上，「挑選合適的合作夥伴」是關鍵成功因素之一。此議題在管理長期合作關係上尤其重要。本研究從資源相依與組織慣性觀點出發，希望在挑選供應鏈合作夥伴方面，能深入研究資訊收集行為與組織慣性是如何影響合作關係滿意度。研究結果顯示，高組織慣性會使得企業較不會廣泛或深入地收集與合作夥伴相關的資訊，進而使得合作關係的滿意度降低。而在與透過廣泛或深入地收集資訊而挑選出來的夥伴進行合作時，會產生較高的滿意度。若合作計畫具有高度的不確定性，資訊收集行為對合作滿意度的影響程度會加深。因此，本研究建議，企業在進行不確定性高的供應鏈合作計畫時，應該儘量克服組織慣性對資訊收集行為的限制，以提升合作滿意度。
　　“Choosing a suitable partner” is one of the critical success factors in the process of supply chain management, especially in a long-term relationship. This study employs the resource dependence perspective and the inertia perspective as lenses to investigate information collection behavior in supply chain partner selection that can lead to satisfactory outcome for the collaboration. The results show that inertia is negatively associated with information collection behavior, which in turn associates positively with outcome of the alliance. The finding reveals that firms tend to devote resources to information collection, rather than organizational and personal inertia if high uncertainty is perceived. Consequently, we suggest that in the context of high uncertainty, firms should overcome the limitations of inertia, then narrow the scope of information sources and enlarge the extent of information on evaluative criteria to gain a better outcome.