Success Factor Analysis of the German Fish Supply Chain Networks

Theodor-Lieser-Str. 2 | 06120 Halle, Germany | e-mail: gagalyuk@iamo.de | www.iamo.de |

49th Annual Conference of the GEWISOLA “Agricultural and Food Markets After the Boom”September 30-October 2, 2009, Kiel, Germany

Problem Setting

Research Aim

Increasing consumer requirements towards quality, safety and environmental sustainability of seafood products result in tightening of vertical inter-firm relationships featured by formation of so-called supply chain networks (SCN).

SCN are pyramidal-hierarchical inter-firm collaborations with a focal company that fulfils the chain management task, i.e., it develops the network’s strategy and coordinates the whole network to ensure implementation of the network’s strategy.

Successful implementation of the network’s strategy is supposed to enable resolution of such issues as quality, safety, and sustainability. A sustainable SCN, however, will only be established when tangible benefits occur for the participating firms. This requires that an SCN is successfully managed.

Yet, it is not clear up to now what the success of SCN is and how it can be measured.

The aim of the research is to develop the model of the SCN success and test it empirically.

Accomplishment of the Aim Development of the model based on the literature on strategic management and chain

management.

Survey of 90 specialized fish retailers (acting as focal companies in the specialized fish SCN) in Germany.

Model testing by means of the Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique for the structural equation modelling. PLS is chosen as a suitable tool for exploratory analysis

Results and Implications

The fit of the model is generally supported. Such manifest variables as commitment, chain orientation, and overall satisfaction were deleted after initial tests.

The alignment of interests and the alignment of actions of the SCN participants have significant positive effects on the achievement of SCN goals.

The achievement of SCN goals is mainly explained by the alignment of interests because most of the remained goals are firm-level goals that require much emphasis on aligning individual interests.

The alignment of actions is important to achieve such a network-level goal as quality of supplies. Specialized fish retailers have to be aware of interdependencies in an SCN and, therefore, chain transparency gains in importance.

The ability of chain management to achieve network-level and firm-level goals simultaneously is the main prerequisite of the SCN strategic success.

Model of SCN Success The SCN success involves the achievement of network-level and firm-level goals based on the alignment of interests and actions of individual network participants.

Fish Supply Chain

Alignment of interests

Achievement of SCN goals

Network-level goals

Firm-level goals

Alignment of actions

→ Quality of supplies→ Overall satisfaction

→ Sales volume→ Rate of payments

Commitment

Communication

Goal consensus

Joint problem solving

Chain transparency

Chain orientation

Focal actor

Interdependence

Variables Compositereliability

Cronbach’s Alpha

AVE

Alignment of interests (weight = 0.674, p<0.05) 0.785 0.540 0.537

Alignment of actions (weight = 0.218, p<0.05) 0.850 0.742 0.653

Achievement of SCN goals (R2=0.511) 0.874 0.799 0.700

Taras Gagalyuk, Christina Steinbauer, Jon Hanf