Supply chain management and SMEs performance: the mediating effect of HRM practices | |
| Author | Siriwan Kitchot |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. No.SM-20-05 |
| Subject(s) | Business logistics Small business Human resources management |
| Note | A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management, School of Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Supply Chain Management (SCM) implementation is employed as a strategic management tool among entrepreneurs in large firms and advocated by scholars for its high potential in terms of firm performance improvement. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially in developing economy such as Thailand may be interested in SCM but they hesitate to implement because lack of resources and confidence of its performance outcomes. Human resources are one of such needed resources in SCM implementation. Thus, human resource management (HRM) practices in a firm are very important in the strategic management process to improve the SMEs firm efficiency. In this study, based on resource-based view theory, two disciplines: SCM (hard side) and HRM (soft side) are linked to explain the impact of SCM on firm performance. The latter which focuses on shaping the desirable employee work behavior seems to have been overlooked in the discussion of SCM and its implementation in the existing literature even though HRM is the focal driver of a firm operation. Thus, this research aims to investigate the impact of SCM implementation and HRM practices on firm performance from the employee perspective. Preliminary study with expert interview was undertaken at the beginning of this research when the instrument was developed in English based on the relevant literature. Then, it was translated to Thai and back-translate to English and checked by experts both in terms of content and language editing before launching of the pilot survey. The full-scale survey was conducted after the research instrument was revised to achieve its reliability and validity. The survey questionnaires were distributed by two methods which were comprised of direct survey in several seminar programs and by mail to sample respondents in small and medium size enterprises in the manufacturing industry in Thailand. The list of the mail survey respondents was developed based on the Directory of the Thai Federation of Industries (FTI). There were 779 questionnaires distributed and 277 questionnaires were returned and about 203 were usable for data analysis thus, the response rate was 26.06%. Among these, about 152 responses (74.9%) were obtained by direct survey and 51 responses (25.1%) were obtained by mail survey. All values of Cronbach’s alpha of each variable are higher than 0.8. Structural equation model (SEM) was employed for the data analysis. The direct effect between HRM practices and firm performance is 0.675. Direct effect of SCM implementation on HRM practices is 0.91. There is no direct effect of SCM implementation and firm performance but there is an indirect effect which is 0.613. Hence, the result can be interpreted that the effect of SCM implementation on firm performance is fully mediated by its HRM practices. The empirical results show that firm performance can be enhanced by SCM implementation while effective HRM practices are the necessary condition for such accomplishment. Research results confirm that SCM can improve SMEs firm performance. Thus, its impact is not limited to those of the large enterprises. The more important finding is that SMEs have to be concerned and improve their HRM practices at the same time. The contribution of this study is not only to the body of knowledge on SMEs, SCM and HRM practices but also to provide recommendations to the policymakers. The economy can be stimulated by supporting SMEs to implement SCM in their business operation especially in this digital era. |
| Year | 2020 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Management |
| Department | Other Field of Studies (No Department) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Doctor of Philosophy in Management (Publication code = SM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Sununta Siengthai;Vatcharapol Sukhotu (Co-Chairperson) |
| Examination Committee(s) | Badir, Yousre;Huynh Trung Luong; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Naresuan University, Thailand - Commission on Higher Education (CHE), Thailand |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2020 |