Vol 23, No 4; Article by Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, Alceu Gomes Alves Filho, Adriana Backx Noronha Viana and Charbel José Chiappetta Jabbour; December 2011
The objectives of this article are to identify the supply chain management (SCM) practices adopted in companies of the electro-electronic sector operating in Brazil, and verify which factors affect the adoption of SCM practices. A survey was conducted with companies in the Brazilian electro-electronic sector. The Brazilian electro-electronic sector is governed by its customers, the majority domestic (93%) and it has a series of small and medium domestic suppliers, with 30% of raw materials being imported. Based on statistical analyses (Principal Component Analysis, Structural Equation Modeling and ANOVA and Kruskal Wallis tests) and the responses of 107 respondents, four hypotheses were analysed statistically. The results indicate support for three of the hypotheses, signalling that the adoption of SCM practices is more customer driven. The SCM practices that have been implemented more frequently are: obtaining customer feedback on services adequacy, determining customers' future needs, integration of product development activities with suppliers, collaboration of suppliers with demand forecasting, consulting customer to support decisions about new products, and integration of product development activities with customer. Contextual factors such as size, position and bargaining power affect the adoption of SCM practices. The relationship between competitive priorities (CP) and SCM practices is not statistically significant.
The findings of this study are useful for supporting managerial decisions since they point out the characteristics of the Brazilian electro-electronic sector, which is part of the global supply chain, and identify the profile of the SCM practices in this sector, which are focused on integrating and supporting product development activities with the customers. Future research on this subject can compare these results with the position in other emerging economies, like China and India.
