Supply Chain Quality Management and Environmental Uncertainty: A Contingency Perspective

Abstract

This article extends contingency perspectives of quality management to the interorganizational quality context. Supply chain quality management (SCQM) is conceptualized as a mechanism for governing quality of resource flows between interdependent organizations. Higher environmental uncertainty is proposed to intensify SCQM practices among supply chain members. However, SCQM practices are likely to assume different orientations depending on whether volume or technological uncertainty is present. High asset specificities among exchange partners are proposed to moderate the relationship between SCQM and environmental uncertainty by elevating quality practice intensities as environments become more turbulent. Disequilibrium environments should discourage SCQM, as organizations lack bureaucratic resources to manage the quality of interorganizational resource flows via bureaucratic means. Implications of these propositions on research and practice are discussed.

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