Introducing electronic supply chain collaboration in China

Due to continuous internationalization and increasing international competition, procurement from and in China became a core element in the procurement strategy of multinational manufacturing companies over the past years. In order to create competitive supply chains, suppliers from there have to be integrated into existing processes and IT structures of such multinational companies. At the same time collaborative long-term oriented relationships with suppliers need to be established in order to benefit from relational rents. Since electronically mediated exchange has a key role in the development of collaboration, electronic Supply Chain Collaboration (eSCC) is a key to such relationships with a Chinese supply base. However, successful realization of eSCC is a problem in science for more than a decade. Moreover, most generated models were based on data from developed markets. Since, socio-economic and technical prerequisites in China differ from such markets, previous research findings cannot be transferred directly. Additionally, socio-economic and technical prerequisites and their influence on eSCC realization have not yet been researched holistically. Nevertheless, practice is asking for feasible realization approaches but science was not able to provide feasible concepts on how to implement eSCC in China yet.