Exploring supply chain business bullying of small and medium-sized business suppliers by dominant buyers in the apparel retail sector in Gauteng

Southern African Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Exploring supply chain business bullying of small and medium-sized business suppliers by dominant buyers in the apparel retail sector in Gauteng
 
Creator Goolam Nabee, Sumayah Swanepoel, Elana
 
Subject Entrepreneurship, Small Business Management, Logistics, Supply Chain Management bullying; collaboration; dominant behaviour; supply chain dominance; SMEs; unfair business practices.
Description Background: Issues relating to dominant behaviour and bullying practices in supply chains are mostly not reported. Some evidence exists of unfair business practices in the apparel retail sector, but the extent and nature of such practices in South Africa, as well as the business implications for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), have not been researched. The reason could be the sensitive nature of these issues and possible adverse implications for the SMEs supplying apparel to the retailers in Gauteng.Aim: The primary research objective is to determine the incidence and type of supply chain dominance experienced by SMEs in the retail apparel sector in Gauteng, as well as the business implications of such dominant behaviour and how SMEs cope with it.Setting: The setting for this study was the business premises of SME apparel suppliers in Gauteng.Methods: Qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with seven SMEs that were apparel suppliers to the large retailers in Gauteng, to obtain the supplier perspective.Results: Six of the seven SMEs had experienced some form of bullying behaviour by large retailers in the apparel sector, such as late payments and long payment terms. For some of these SMEs, it had serious financial implications. Meaningful insight is provided into this supplier–buyer relationship between SMEs and large retailers in the apparel sector in Gauteng.Conclusion: This is the first study in South Africa investigating supply chain dominance, in particular supply chain bullying of SME suppliers through unfair business practices by dominant buyers in the apparel sector.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor
Date 2021-03-31
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajesbm.v13i1.367
 
Source The Southern African Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management; Vol 13, No 1 (2021); 11 pages 2071-3185 2522-7343
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajesbm.co.za/index.php/sajesbm/article/view/367/504 https://sajesbm.co.za/index.php/sajesbm/article/view/367/503 https://sajesbm.co.za/index.php/sajesbm/article/view/367/505 https://sajesbm.co.za/index.php/sajesbm/article/view/367/502
 
Coverage Gauteng, South Africa — SMEs in the apparel retail sector in Gauteng
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Sumayah Goolam Nabee, Elana Swanepoel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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