SOURCE:

Faculty: Management Sciences
Department: Business Administration

CONTRIBUTORS:

ELOM, E. M
Chiekezie, O.M
Nnabuife, E. K

ABSTRACT:

The story of bakery industry in South-East, Nigeria is replete with that of closure of many firms. Some bakery firms that were noted for quality products are no more heard of today probably because of stiff competition. Thus, the objective of the study is to determine the extent of relationship that exists between supply chain management and competitive advantage of bakery firms in South-East, Nigeria. In pursuance of the objective of the study, a descriptive survey design was adopted and a sample of 241 respondents was drawn from a population of 667 bakery firms in South-East, Nigeria that are members of Master Bakers Association. Hence, 241 copies of questionnaire were distributed to the respondents who were mostly factory owners and people in management cadre in the firms, a response rate of 85.89 per cent was obtained. Descriptive statistics was used to present generated data while test of hypotheses were carried out using Pearson Product Moment Correlations. The study found a statistically significant positive relationship between strategic supplier partnership and cost of production, customer relationship management and delivery dependability, information sharing and quality of bread produced, quality of information sharing and time-to-market of the bakery firms. It also found a statistically significant positive relationship between supply chain integration and product innovation. The implication of the findings is that bakery firms can achieve sustainable competitive advantage if they can implement supply chain management practices to a larger extent. It is recommended that bakery firms in the region need to improve on their strategic partnership with their suppliers. The study also recommended that bakery firms in South-East, Nigeria need to pay more attention to maintaining existing customers through periodic evaluation of their level of satisfaction and perception. Merger among some of the bakery firms to enable them pull resources and expertise together in order to have a better market share as well as economies of scale is also recommended among others.