Purchased business services influence downstream supply chain members

Abstract

Purpose – Supply chain management and business networks have gained increased attention in services settings. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of external purchased services by a service provider on the satisfaction of downstream supply chain members, i.e. end‐users. The focus is on transaction‐specific satisfaction as it provides in‐depth information on specific satisfaction elements.Design/methodology/approach – To test the propositions, one business service provider purchasing a service from an external supplier is selected. Data are collected by sending a web survey to the business service provider's customers. partial least squares (PLS) is used to analyze the data as transaction‐specific satisfaction is considered as a formative construct.Findings – PLS analyses indicate that the elements determining satisfaction with the external supplier and those determining satisfaction with the business service provider differ. Moreover, transaction‐specific satisfaction of end‐users wi...