Impact of Supply Chain Collaboration on Value Co-creation and Firm Performance: A Healthcare Service Sector Perspective

The healthcare sector is facing spiralling cost burden and the hospitals are finding tough time to provide quality care at affordable cost. The focus has shifted from managing procurement to managing relationships. This study conceptualizes supply chain collaboration (SCC) and its components in the context of healthcare service sector (hospital supply chain). The theoretical base of this paper lies in the relational view and the service dominant logic theory. Using a service dominant logic (SDL) lens, the study aims at establishing SCC as an antecedent to value co-creation (VCC); where VCC acts as a mediator in the relationship between SCC with firm performance. The study also aims at introducing the conceptual construct of relationship complexity level and attempts at investigating its influence on the framework relationships. The study by establishing parallels between the relational view and the SD logic view rationally converges to show that collaboration is the final prescribed outcome. The study logically puts forth a set of propositions that offers an enticing scope of further empirical investigation through testable hypotheses. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V.