Supply chain contingencies: Up-stream directives effect on suppliers performance

Supply chain management is set up to increase value at less cost to the supply chain as a whole by improved up-and downstream coordination. When improving upstream seamless fit, manufacturers exert precepts such as objectives, orders, and guidelines related to technology, design, interfaces, and product logics to their suppliers. We refer to formal precepts as upstream directives. Through the definition and contracting of upstream directives manufacturers coordinate each supplier´s and sub-supplier´s contributions more easily and re-integrate information from downstream supply chains. However, there is a research gap so far on up-stream directives and their performance effects. The results of our empirical study in the IT Industry show that upstream directives are more strongly experienced in environments of high uncertainty. Moreover, the deliberate planning is a performance increasing vehicle in lower uncertainty conditions. Emergent planning only improves performance under high uncertainty but is only slightly influenced by upstream directives.