Abstract

Purpose: The current research aims to explain the significance of power in the supply chain, with a particular emphasis on the buyer's perspective. In doing so, this research investigates the influence of network centrality on trust and collaborative decision-making in supply chain. Power, in this research, is measured with two structural dimension of network centrality: degree centrality and betweenness centrality. Research design, data and methodology: The empirical analysis is performed with the survey answered by supply chain managers from various industries in Korean corporations. The survey encompasses constructs, including trust, power, and collaborative decision-making. This study performs several statistical tests to analyze the direct effect model, the mediation effect model, the moderation effect model, and the moderated moderation effect model. Results: The indirect effect of trust on collaborative decision-making through degree centrality is significant whereas the mediation effect of betweenness centrality is not. The moderation test results indicate that the relationship between trust and collaborative decision-making is not influenced by the levels of degree centrality and betweenness centrality. Conclusions: This study discloses managerial implications such that even in the presence of coercive or opportunistic behaviors stemming from high level of network centrality, trust-based collaboration may not be significantly influenced.