Title: Dealing with quality uncertainty in the supply chains of perishable agricultural produce: consideration of buyer-supplier geographical distance and the choice of procurement channel

Authors: Renger Kanani

Addresses: Department of General Management, University of Dar es salaam Business School, P.O. Box 35046, Dar es salaam, Tanzania

Abstract: Building on principal-agent and transaction cost theories, this study expands knowledge on quality uncertainty in agri-food supply chains by examining the antecedents of produce quality uncertainty including information asymmetry and the degree of produce perishability. It then examined buyer-supplier geographical distance and the choice of procurement channel as moderators of the effect of degree of produce perishability on quality uncertainty. In order to test the relationship among the research variables, four hypotheses were developed and tested with survey data from 239 food processing firms. The results show that information asymmetry and the degree of produce perishability have very strong positive influence on quality uncertainty. However, the influence of perishability is positively moderated by the degree of produce perishability and negatively by the choice of procurement channel.

Keywords: principal-agent theory; transaction cost theory; TCT; information asymmetry; quality uncertainty; geographical distance; procurement channel; perishability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCP.2019.098401

International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 2019 Vol.12 No.1, pp.55 - 79

Received: 28 Jan 2018
Accepted: 14 Oct 2018
Published online: 18 Mar 2019 *

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