Quality assurance practices in the global supply chain: the effect of supplier localisation

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Production Research on January 2011, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2010.508953 This paper deals with quality management practices in the global supply chain. More specifically, the association between the geographical location of suppliers (within a country or in low labour cost countries) and quality assurance practices is analyzed. Three hypotheses are proposed and tested using a sample of 401 Spanish manufacturing establishments with at least fifty workers in all industries. The results indicate that plants purchasing a higher proportion of their inputs in low-cost countries are more likely to be certified according to a quality standard. However, no associations have been found between the localization of suppliers and the establishment of close relationships with suppliers in order to assure quality. The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science project SEJ2007-66511.