Investigating supplier selection using repertory grid technique

Supplier selection is an important part of supply chain management as suppliers tend to play as strategic roles for most organizations. This study investigates the supplier selection criteria in Chinese textile industry using repertory grid technique. Twenty-one purchasing employees from textile industry in China were interviewed. Thirty-three constructs were elicited from the twenty-one interviews. Counts and frequency were used to identify the most mentioned criteria by respondents. Variability index was used to determine the constructs’ differentiation power among three supplier groups. Eight constructs were identified to be the criteria used by purchasers and they are: guanxi, problem-solving methods, service, term of payment, creditability (known as Xinyong in Chinese), delivery, quality and price in ranking order.