Development of levels of buyer-supplier collaboration: a Delphi study

The world is witnessing a stupendous increase in collaborative buyer-supplier practices in sustainable supply chains due to large-scale globalisation and mounting stakeholder pressure. There is an increasing need for classifying collaborative parameters into stages and levels of progression. With various already existing indicators of buyer supplier collaboration, classifying these collaborative parameters into stages and levels of progression is required to understand the development of these practices. This paper attempts to identify various significant indicators of such collaborations in Indian markets and to establish the different levels of collaborative spectrum Indian buyer's and supplier's perspective. This study uses a Delphi method to identify, rank and categorise the significant factors in levels of buyer-supplier collaboration using multi stakeholder viewpoints. A total of 66 experts comprising of academicians, NGOs and representatives of buyers and suppliers were selected to participate in the three rounds of the Delphi study. The study establishes seven levels of buyer-supplier collaboration that represent consensus-based indicators and display stages of locally accepted assessment of sustainable supply chain collaboration.