The mediation role of buyer's satisfaction in relationship between structural capital with performance

The purpose of this paper is performing an empirical investigation on the impact of structural capital (supplier evaluation, supplier development, information sharing, network ties and appropriability) on buyer satisfaction and the relationships between buyer satisfaction and buyer performance (cost, quality, delivery, flexibility and innovation). The statistical population of this study is the buying managers of manufacturing companies in Qazvin province. One hundred thirteen questionnaires with multiple choice questions were distributed among sample individuals. The partial least squares method and Smart‐PLS software were used for analysing the data in order to evaluate the relationship between variables and their impact on each other. Empirical results confirm that structural capital has positive impact on buyer satisfaction. Among the structural capital factors, the network ties, supplier evaluation and supplier development, have a significant impact on the buyer satisfaction while, appropriability and information sharing do not have significant positive impact on the buyer satisfaction. Finally, the buyer satisfaction has a positive impact on the buyer performance. The result of this study leads supply chain managers to correct understanding of the impact of structural capital on buyer‐supplier relationship in order to improve this relationship and performance.