Strategic Supplier Partnership in Outsourcing as Supply Chain Management Strategy- Impact on Competitiveness and Operational Performance of Indian Aerospace Industry

Indian manufacturing companies are having huge opportunities to diversify their business in to aerospace sector due to growth of civil aviation market in India. Management of supply chain is a major challenge in aerospace manufacturing companies to become globally competitive. The challenges can be overcome with effective supply chain strategies. Strategic supplier partnership is one of the strategy for manufacturing companies to become global competitive. The present study is to examine how outsourcing strategy through strategic supplier partnership will impact competitiveness and operational performance of Indian aerospace industry. The companies considered in Indian aerospace industry includes Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Private enterprises, Government owned companies and other Research and Development Organizations, who are engaged in the design, development and manufacture of components, sub-assemblies and major assemblies of aerospace related items such as aircraft, helicopters, space launch vehicles and associated systems. For this study, conceptual research framework was developed with three constructs. Data has been collected through survey methodology with questionnaire as an instrument. Statistical analysis was carried out for 263 responses received from various companies using SPSS AMOS 20 and tested hypotheses of the model using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) methodology. The results of the study show that having strategic supplier partnership for outsourcing strategy has a significant impact on competitiveness and operational performance of Indian aerospace industry. This study is considered as first of its kind to explore the impact of strategic supplier partnership in operations of Indian Aerospace Industry.