Identifying and Categoring Supplier Development-Related Activities in the Automative Industry

The supplier development is a kind of cooperation between the producing and supplying companies. After the producer's awareness of the status of its suppliers according to the development criteria, it is necessary to provide and implement the appropriate activities for the supplier development. The purpose of this paper is to identify the activities related to the supplier development and their categorization using the Meta-synthesis method. For this purpose, by first selecting 102 studies from 136 studies and coding their texts with Atlas TI software, 39 concepts were identified for the activities, then the identified concepts were categoried in four tangible, intangible, relationships, and environmental categories and two internal and external dimensions. To verify validity, triangulation of data sources and researcher has been used. The content validity coefficient and Content Validity Index were calculated by a survey of automotive industry experts, 12 activities for deletion, modification and integration in the activities, and finally 27 activities for the development of suppliers in the automotive industry were finalized. The amount of Kappa coefficient obtained shows the reliability of the identified criteria. Identified activities and categorization can be useful for researchers in this field.