Investigating the Impact of Supply Chain Innovation on Competitive Advantage through Flexibility and Risk Management Capability; Investigating the role of supplier and buyer relations

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of supply chain innovation on competitive advantage through risk management capability and flexibility along with examining the role of the relationship between buyer and supplier in food companies in Mashhad.

This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of method. The statistical population of the present study is food companies in Mashhad. The sample size according to the thumb method (10 times the number of items) is equal to 220 companies and sampling was done by non-probability method. The data collection tool is the standard questionnaire of Afraz et al. (2020). Formal validity was used for the validity of the questionnaire and Cronbach's alpha coefficient and composite reliability were used to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire. Structural equation method and Smart-PLS1 3.0 software were used to analyze the data.

The results showed that supply chain innovation, risk management capability and flexibility have a positive and significant effect on competitive advantage. The mediating role of risk management capability and flexibility was also confirmed. The moderating role of the supplier-buyer relationship was also confirmed.