Original Articles
“Increased globalization, varying customer requirements, extended product lines, uncertainty regarding supplier performance, and myriad related factors make supply chains utterly complex. While previous research indicates that supply chain complexity plays an important role in explaining performance outcomes, the accumulating evidence is ambiguous. Thus, a finer-grained analysis is required. By meta-analyzing 27,668 observations across 102 independent samples from 123 empirical studies, we examine the link between supply chain complexity and firm performance. While the preponderance of evidence from previous studies identifies supply chain complexity as detrimental to firm performance, our results illustrate that although supply chain complexity has a negative effect on operational performance, it has a positive effect on innovation performance and financial performance. Furthermore, we also distinguish among different levels of supply chain (i.e., upstream, downstream, and internal) and observe nuanced findings. Finally, our findings also reveal moderating effects of construct operationalization and study design characteristics. We discuss implications for theory and practice and provide avenues for future research..”
This research has been featured in our Spotlight series, details can be found here: https://www.journalofsupplychainmanagement.com/new-blog/2021/5/14/spotlight-order-from-chaos-a-metaanalysis-of-supply-chain-complexity-and-firm-performance
The full article can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jscm.12264
https://doi.org/10.1111/jscm.12264
“Firms can adopt several strategies to increase their robustness to potential supply chain (SC) disruptions. One promising strategy is the use of a cross-functional team with representatives from functional departments. Such a team may facilitate sharing relevant information, enabling the firm to respond effectively to SC disruption warnings. However, despite their potential, cross-functional teams also differ in their ability to respond to SC disruption warnings and to ensure firm robustness. Extending insights from information-processing theory and team research to the field of SC management, we propose that a cross-functional team’s ability to handle high numbers of SC disruption warnings depends on the extent to which the team adopts centralized decision-making, with one or two members orchestrating the decision-making process. We also introduce internal integration problems as a mediating mechanism explaining why a cross-functional team lacking centralized decision-making may be unable to handle high numbers of SC disruption warnings. In two independent studies, we use multi-source data on cross-functional teams’ performance in dealing with SC disruption warnings during a realistic SC management simulation; the results support our predictions.”
The full article can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jscm.12262
https://doi.org/10.1111/jscm.12262
“This study develops and tests the synchromodality construct, a novel supply chain concept that integrates the flexible use of different transport modes based on real-time information. At a time when global supply chains are complex and subject to uncertainty, synchromodality has emerged at the forefront of research and practice as a tool to ensure efficient delivery performance and thus supply chain competitiveness. Despite synchromodality is attracting the attention of leading companies and policy makers, only scholars within the transport research community have engaged with the topic so far. We believe a supply chain management perspective is missing, but essential, to develop the full potential of synchromodality. Our study shows that synchromodality capabilities encapsulate four key elements: visibility, integration, multi-modal transport, and flexibility. Thanks to a three-stage research approach exploiting multiple methods, this study conceptualizes, develops, and validates the first synchromodality measurement model, which reflects the multidimensional nature of the concept. We hope to set the stage for a number of potential future research opportunities that can explore synchromodality implementation and outcomes.”
This research has been featured in our Spotlight series, details can be found here: https://www.journalofsupplychainmanagement.com/new-blog/2021/8/13/spotlightintroducing-synchromodality-one-missing-link-between-transportation-and-supply-chain-management
The full article can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jscm.12269
https://doi.org/10.1111/jscm.12269
“Firms must continually adjust their operations and those of their supply chain members in response to a continually evolving external environment. Many of these modifications are non-contractible in that firms cannot devise and enforce contracts on these behaviors. In this research, we extend property rights theory of the firm (PRTF) by suggesting that small entrepreneurs’ ownership of assets used to perform delegated tasks does not always incentivize small entrepreneurs to undertake non-contractible actions (NCAs) as assumed by canonical PRTF. We argue that the ability of asset ownership to incentivize small entrepreneurs to undertake NCAs will be muted when undertaking NCAs reduces small entrepreneurs’ productivity. We test our hypotheses by examining how trucking companies’ use of independent contractors affected the rate at which they improved compliance with different types of safety rules following a major regulatory change. Consistent with our arguments, we find that the use of independent contractors slowed carriers’ rate of firm-wide improvement on compliance with hours-of-service and vehicle maintenance rules relative to driving safety rules. These results, which remain after extensive robustness testing, have important implications for theory and practice.”
This research has been featured in our Spotlight series, details can be found here: https://www.journalofsupplychainmanagement.com/new-blog/2021/5/6/spotlightasset-ownership-amp-incentives-to-undertake-noncontractible-actions-the-case-of-trucking
The full article can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jscm.12263
https://doi.org/10.1111/jscm.12263
Emerging Discourse Incubator: Research at the Intersection of Supply Chain Management and Public Policy and Government Regulation
“Buying organizations collaborate with their suppliers to innovate, and increasingly seek to tap into the innovation potential of technologically adept small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who are new to them. Engagement with technology-based SMEs as possible suppliers can be constrained by institutions (e.g., rules, regulations, and norms of conduct) embodied in the buying organization's procurement and supply chain strategy, processes, and practices. Although prior research has examined how institutional forces influence supplier-enabled innovation, little is known about institutional failures that are particularly germane to innovative SMEs and impede collaboration between these SMEs and buying organizations. Consistent with the focus of the second emerging discourse incubator (EDI) on researching the effects of institutions (e.g., regulations) and public policies on supply chains, we investigate how enacted innovation policies address SME-specific institutional failures in a public sector context, that of the English National Health Service (NHS). Our qualitative research reveals that public agencies responsible for policy enactment seek to promote SME supplier-enabled innovation in the supply chain through institutional change and mitigation, SME connectivity to supply chain actors, and SME supplier development support. We synthesize our findings into a research model and set of propositions which theorize on the specific mechanisms underpinning the interventions of policy-enacting agencies and their effects. Our study contributes to the literature on supplier-enabled innovation and to research focusing on collaboration between buyers and innovative small suppliers. More broadly, we generate theoretical insights regarding the role of public agencies enacting policy as a class of non-firm actors whose interventions influence the supply chain. The findings also add to our understanding of the interplay between supply chains and institutions.”
This research has been featured in our Spotlight series, details can be found here: https://www.journalofsupplychainmanagement.com/new-blog/2021/10/28/spotlight-fostering-sme-supplier-enabled-innovation-in-the-supply-chain-the-role-of-innovation-policy
Full Article link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jscm.12274
https://doi.org/10.1111/jscm.12274
Emerging Discourse Incubator: Emerging Approaches for Developing Supply Chain Management Theory
“In this paper, we explore how supply chain theorists can engage with metaphorical imagination to develop supply chain theory. Our main purpose was to provide additional useful guidance on how scholars can approach the method of metaphoric transfer. To do this, we build on previous work on the metaphoric transfer method and develop the Metaphoric Transfer Pathways framework. The framework offers two novel approaches to working with metaphors that will help theorists to best leverage the theorizing potential of metaphors in their work. We also develop a set of evaluation criteria which can help scholars to choose which approach to metaphoric transfer to adopt and to maximize the productivity of metaphors used within their theorizing efforts. Our paper synthesizes the existing literature on metaphorical imagination in a novel way to provide accessible guidance for those looking to work with metaphor and to maximize their contribution toward developing novel supply chain theory.”
This research has been featured in our Spotlight series, details can be found here: https://www.journalofsupplychainmanagement.com/new-blog/2021/3/26/spotlight-building-novel-supply-chain-theory-using-metaphorical-imagination
Full article here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jscm.12257
https://doi.org/10.1111/jscm.12257