Supply Chain Management Journal最新文献

Purpose

This study aims to empirically examine the impact of intellectual capital on the adoption of artificial intelligence-based supply chain analytics in manufacturing companies. It also aims to examine the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI)-based supply chain analytics on supply chain innovation and supply chain agility. Furthermore, this study explores the association supply chain innovation and supply chain agility.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 252 respondents who work in supply chain management of manufacturing companies in Jordan. AMOS software, which is based on the Structural Equation Modeling approach, was used to test hypotheses.

Findings

The findings reveal positive effects of the three components of intellectual capital, including human capital, structural capital, and social capital, on AI-based supply chain analytics. They also confirm a positive effect of AI-based supply chain analytics on both supply chain innovation and supply chain agility. Furthermore, the empirical results support a positive effect of supply chain agility on supply chain innovation.

Originality/value

This study provides valuable practical implications and enriches the literature on the determinants of supply chain analytics adoption and its role in developing the dynamic capabilities of manufacturing companies, such as supply chain innovation and supply chain agility.

Purpose

Due to new regulations, changing customer preferences and strategic reorientation, the role of responsible decision-making has become increasingly complex for both small and large firms. In relation to this, this article contends that companies are turning into political actors with political responsibility for sustainability-related issues in their supply chain and beyond. Therefore, this article aims to investigate (1) how companies have become political in their supply chain and (2) which mechanisms contribute to this development.

Design/methodology/approach

To investigate the political nature of companies in their supply chain, this research draws on a critical realist case study inspired by process tracing. A total of 30 interviews were conducted with actors from within global coffee supply chains to get a wide overview of the different perspectives on how coffee companies deal with political complexity.

Findings

It is found that companies in the coffee supply chain are increasingly acting like traditional political actors. Their engagement in political activities emphasizes three contextualized causal mechanisms driving this transformation: (1) customer pressure, (2) attention to trust and transparency and (3) personal motivation.

Research limitations/implications

The results point to the political nature of companies’ supply chain management (SCM)-related activities, indicating they should recognize that their role in the supply chain gives them the capacity to act as state-like actors.

Originality/value

Political SCM is introduced as a new conceptual element in the SCM discourse by defining the term “political” and linking political theory and sustainable SCM literature. This provides a better understanding of SCM and offers guidance on how SCM can be understood as a set of political activities.

Purpose

Diversity – or having a range of different options – is an important part of being resilient. Yet research has not considered how diversity in terms of the governance relationship types that exist within a supply base or across a supply network relates to resilience. By drawing on a well-established global value chain (GVC) governance framework, this paper aims to investigate how different relationship governance types influence resilience at the dyadic and supply network level.

Design/methodology/approach

This research draws on 27 embedded cases of buyer-supplier relationships within a network, studied through 20 interviews in 11 organizations across four tiers of the Australian Defence Force supply network, including the end customer perspective, during and after a large-scale supply chain (SC) disruption. Analysis is conducted at the individual dyad and aggregated network levels.

Findings

At the dyadic buyer-supplier level, a variety of different resilience strategies and practices are used across the relationship governance types. Consequently, at the network level, relationships characterized by market and relational governance created more vulnerabilities during COVID-19 than hierarchical and modular governance relationships.

Originality/value

The GVC framework is extended to the SC domain, providing a deeper understanding of how GVC governance types in SC relationships relate to resilience strategies at the dyadic and network levels. Given that different governance relationships draw on different resilience strategies, diversity in governance relationships helps enhance overall resilience. Meanwhile, the findings show that resilience requires relational aspects to be considered alongside economic aspects of the GVC.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to integrate sustainability and economic factors into a framework for understanding the reshoring decision.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper integrates sustainability and economic factors into a reshoring framework through using the theoretical perspectives of the natural resource-based view (NRBV) and transaction cost economics (TCE), and carrying out case study research with a number of firms involved in reshoring in the German automotive industry.

Findings

Through adopting a multi-theory approach, the framework captures the complexities of the reshoring decision and illustrates that reshoring is not a location decision alone, but encompasses a range of sourcing options such as local production in-house, using a local supplier or addressing sustainability problems with the offshore operation. The importance of sustainability capability development as a basis of extending the range of reshoring sourcing options available is highlighted.

Research limitations/implications

Using the NRBV has allowed to develop value creating drivers in the context of reshoring. Integrating the logic of TCE with this analysis provided an understanding of how cost reducing drivers were present alongside the value creating drivers for reshoring at the case companies. Beyond previous frameworks integrating the RBV and TCE, bringing in the NRBV allowed us to highlight the importance of sustainability capability development as a basis of extending the range of reshoring sourcing options available. While this study’s cases were in the automotive industry in Germany, future research could sample for further geographies and industries to cover varying regulatory pressures for sustainability as well as sustainability-related industry initiatives.

Practical implications

The framework can provide guidance to managers on the conditions that favour the selection of each sourcing option when making the reshoring decision.

Originality/value

Although there are frameworks in the literature that explain the reshoring decision, limited attention has been given to integrating sustainability issues into the analysis. The findings here contribute important insights into the complementary and contradictory prescriptions of the NRBV and TCE in reshoring decisions, and several propositions are offered outlining these relationships. The resulting framework provides an integrated approach for managerial decision-making beyond economic factors alone.

Purpose

This paper investigates the influence of blockchain technology on trust and transparency within supply chain management. While existing research suggests blockchain has revolutionary potential, real-world evidence remains limited. This study aims to bridge this gap.

Design/methodology/approach

The research relies on transaction cost analysis and principal-agent theory to develop a conceptual model. The model proposes how blockchain fosters trust and transparency, ultimately leading to a market-based governance model within supply chains. Five different blockchain applications were analyzed in a multi-case study through document reviews and expert interviews to test the model’s assumptions.

Findings

The study’s findings challenge initial assumptions. The complexity of blockchain networks and a reluctance to share information among participants hinder blockchain technology’s ability to increase trust and transparency. Consequently, the expected reduction in opportunism and uncertainties is not observed, and a market-based governance model fails to materialize. In practice, supply chain partners gravitate toward permissioned blockchains managed by established consortia. Acting as trusted third parties, these consortia assume control over network management, rendering blockchain essentially unnecessary.

Originality/value

This paper sheds light on the practical limitations of blockchain technology in revolutionizing supply chain management. While blockchain promises much, the findings suggest that established consortia currently play a more critical role in fostering trust and transparency within supply chains.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore information sharing (IS) in triadic supply chain relationships through social capital lenses in the Kenyan dairy supply chain context, a setting challenged by the need to increase transparency and improve supply chain performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used a multiple-case study design. Data was collected using a range of methods, including semi-structured interviews. Six cases with a triadic unit of analysis were identified and analyzed within the Kenya dairy supply chain.

Findings

The study finds that IS and the presence of social capital hinge on the type of triad and the size of the involved suppliers. The study discovers different outcomes of IS on the development of social capital, highlighting the challenges for buyers to develop social capital with second-tier suppliers, while it may be beneficial for horizontal relationships between first-tier suppliers.

Originality/value

This study contributes to extant literature on IS in supply chains by exploring different types of triadic relationships in dairy supply chains in an emerging country context. The type of triad is an antecedent of information, providing a unique and novel insight. Furthermore, the study highlights distinct contextual characteristics of Africa that can influence the IS process.

Purpose

Traceability systems (TS) have enabled significant improvements in supply chain management. Despite these advancements, there is room for further enhancement in the acceptance and diffusion of TS among stakeholders in emergent agri-food supply chains. Conducting a strategic analysis of TS is crucial to reveal the associated challenges, opportunities, pros and cons. Doing so will foster the development of emergent agri-food supply chains and unlock their potential.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used a modified quantitative four-round Delphi methodology among experts, selected according to the quadruple helix model, covering end-to-end the supply chain. The research was carried out in Greece, as its agri-food sector epitomizes the type of emergent supply chain under investigation.

Findings

This study reveals the impact of TS in emergent agri-food industries, emphasizing the firm-focused positive effects like improving their supply chain performance. The research also highlights the benefits of TS adoption, suggesting that they outweigh any drawbacks based on the TS internal-external environment analysis. The multi-stakeholder participatory approach resulted in a blend of well-informed policy-making recommendations and managerial insights, paving the way for a broader and more efficient TS adoption in emergent agri-food supply chains.

Research limitations/implications

Impediments on sampling require caution when extending these findings to other contexts. Yet, it is crucial to conduct further research using a similar approach in a broader area, not just limited to Greece but also in other economies with similar conditions characterized by nascent supply chains.

Originality/value

The comprehensive and holistic approach used in this study, examining the extended supply chain context instead of just dyads, offers valuable insights that contribute to theory development in supply chain management. Such an output is momentous when researching emergent supply chains and complex issues like traceability, which require information sharing and involve interdependencies and hidden dynamics among stakeholders that are impossible to explore otherwise.

Purpose

Drawing on panarchy theory and adaptive cycles, this study aims to investigate the role of reorganisation capabilities on firms’ supply chain resilience. The conceptual model underpinned by panarchy theory is tested in the agrifood supply chains disrupted by a geopolitical crisis and faced with material shortage. The study considers circularity as a core reorganisational capability and measures its interplay with two other capabilities: new product development and resource reconfiguration capabilities to achieve supply chain resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative research design is followed to test the relationships between circularity capabilities, resource reconfiguration capabilities, new product development capabilities and supply chain resilience. A cross-sectional survey is applied to a sample drawn from food manufacturers who are dependent on wheat and sunflower oil as raw material and who are faced with material shortages in the aftermath of a geopolitical crisis. Measurement models and hypotheses are tested with the partial least squared structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) based on 324 responses.

Findings

The results show that new product development and resource reconfiguration capabilities fully mediate the relationship between circularity capabilities and supply chain resilience. In other words, the food producers achieved supply chain resilience in response to agrifood supply chain disruption when they mobilised circularity capabilities in combination with new product development and resource reconfiguration capabilities.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that producers in the agrifood industry and even those in other industries need to develop circularity capabilities in combination with new product development and resource reconfiguration capabilities to tackle supply chain disruptions. In a world that is challenged by geopolitical and climate-related crises, this means leveraging 3R practices as well as resource substitution and reconfiguration in new product development processes.

Originality/value

The study explores the release and reorganisation phases of adaptive cycles in a panarchy by analysing the interplay between different capabilities for building supply chain resilience in response to disruptions challenging supply chains from higher levels of the panarchy. The results extend the theoretical debate between circularity and supply chain resilience to an empirical setting and suggest the introduction of new variables to this relationship.

Purpose

The integration of blockchain technology (BT) in supply chain management (SCM) is at the forefront of technological advancements, yet it faces significant barriers that hinder its widespread adoption. This study aims to delve into these challenges, employing the diffusion of innovations (DOI) theory to systematically investigate and propose a strategic framework for overcoming the technological barriers to BT adoption within SCM.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a comprehensive systematic literature review (SLR) of 155 publications, complemented by rigorous content analysis and expert interviews, this research identifies and categorizes 16 primary technological barriers, including scalability and privacy issues, that impede BT integration.

Findings

The proposed framework, informed by DOI theory, outlines tailored strategies across three critical adoption stages: initiation, where the focus is on mitigating high energy consumption and scalability issues; adoption decision, emphasizing the formulating international standards for blockchain architecture, embedding abstraction layers within software projects; and implementation, concentrating on enhancing security, interoperability and system efficiency.

Originality/value

This research contributes significantly to both academic literature and practical applications. Academically, it extends the DOI theory within the SCM context and enriches the blockchain literature by providing a nuanced understanding of the specific barriers to BT adoption. Practically, it offers a roadmap for industry practitioners, delineating actionable strategies to navigate the adoption process effectively. This study not only bridges the gap between theoretical insights and practical implementations but also serves as a vital resource for policymakers and standard-setting bodies in facilitating and regulating BT adoption in SCM, thereby fostering innovation and competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to theoretically hypothesise and empirically explore the relationships between operations and supply chain management (O&SCM) and marketing/sales (OMS) collaboration, social media (SM) usage, organisational resilience and performance. This paper considers how collaboration through SM can enhance organisational resilience capability and performance.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was conducted among 395 organisations in the UK. Structural equation modelling was applied to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

The empirical findings of this study support the significant mediating role of O&SCM–OMS collaborative activities through internal and external SM for better organisational resilience, capability, cost efficiency, customer-focused and business performance. This also extends to exploring differences based on product versus service industries.

Originality/value

Through empirical research, the findings contribute to the theoretical development and managerial guidance on O&SCM–OMS collaboration and resilience capability by emphasising the strategic deployment of SM across functions through the lens of contingency theory and resource-based view.