Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management最新文献

This paper explores the implications of what happens when a buying firm's desired and realized levels of collaboration differ in the context of an integrated new product development (NPD) project. Using analysis of six case studies, we observe varying levels of such collaboration expectation gaps (CEG) and conclude that these gaps can impact NPD project performance. In addition, collaboration transparency is established when a firm and its partner firm comprehend the factors (benefits, risks, costs) that motivate collaboration between them. We observe that the presence of collaboration transparency impacts the emergence of CEG across the phases of an NPD project. These findings extend existing theory on buyer-supplier relationships in NPD projects and introduce CEG and collaboration transparency as important concepts in understanding improved collaboration performance.

Research points to sustainable supply chain management as a core strategic goal for most global firms. However, managers continue to struggle with implementing successful sustainability initiatives both internally and throughout their globally dispersed supply chains. Using grounded theory, our findings uncover a potential explanation for how firms manage sustainability initiatives in the context of global supply chain management, from a buyer's perspective. Institutional theory of the firm is applied to help explain the challenges of developing and implementing global supply chain sustainability-related initiatives within buyer-supplier relationships. Analysis of the data from qualitative interviews show that institutional distance is an influential factor that produces mixed effects on the global buyer-supplier relationships in our sample in the context of buyer and supplier strategic orientation toward sustainability. The findings can help guide managers when approaching sustainability-related initiatives in the context of global supply chains. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed as well as areas for future research.

Procurement has faced major challenges due to the collapse of global supply chains in the course of the SARS-COV2 pandemic, and non-critical items have become critical bottlenecks. Additive manufacturing (AM) is an emerging technology that serves as a local supply source and can mitigate some of these bottlenecks. For example, it was possible to source medical spare parts and protective equipment via AM, even when the globally arranged traditional (formative or subtractive manufacturing) supply sources failed. To that end, this research examines how supply risks change when sourced via an AM supply source rather than through supply sources that use traditional manufacturing (TM). This study assesses supply risk using a Delphi study from July to October 2020. The findings were further explored using discriminant analysis. A mix of TM supply sources with AM (‘hedging’) can minimise the overall supply risks. The discussion conceptualises a portfolio model to determine whether to source demands via TM, AM, or by hedging. The implications of hedged manufacturing are linked to the modern portfolio theory.

The paradigm of circular economy and the transfer of its principles to supply chain management has recently received much attention from researchers and practitioners. Limited natural resources, governmental legislation, and social responsibility for environmental preservation are the main factors for the development of circular supply chains. Especially in the automotive industry, critical materials are used to produce electric vehicles, reinforcing the importance of circularity for the industry. As the first stage of the supply chain, suppliers have a considerable influence on creating self-sufficient production systems, and in the automotive sector, a low level of vertical integration is important. Therefore, selecting suppliers is an enabler for circular supply chains, but this decision is a complex process due to multiple, partly conflicting criteria. To contribute to the knowledge in this research area, this study applies a fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory approach for supplier selection in a circular supply chain in a case study of electric vehicles. First, a set of criteria for supplier selection in circular supply chains was identified based on a literature review and was systematically categorized based on the natural resource-based view. Afterward, the criteria were assessed and refined by experts with a strong procurement background in the automotive industry. Second, the experts were interviewed for value collection, and finally, the mutual influence of the criteria was determined. The results show that the most important criteria for circular supplier selection in electric vehicle supply chains are environmental standards, environmental-related certifications, resource consumption, and waste generation. Regarding the natural resource-based view, short-term focused criteria addressing the capability of pollution prevention have a higher importance compared to long-term criteria that drive sustainable development. In addition, this study classifies the criteria into the categories of causes and effects, discusses the prominence of the criteria, and presents a strategic map showing the mutual influences of the criteria. The results contribute to the theoretical and practical discussion on circular supply chains by identifying the key criteria for circular supplier selection and providing decision-making support for procurement managers.

Power is a central element and salient research topic within supply chain management, and it is also regarded as a key attribute influencing innovation in the supply chain. However, there are still disputes about the consequences of power and whether it should be used. Given this, we examine the relationship between power and innovation, and attempt to explore how to use power to improve innovation performance. In order to better understand power and its influence, we distinguish between possessed and realized power. Using the panel data collected in the Chinese high-technology companies (2014–2018) and controlling for contingencies, we found that there are positive relationships between possessed power and exploitation, exploration, especially the collaborative innovation of them, and these relationships are negatively moderated by financial slack. Surprisingly, we find inverted U-shaped relationships between realized power and exploitative, explorative and collaborative innovation. That is, the excessive use of power begins to show diminishing innovation returns. These findings offer new insights into power and its use in supply chain relationships by distinguishing possessed and realized power, and enrich the literature on supply chain management and innovation.

Extant agency theory addresses dyads consisting of a principal and an agent. It informs us about how to overcome agency problems in the buyer-supplier relationship. In this conceptual paper, we propose a theoretical argument that if we expand the boundary conditions from dyads to triads, we find new solutions to dealing with agency problems. To the buyer-supplier dyad, we add the supplier’s supplier, the buyer’s other supplier, the supplier’s other customer, and the buyer’s customer. As such, we consider four types of triads in supply chains and propose that the buyer as the principal could reframe agency problems with the focal supplier by moving to one of these triads. In particular, we investigate alternative mechanisms that may reduce the level of goal incongruence, information asymmetry, and power asymmetry in the buyer-supplier relationship. Our conceptualization suggests that supply managers should look outside the buyer-supplier dyad for additional opportunities to resolve agency problems.

Purchasing and supply management (PSM) has faced unprecedented disruption over the past two years due to COVID-19 pandemic, input shortages, extended supplier lead times, record international transportation costs, and commodity price increases. Studying such phenomena is often best completed using archival data, such as data from government agencies or international organizations. This manuscript emphasizes how leveraging archival data often necessitates an iterative research process whereby researchers must first familiarize themselves with the data to ensure their scientific hypotheses can be appropriately tested. We further provide recommendations regarding how researchers should formulate generalized linear models (GLMs) to test theoretical predictions. Our approach emphasizes mapping scientific hypotheses to statistical hypotheses, as opposed to centering on issues of omitted variable bias (OVB). An illustrative example is provided where Census Bureau trade data are compiled to test whether the insurance and freight costs for waterborne containerized imports from Asian nations that enter through West Coast ports have risen more than the same products imported through East Coast ports. The research suggests the need to reorient how GLMs are formulated to better ensure researchers structure them to appropriately test their theory, in contrast to the current zeitgeist that overly emphasizes OVB.

A variety of contract typologies that exist in the literature are helpful in the exploration of different approaches in contractual relations, but only when measured with the right instruments. Although Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) has a distinct, high-level, and abstract typology for contracts, it still lacks a measurement scale. In this paper, a measurement scale for the TCE contract typology (classical, neo-classical, and relational contracts) was developed and validated, using systems thinking approach and experimental design to contribute to the empirical tests of TCE within the contracting realm. First, the antecedents of contract selection within the TCE literature were analyzed using the systemigram technique to visualize and parse out complex relationships that lead to contract selection. The analysis of the TCE Systemigram helped the development of the scale and revealed the need to revisit the risk neutrality assumption embedded in TCE. Second, a measurement scale for the TCE contract typology (classical, neo-classical, and relational contracts) was developed adhering to the original texts of seminal papers and reviews from the TCE literature. Third, the 14-item measurement scale was validated using a series of three vignette-based experimental studies.

Key message

This research explores the antecedents of the TCE contract typology and develops a measurement scale for essential characteristics of classical, neo-classical, and relational contracts, as defined in TCE, using systems thinking approach and a novel vignette-based experimental design.

Reshoring has gained a lot of attention recently by academics and practitioners alike, and is promising to become even more relevant in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on earlier research on the effects of reshoring announcements on the short-term market value of the firm, this work employs an event-study methodology and aims to understand under which circumstances the market perceives reshoring as potentially more (or less) value-creating. The analysis of a sample of 64 reshoring instances from 2005 to 2019, announced by 54 firms from eight developed economies, suggests that investors are more confident in the firm's future cash-flow potential when: a) it invests in productive activities at home, instead of overseas, i.e. ‘kept-from-offshoring’ (as opposed to actual relocations of activities, i.e. ‘back-reshoring’); b) the reshoring instance is communicated as a ‘plan’ (rather than a fixed ‘decision’); c) no state- or government-induced financial incentives are involved; d) the motivations are primarily ‘cost-efficiency seeking’ (rather than ‘customer perceived value seeking’).