Journal of Business Logistics最新文献

Much of the extant scholarship in supply chain management (SCM) has had a developed world focus, although most of the global population resides outside this area. SCM scholars are now recognizing this limitation in the coverage of our communities' research. They have recognized that the logistical challenges of getting products to these underserved markets at the bottom of the economic pyramid (BOP) may be fundamentally different from the “big box” mindset that prevails in the west. There is growing recognition that supply chain entrepreneurship is critical to the logistics and physical distribution systems that can get products to such markets in a cost-effective manner. Yet, such entrepreneurs, who are often small, and weakly integrated into the global economy, face several challenges in their daily business. Many of them rely on microfinance to fund their business. Yet, the microfinance model itself is changing into a web-supported crowdfunded model. The current study investigates how an entrepreneur's circumstances with regard to their borrowing status as a first-time borrower, and their intent with regard to business expansion influence their success in fundraising on a crowdfunding platform. Results reveal that BOP entrepreneurs who are “repeat borrowers” have difficulty in obtaining funding for their business plans.

A literature review chronicles conceptual and empirical achievements within a research stream. An excellent literature review accomplishes much more. Excellent literature reviews not only explain advances within a research stream (“summarize and synthesize”) but also provide a conceptual framework that captures the key elements of the research (“conceptualize”) and lay a foundation for future inquiry that can accelerate progress in advancing knowledge (“energize”). We accomplish two main tasks in this editorial. First, we offer details about what constitutes an excellent literature review. Second, we summarize the four literature reviews contained in this special topic forum and explain their excellent features.

This article reviews extant multidisciplinary literature to uncover existing themes and directions in the knowledge of the overlap between natural resource scarcity and illicit supply chain activity. In doing so, the authors present a novel review of this nascent, complex, and multidisciplinary research area. This review has uncovered 127 articles that have not been synthesized or organized in a meaningful way with the supply chain literature. It extracts insights and develops a comprehensive process framework encompassing the following: (a) antecedents associated with natural resource extraction, which foments the opportunity for illicit activity to thrive; (b) resulting economic, social, and environmental outcomes from illicit activity as it relates to natural resource extraction; and (c) potential moderating processes, which either enable or inhibit illicit activity to occur, including firm-level tactics that businesses can employ to counteract illicit activity throughout the supply chain and to promote sustainable long-term operations. An extensive agenda is presented suggesting future research paths, methodologies, theories, and potential contributions.

The old adage “it is not what you know, but who you know” suggests that in connection(s) lies the key(s) to success. But what does success mean, and for how long will it last? What does the choice of partner, and network connections say about the performance implications of contracting, particularly in the case of a public–private partnership? With countries such as the United States accounting for the world's largest buyer (of any and everything), several suppliers eagerly await their opportunity to contract with large government entities, but is it always a wise decision? Such questions remain largely unexplored and require answers. This research provides answers to these questions by integrating congruence, and network theory to investigate how government contracting impacts private suppliers' financial performance and how suppliers' supply chain network connections moderate this relationship. Results using panel data over several years suggest that while contracting with government bolsters' short-term financial performance (ROA), it negatively affects long-term supplier performance (Tobin's Q). In addition, the prominence of a firm's connections (i.e., who they know) and the composition of these connections enhances the performance gains, highlighting the critical role of a firm's network structure on their performance within the contracting relationship. We therefore find that the power of supply chain network connections enhances the short-term positive effects and mitigates the long-term adverse effects when contracting with government buyers, as the relationship is not always universally positive.

Rapidly growing interest in sustainability coupled with individuals, firms, and other organizations becoming more inclined to agitate for changes internally, and with outside organizations, has resulted in firms being pressured by various sources to change their sustainable supply chain management practices. In this literature review, we synthesize 93 published research articles spanning from 1997 to 2022. We identify and evaluate how pressure types (e.g., coercive, normative, and relational) are used by pressure sources (e.g., governments, suppliers, customers, and employees) to impact firm and sustainable supply chain practices (e.g., internal, upstream, and downstream). Our goal is twofold. First, we aim to guide potential sources as to which types of pressures are most effective in eliciting changes in firm and sustainable supply chain practices. Additionally, we provide insights into not only which relationships have and have not been adequately examined in extant research, but also what could be the next evolution of inquiry in this domain.

Uncertainty and risk abound in supply chains. One such form of risk existing in global supply chains comes from volatility associated with currency fluctuations—Foreign Exchange (FX) risk. Although the study and practice of using financial hedging instruments are well documented, there are also emerging supply chain strategies firms may adopt for mitigating FX risk. The purpose of this multi-method study is to investigate how supply chain professionals perceive and mitigate FX risk, as well as to measure how investing in supply chain flexibility strategies affect firm financial performance. Using a mixed-method approach based on qualitative case studies and simulation experiments using the lens of Real Option Theory, we are able to show how investments in supply chain flexibility strategies can mitigate FX risk in terms of cash flows and profits. Theoretical, methodological, and managerial implications are provided for better understanding FX risk in the emerging supply chain finance discipline.

The body of literature on truckload (TL) transportation procurement decisions by firms (shippers) and their transportation service providers (motor carriers) has been driven by real-world challenges faced by a large and important segment of the economy. The field has received the attention of researchers from a wide range of domains. While this attention demonstrates the appeal of these complex procurement problems, it also underscores a key challenge: the literature is dispersed and uncoordinated. This makes it difficult to identify meaningful new streams of research, risks slowing progress in the field, and limits the exposure of the research to wider supply chain audiences. With this review of the existing literature, we coordinate the growing set of research in this domain and demonstrate how the TL procurement literature is positioned within the broader streams of service procurement research. We develop a framework that describes the types (make vs. buy) and timing (strategic or execution stage) of decisions about the procurement of TL transportation services, organized by which actor's perspective is taken—the shipper's or the carrier's. We suggest areas of future research informed by an existing set of industry-led research and the gaps we have identified in the academic literature.

Extant research highlights how resilient organizations effectively cope with supply chain disruptions to enhance firm performance. Yet, it remains unclear how an organization's most basic resource—that is, its individual employees—facilitates such resilience. Through a qualitative study that includes 44 interviews across four manufacturing companies, we identify critical individual attributes and show how these attributes contribute to organizational resilience. Our findings advance a framework of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral attributes through which employees facilitate resilient outcomes. Our empirically driven model enriches theory about resilience within the supply chain management domain and elevates the importance of managerial approaches associated with human resource management activities, which affect organizations' repositories of the employee attributes that foster resilience.

This study investigates the drivers of product quality failures as manifested through recalls. More specifically, this research develops theory regarding supply chain and operations management (SCOM) representation in organizational top management teams (TMT) and this representation's association with the frequency of recalls, the type of recalls, and the severity of recalls. The moderating effect of both recent and historical organizational recall knowledge is also explored. This study uses unique data sets, collected from multiple sources, containing executives' backgrounds, firm characteristics, and product recalls. The study finds that firms with SCOM representation on their TMTs have fewer recalls overall and fewer severe recalls. We also find that firms with SCOM representation on the TMT are less likely to suffer from subsequent recalls after a history of recalling. Lastly, we discover interesting nuances with respect to the form of SCOM representation present on the TMT (CEO and functional executive).