Journal of Business Logistics最新文献

As the supply chain discipline matures, opportunities emerge to develop or define theories that are specific to supply chain phenomenon. The current research specifies characteristics that we offer which comprise the building blocks of supply chain theory. These characteristics include the flows of material through a supply chain network, the temporal management of these material flows, the dyadic and triadic interactions of firms within the supply chain network, and the outward focus on supply chain management (SCM), in other words a supply chain orientation, of firms in a supply chain. Further, recognizing that supply chain theories must contain the previously identified characteristics, we offer Factor Market Rivalry (FMR) as a theory of SCM. FMR refers to intense battles for resource positions that are needed to manufacture, provide, or deliver firm products or services. We argue that FMR only occurs within supply chain phenomena. The piece concludes with a future research agenda based upon the practical implications of further developing FMR as a theory of SCM.

Supply chain inventory management decisions are complicated by the presence of both downstream (demand) and upstream (supply) uncertainties. Prior research shows that each type of uncertainty leads to specific decision biases. Demand uncertainty induces a pull-to-center bias, wherein orders are drawn away from the optimal ordering decision in the direction of expected demand. Supply uncertainty elicits a diversification bias, wherein inventory managers tend to source from multiple suppliers, even when sole sourcing is optimal. Our research employs a controlled laboratory experiment to study these biases when both types of uncertainty—that is, supply and demand uncertainty—are present. Our results show that the presence of both supply and demand uncertainty has a more nuanced effect on decision biases than does either type of uncertainty alone. Demand uncertainty can elicit and influence the diversification bias, even in the absence of supply uncertainty. Moreover, supply uncertainty affects the magnitude of the pull-to-center bias. Our work reveals the need for further attention from supply chain academics and managers on how supply and demand uncertainty jointly affect inventory managers’ decisions.

Companies are recently facing increasing supply chain disruptions that may influence their supply base design choices. However, studies investigating how these choices affect the effectiveness of other supplier management practices, such as supplier integration, are scarce. The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of various types of supplier integration on the buyer's efficiency and innovation, as well as the contingency effects of supply base concentration, an important supply base design choice. Drawing upon Social Exchange Theory, we argue that the expected benefits of supplier integration activities to efficiency and innovation are strengthened by supply base concentration. We test our hypotheses using data collected from 324 manufacturing plants. Hierarchical regression results reveal that some supplier integration types improve performance only under higher levels of supply base concentration, while the effects of other supplier integration types vary according to the type of performance considered or are not significant at all. In addition, the results suggest that developing technologies to share information with suppliers may be counterproductive in driving efficiency. Besides enriching the supplier integration literature, this research offers guidance for managers who wish to improve efficiency and innovation, while also considering the pros and cons of supply base concentration.

Recent advances in supply chain research point to the vital but often overlooked role of financial institutions, such as banks and financial markets, in the execution of supply chain activities. We extend this incipient research stream by drawing on information economics and Penrose's resource-based view of the firm to theorize about how financial markets act as a source of information and influence exchange activities in the agricultural commodity supply chain. We test our hypotheses in the U.S. agricultural commodities context, specifically the U.S. rice industry, using a novel data set that combines financial market data with proprietary data on exchanges between farmers and customers. Time series econometric analyses reveal that information from financial markets influences exchanges between farmers and customers, but it has asymmetric effects depending on exchange dynamics and local market conditions. Overall, our analyses support our hypotheses and advance supply chain research by building theory about market-based exchange dynamics and by broadening the scope of mechanisms through which financial institutions impact exchange activities. For practice, we offer quantitative insights that can be leveraged by farmers and purchasing managers. For policymakers, we offer timely guidance related to the provision of information and the ‘real’ implications of financial markets.

The recently introduced concept of supply chain entrepreneurial embeddedness (SCEE) refers to the extent to which large firms integrate entrepreneurial capabilities into their supply chains. Achieving a higher degree of SCEE can involve assimilating entrepreneurial practices by copying entrepreneurial firms’ behavior, allying with entrepreneurial firms to gain access to and learn from them, and acquiring entrepreneurial firms to bring their practices inside the firm. Because SCEE appears to be a pathway to enhanced firm performance, enhancing SCEE should be attractive. However, our thesis is that efforts to do so may be undermined by cognitive biases—heuristics used by the human mind to simplify complex situations that result in distorted thinking. We explore the possible problems arising due to 11 cognitive biases discussed by Schwenk (Strategic Management Journal, 1984, 5(2), 111). We offer two brief case examples of companies that are seeking to make their supply chains more entrepreneurial; each illustrates several of the biases in action. We also consider whether supply chain complexity and entrepreneurial orientation can mitigate or strengthen cognitive biases’ harmful effects on SCEE. In doing so, we construct an important interface across entrepreneurship and supply chain management.

The increasing complexity of today's omnichannels has led to challenges with logistics efficiency and customer utility. In this paper, we show how retailers address these challenges by sorting goods at multiple points across the logistics network and inside each material-handling node. As contemporary research on the omnichannel sorting phenomenon is limited and fragmented, we conduct an abductive multiple case study to elaborate omnichannel logistics and transvection theory. It explains why retailers, depending on their omnichannel context, prepone some sorting activities upstream and postpone others to handle trade-offs between customer utility and logistics efficiency. An artifact, including structured terminology, six sorting aspects, and an iconographic platform, is constructed to support the analysis of the extent, variety, and complexity of sorting at both the strategic network level and the operational material-handling node level. We conclude by submitting 10 theoretical and actionable design propositions that support decision making in (re)designing omnichannel logistics networks and offer avenues for future research.

This study explores the level of relevance of logistics and supply chain management research and probes underlying motives prompting scholars to value and pursue managerial (vs. purely academic) contributions. At its core, the concerns over rigor and relevance of higher education comprise a crisis of trust and credibility that appeared decades ago and continues to provoke concern from the field's thought leaders. While exploratory in nature, the results suggest both practitioners and academics agree at differing levels that logistics and supply chain management research is relevant, but pressure to chase indices and rankings has influenced behavior of academics. Consequently, the academic peer-reviewed process no longer seems to focus on managerial implications. The article begins with theories pertinent to human motivation, namely, self-determination theory (SDT), and employs qualitative interviews of academics to help develop surveys of both academics and logistics and supply chain management practitioners. It then presents the methodologies of quantitative data collection and analysis—combined with interviews of deans and editors—to explore the research questions to offer discussion, implications, future research directions, and conclusions.