Journal of Supply Chain Management最新文献

Social sustainability has emerged as a key determinant in supplier selection. However, firms may approach social sustainability in varying ways such as investments in employee welfare or philanthropy. Little is known about how supply chain managers consider these individual dimensions when making sourcing decisions. Therefore, this research decomposes social sustainability into dimensions of employee welfare and philanthropy to determine their effects on supplier selection. Vignette-based experiments in a transportation context test a priori hypotheses derived from signaling theory, and post hoc qualitative insights reveal deeper understanding. Results show buyers have significant preferences to select, trust, and collaborate with suppliers who have desirable levels of employee welfare, philanthropy, and pricing. However, these findings are tempered by differential effect sizes and suggest that the practical significance of hypothesized relationships vary. These findings help refine our understanding of social sustainability conceptualizations and evolving supplier selection criteria, as well as offer timely insights for suppliers, buyers, and policymakers amidst surging demand for social sustainability.

The literature has extensively discussed whether and how public organizations differ from private ones. Publicness theory argues that the degree of publicness is determined by ownership, funding, goal setting, and control structure of an organization. However, these theoretical ideas have not yet been extended to the interorganizational level. The need for further research is reflected in the sustained debate on the applicability of for-profit management approaches in public contexts and supply chains. Starting from the premise of the dimensional publicness theory, this study focuses on theory elaboration. We focus our empirical study on the criminal justice supply chain, which encompasses the process of bringing a criminal case to court. This chain provides an interesting public case to explore how specific dimensions of publicness affect or limit supply chain integration mechanisms. The results of our series of embedded cases focusing on Dutch criminal justice supply chains show that control structures, embodied in laws and regulations, define the governance of relationships between supply chain partners. In addition to these formalized ties, extensive known for-profit information and operational integration mechanisms can be observed, along with limited relational integration. Surprisingly, although similar integration mechanisms are used as in for-profit contexts, integration serves a different role in several of the relationships investigated: dealing with tensions stemming from the specific goal setting and stakeholders of criminal justice chains. Although our findings specifically relate to criminal justice supply chains, they have important implications for other supply chains using contracts and laws and those being selective in applying supply chain integration in cases of contrasting objectives. Moreover, we provide a stepping-stone for the extension of publicness theory to the interorganizational level.

While NGO–business relationships have much in common with buyer–supplier relationships, the literature specifically indicates several additional challenges in achieving effective and efficient NGO–business relationships. The present study seeks to understand how NGOs and businesses can overcome these additional challenges. From a practitioner’s viewpoint, we not only strive to acknowledge the complementarity of NGOs and businesses for implementing successful relationship practices but also seek to understand how these understudied cross-sector relationships can be successfully built. We use a multicase study design to investigate nine NGO–business relationships in a humanitarian context. This study contributes to the supply chain literature by demonstrating how social capital mitigates tensions within NGO–business relationships, that is, by indicating that social capital has not only a bonding, but also a bridging role when building cross-sectoral relationships. In summary, our analysis enabled us to present a more generic process framework for creating social capital within NGO–business relationships. It shows that trust within NGO–business relationships appears to develop more naturally compared to commercial relationships, but that these relationships require more effort in terms of structural and cognitive capital to ensure that partners communicate and share knowledge efficiently, as there are inherent differences in goals and communication languages between NGOs and businesses.

Reverse supply chain (RSC) operations have emerged as a critical component of overall supply chain management in manufacturing industries. Yet, relatively little is known about how companies define their approach to managing outsourced RSC operations and how outcomes vary across different approaches. This paper responds to numerous calls in the literature for research that delves deeply into the “how” and “when” (mechanisms and contexts) of RSC operations. Based on within- and cross-case analysis of four manufacturer–3PL dyads, this paper develops a framework and detailed middle-range theory that explains and predicts the way in which different approaches to managing outsourced RSC operations yield different results. By exploring the approach used in each dyad, this research offers managers a rich description of some of the ways that forward thinking on RSC operations can open the door to different potential benefits. The research also contributes to the development of a theory of outsourced RSC operations. Theoretical arguments combined with research propositions provide a wealth of opportunity for future researchers to engage in this topic area.

When faced with potential resource scarcities, purchasing managers have to make decisions regarding how to react to such scarcity threats. This can be challenging as there is often uncertainty surrounding the potential scarcity. Buyers’ mitigation decisions are impacted by their perceptions, which may lead to potentially ineffective mitigation responses. Resource dependence theory as well as supply chain literature emphasize the importance of collaborating with supply chain partners to secure access to scarce resources. However, behavioral research argues that the scarcity mindset causes individuals to behave more competitively, rather than collaboratively. This research examines the extent to which buyers’ perceptions of scarcity threats affect the decision to act altruistically towards the major supplier as well as to choose to collaborate with a major supplier in order to mitigate the scarcity. The research uses a scenario-based role-playing experiment with respondents serving as purchasing managers. The research demonstrates the complexity of resource scarcity management and illustrates that when faced with resource scarcity, buyers are actually less prone to collaborate with critical resource suppliers. This effect is robust, regardless of the level of relational capital present in the buyer–supplier relationship and regardless of individual factors, such as work experience and previous purchasing experience.

The interplay between informal and formal mechanisms has frequently been analyzed in the general management and supply chain management disciplines. The same is true for linkages between past and present events. However, the extant supply management literature largely conceptualizes formal cross-functional sourcing collaborations as free from influences emanating from prior encounters. This compartmentalization is in sharp contrast to sociology and social psychology research, which demonstrates that overlooking previous interactions limits our understanding of team dynamics. Boundary-spanning supply managers continually engage in formal and informal interactions with colleagues from other functions both before and during formal collaborations in sourcing teams. Our research focuses on the effects of informal exchanges that have taken place prior to the formal establishment of the sourcing team. We investigate how a colleague from another function reacts to a supply manager’s rejection of informal advice, and how the supply manager can mitigate the potential negative effects of this reaction on future formal sourcing collaborations. We use social exchange theory and impression management theory to derive hypotheses, a scenario-based experiment to test the hypotheses, and a sequential explanatory strategy based on interviews to delve more deeply into the experimental findings. The results suggest that previous informal advice-rejection reduces both an advisor’s willingness to provide formal advice to the advice-receiving supply manager in an ensuing cross-functional sourcing team and the expected cohesion of such a team, as compared to when the advice was heeded. We differentiate between five types of advisees’ mitigation strategies and find that the negative implications can be mitigated but that the degree of mitigation effectiveness partly depends on the advisor’s expertise level.

Scholars have called attention to the dark side of collaborative buyer–supplier relationships (BSRs). For instance, the loss of objectivity, relational inertia, and redundant knowledge bases emerging from too much collaboration may result in declining performance. We extend this line of research by investigating the feasibility of potential mitigating mechanisms. Drawing from the literature on governance in inter-organizational relationships and the interviews with practitioners that have experienced the dark side, we have identified three mechanisms: challenging goals, contractual explicitness, and expectation of continuity. We examine these mechanisms empirically through two consecutive studies. The first study collected data on 132 buying firms and 28 matched suppliers from two sources (survey and archival database). The results provide support for challenging goals and contractual explicitness but offer mixed results for expectation of continuity. The data also allow us to identify buyers suffering from excessive collaboration with their suppliers. In the second study, we gathered qualitative data on five pairs of such buyers and their matched suppliers. Different pairs show different behaviors. Some buyer and supplier firms seem unaware of their predicament, while others are grappling with fighting back the dark side. This qualitative study also offers additional manifestations of the dark side and mechanisms beyond the ones examined in our first study and explains why expectation of continuity received mixed results. This research advances the BSR literature by demonstrating that it is possible to mitigate the dysfunctionalities emerging from too much collaboration and by providing some evidence for its subtle manifestations. It also reveals the managerial complexity surrounding the dark side and provides future research directions for this important topic.

Conflict has received much attention in the supply chain management literature, as it appears to be an inevitable aspect of buyer–supplier relationships. While previous studies mainly focused on preventing or mitigating conflict, this study examines the micro-processes of buyer–supplier conflicts and the mechanisms that facilitate functional conflict processes. Specifically, we examine how a buyer’s conflict expression in the way disagreements are conveyed influences a supplier’s willingness to adapt its internal processes in favor of the buyer. By means of a multi-method, sequential research design, combining insights from a case study and a scenario-based experiment, we found that expressions of entrenchment by the buyer negatively affect supplier adaptation. In addition, a buyer that is direct, while at the same time expressing openness to the supplier’s position, is shown to positively influence supplier adaptation. We also demonstrate the mediating effects of the supplier’s emotions in these relationships. Our findings contribute to the supply chain literature by demonstrating the relevance of conflict expression in enabling adaptive processes. In addition, our insights into the interplay between different expression dimensions extend conflict expression theory.

The cannabis industry is a new quasi-legal industry. Growing, selling, and using cannabis are still illegal in most countries. However, 24 countries and 33 U.S. states have approved cannabis for medical use, and five countries and 11 U.S. states allow recreational use. This research focuses on value-added producers (VAPs), companies that process cannabis to manufacture ingestible, inhalable, or topical products. Due to public health concerns, the VAP tier of the cannabis supply chain faces stringent regulatory focus and turbulence. Using multiple case studies of VAPs in an emerging cannabis industry, this research investigates how these companies' primary supply chain decision-makers make and implement strategic decisions in an environment characterized by fast-changing regulations. While the public often perceives this new market as a way for new business owners to get rich quick, the results of this research paint a different picture. Neither significant corporate expertise and funding nor black-market cannabis experience are necessarily predictors of success. Incorporating the underpinnings of dynamic managerial capabilities, namely managerial cognitive capital, human capital, and social capital, this research investigates how VAP companies have managed their production and supply chains to ultimately thrive, survive, or fail. Human and cognitive capital is important, but social capital that reaches beyond the supply chain is a distinguishing feature of firms that thrive in this nonpredictive environment.

Using data collected from 277 buyers employed at large purchasing organizations (LPOs) in the U.S. and U.K., this study investigates factors that might influence their willingness to procure goods and services from ethnic minority businesses (EMBs). The social capital literature is used to develop hypotheses concerning the cognitive, structural, and relational dimensions that may play roles in decisions to buy from minority firms. Subsequently, modern discrimination theory is employed to provide inductive insights into how buyers' attitudes toward supplier diversity mediate the effects of social capital on their procurement activities with EMBs. The results of multiple regression analysis suggest that in both the U.S. and U.K., positive social capital as perceived by the buyers has a direct, significant relationship with their expenditures with EMBs. The results also reveal that in both countries, buyers' attitudes toward supplier diversity mediate the relationship. Interestingly, although the U.S. originated the concept of supplier diversity, our research uncovers that U.K. LPO buyers have greater expenditures with their EMBs. Based on these findings, this research illustrates how strategic corporate social responsibility initiatives set forth by LPOs may be impacted by their buyers' social relationships with EMBs and their attitudes toward supplier diversity.