Search results

The paper aims to explore the optimal strategies of inventory financing when the risk-averse retailer has different objectives, in the presence of multi-risk, i.e. demand risk, non-operational risk and retailer's strategic default risk.

This paper develops an inventory financing model consisting of a bank and a risk-averse retailer with strategic default. This paper considers two scenarios, i.e. the capital-constrained retailer cares about its profit or firm value. In the first scenario, the bank acts as a Stackelberg leader determining its interest rate, and the retailer acts as a follower determining its pledged quantity. In the second one, the bank capital market is perfectly competitive. Lagrange multiplier method is adopted to solve the optimization.

The optimal strategies in inventory financing scheme in two scenarios are derived. Only when the initial stock is relatively high, the retailer pledges part of the initial stock. Retailer's risk aversion reduces its pledged quantity and performance. The strategic default reduces its profit. When it is relatively high, the bank refuses to offer the loan.

Analytical inventory and financing strategies are specified to help retailers and banks to better understand the interaction of finance and operations management and to better respond to multi-risk.

New results and managerial insights are derived by incorporating partially endogenous strategic default and risk aversion into inventory financing, which enriches the interfaces of operations management and finance.

This study aims to examine the relationships between power, relationship commitment and customer integration by replicating and extending Zhao et al. (2008) in China and the USA.

This study collects data from 210 manufacturers in China and 202 manufacturers in the USA. In this study, structural equation modelling is used to analyse the data.

This study finds that normative relationship commitment is positively associated with customer integration and expert and referent power are positively associated with normative relationship commitment in China and the USA. Reward and coercive power are positively associated with instrumental relationship commitment in China, whereas referent power is negatively associated. Referent, legal legitimate and reward power are positively associated with instrumental relationship commitment in the USA, whereas expert and legitimate power are negatively associated.

This study provides empirical evidence on the distinct impacts of different bases of mediated and non-mediated power in China and the USA, contributing to the development of the power-relationship commitment theory. The findings also provide insights into where and when the theory applies. The results can provide guidelines for managers to adjust the use of power to improve relationship commitment and customer integration in China and the USA.

In the field of innovation, there is growing interest in exploring the factors that determine the extent to which firms can learn from external sources. However, most previous studies neglect the role of human factors. Little is known about which employee behaviors are desirable for boundary-spanning learning activities and which human resource management (HRM) practices are appropriate to respond to external knowledge transfer across boundaries. To fill this gap, the authors investigate the role of empowerment-focused HRM in interfirm learning and explore the integration of external inputs from the perspective of employees.

Based on empirical survey data collected from different countries, the authors test the proposed model with structural equation modeling.

The authors’ findings indicate that empowerment-focused HRM practices, including job enrichment, job autonomy, teamwork and cross-functional communication, are positively associated with relationship learning.

In this study, the authors present a theoretical explanation for how empowerment-focused HRM may influence firm's innovation through relationship learning process and provide empirical evidence regarding the specific HRM practices that can have different effects on the different phases of relationship learning.

Based on the resource-based view and organizational capability theory, we examine the effect of information technology (IT) on company performance through supply chain integration (SCI) from the upstream and downstream perspective of the whole supply chain.

Based on data collected from 296 cross-border e-commerce (CBE) companies in China, we used structural equation modeling with LISREL to test the conceptual model.

The results show that supplier and customer IT significantly promote supplier and customer system and process integration. Supplier system and process integration enhance operational performance. Meanwhile, IT indirectly affects financial performance through operational performance. Customer system integration has positive effects on operational and financial performance, with an indirect effect on financial performance through operational performance. However, customer process integration only improves financial performance.

We only use cross-sectional data from Zhejiang province of China to investigate relationships of related constructs. Future studies can also use longitudinal data in combination with secondary data from other provinces, regions and countries.

The results provide important managerial insights for CBE companies to sustain their competitive advantages by improving their performances through IT and SCI practices throughout the upstream and downstream data-driven supply chain.

This study contributes to the IT and SCI literature by exploring the effectiveness of IT in improving SCI and company performance from the upstream and downstream perspective and the perspective of IT.

This study aims to investigate the impacts of product modularity (PM) and multiskilled employees (MEs) on new product development (NPD) outcomes and explore the moderating effect of supply chain involvement.

The authors used data collected from 317 manufacturers to empirically examine the conceptual model and conducted hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

The results reveal that PM significantly improves NPD outcomes. The relationship between PM/MEs and NPD outcomes is strengthened when the level of supplier involvement is high, whereas the relationship between MEs and NPD outcomes is weakened when the level of customer involvement is high.

First, this study only focuses on PM and MEs as two types of modular designs. Second, the inter-relationship between modular designs and supply chain involvement might be contingent. Third, the authors use cross-sectional data that cannot reflect causal effects of modularity on NPD outcomes.

The findings contribute to the understanding of the alignment between modular designs and supply chain involvement considering NPD outcomes. This study also contributes to the concept of modularity by identifying MEs as a type of modular design.

Following resource-based view, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of three intra-organizational structural elements on supply chain integration (SCI).

Based on data collected from ten countries, this study employs the structural equation modeling method to test the proposed model.

The results demonstrate that teamwork culture is positively related to three dimensions of SCI. Organizational commitment has positive effects on internal and customer integration (CI), whereas it has no significant effect on supplier integration (SI). Human goodness is only positively related to internal integration, but has no significant effect on SI or CI.

This study contributes to both structural elements literature and SCI enabler literature by operationalizing three human-related components of structural elements and empirically investigating relationships between intra-organizational structural elements and SCI.

Power is central to inter-organizational relationships. The literature distinguishes between structural power (i.e. dependence) and behavioral power (i.e. use of power), yet few studies considered them simultaneously. Opportunism is generally linked to use of power, but it remains unclear whether use of power deters or invites opportunism. In this study, the authors treat dependence as a driver of use of power and opportunism as its outcome, and empirically test relationships among dependence, power, and opportunism from both buyer and supplier perspectives. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study examines how buyer and supplier dependence influence the other’s and their own use of coercive and non-coercive power, which lead to opportunism of two parties, based on data from 240 companies in China on their perceived relationships with major suppliers.

Results show that buyer/supplier dependence is positively related to supplier’s/buyer’s use of coercive and non-coercive power. Buyer’s and supplier’s use of coercive power also positively influences their opportunism. Buyer’s use of non-coercive power is negatively related to both partners’ opportunism, whereas supplier’s use of non-coercive power is not significantly related to either partner’s opportunism.

This study contributes to literature in two ways. First, the authors distinguish the structural aspect of power from its behavioral aspect and demonstrate that dependence, which represents structural power, generates different patterns of influence on use of coercive and non-coercive power when considered from buyer’s and supplier’s perspectives. Second, the authors reexamine relationships between use of power and opportunism and show that buyers and suppliers react differently to use of different types of power.

Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), this study aims to investigate the impact of social capital, namely, structural (information sharing), cognitive (shared value) and relational (relationship commitment) capital in the supplier and the customer side on supply chain performance in a longitudinal design. It further aims to examine the moderating effect of change in competition intensity.

Based on two-wave data collected from 203 manufacturers in China, this study uses the ordinary least square and first-difference regression methods to test the proposed relationships.

The results show the effect of social capital on supply chain performance and the dynamic nature of supply chain social capital. The causal analysis further reveals the significance of supplier-side structural and relational capital in improving supply chain performance. Moreover, competitive intensity plays an important moderating role.

This study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is one of the first to demonstrate the longitudinal effect of supply chain social capital on supply chain performance.

An agile supply chain (SC) is critical in achieving competitive advantages in the vulnerable environment. Based on the competence–capability–performance paradigm, this study aims to investigate how information technology (IT) usage and employee multi-skilling influence internal, supplier and customer agility that are the three dimensions of SC agility. It further explores relationships between SC agility dimensions and SC performance.

This study used a survey method to collect primary data and sampled 216 Chinese manufacturing firms in different industries. Construct validity and reliability were confirmed. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.

The findings indicate that internal agility is the baseline of SC agility, which improves supplier and customer agility. IT usage is more important than employee multi-skilling in facilitating SC agility. The former improves all three dimensions, whereas the latter only improves internal agility. Both internal and supplier agility can improve SC performance, whereas customer agility has no significant effect.

This study contributes to the SC agility literature in two folds. On the one hand, based on the dynamic capability perspective, this research clarifies three dimensions of SC agility and their interrelationships. On the other hand, integrating competence–capability–performance paradigm with information processing view, this research investigates the antecedent and outcome of SC agility. In addition, to date, this is one of the first studies to simultaneously examine the effect of two critical competencies, namely, IT usage and employee multi-skilling on SC agility.

Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that uses cryptography to ensure transmission and access security, which provides solutions to numerous challenges to complex supply networks. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the impact of blockchain implementation on shareholder value varying from internal and external complexity from the complex adaptive systems (CASs) perspective. It further explores how business diversification, supply chain (SC) concentration and environmental complexity affect the relationship between blockchain implementation and shareholder value.

Based on 138 blockchain implementation announcements of listed companies on the Chinese A-share stock market, the authors use event study methodology to evaluate the impact of blockchain implementation on shareholder value.

The results show that blockchain implementation has a positive impact on shareholder value, and this impact will be moderated by business diversification, SC concentration and environmental complexity. In addition, environmental complexity exerts a moderating effect on SC concentration. In the post hoc analysis, the authors further explore the impact of blockchain implementation on long-term operational performance.

This is the first research empirically examining the effect of blockchain implementation on shareholder value varying from internal and external complexity from the CASs perspective. This paper provides evidence of the different effects of blockchain implementation on short- and long-term performance. It adds to the interdisciplinary research of information systems (IS) and operations management (OM).