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This study explores the potential of paradox theory as a novel theoretical lens to investigate persistent and interdependent tensions in supply chains. It is based on a critical literature review focusing on paradoxes observed within complex supply chains in dynamic business environments, including the articles selected for this special issue, “Environmental Dynamism and Supply Chain Complexity: Managing the Paradoxes.”

This study introduces the key concepts and themes of the paradox theory literature and possible methodological approaches to studying paradoxes in supply chains. Through a literature review, this study also reflects on the current state of paradox research in the field of operations and supply chain management (OSCM) and proposes future research questions.

The application of paradox theory to OSCM research is in its early stages. This paper presents opportunities to explore persistent and interdependent tensions in supply chains using paradox theory.

The paper suggests several new research questions that should be translated into more precise propositions. The main implication for research is a call to focus attention on how and why a paradox perspective can help supply chain researchers view complex supply chain problems with fresh eyes.

The study provides the first critical review of paradoxical tensions in OSCM research. While the papers in this special issue contribute significantly to a better understanding of these issues, there is still significant potential for understanding how to respond to paradoxes in supply chains.

Catastrophic supply chain disruptions can significantly damage the operational and financial performance of firms. While a growing body of literature on supply network structures has studied what influences supply networks' vulnerability to supply chain disruptions and capability to recover from them, it remains unclear how supply network structures change after major supply chain disruptions. We aim to provide an understanding of how these changes occur.

Using a natural experiment approach and supply network data from Factset, this study investigates how firms' supply network structures change after experiencing the catastrophic supply chain disruptions caused by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We capture post-earthquake supply network changes using the measures of degree centrality and ego network density.

The results of the analysis suggest that compared to unaffected firms, the affected firms experience changes in their supply network structures tending toward lower complexity measured by in-degree centrality, out-degree centrality and ego network density.

This study contributes to social network theory and the complex adaptive supply network literature by providing empirical evidence of structural changes in supply networks after catastrophic supply chain disruptions. A managerial contribution is made by providing a reflection on why these changes might be occurring and alert firms to the challenges of managing complexity in their supply networks.

The importance of the supply network to firm performance is well documented. Until now, the firm and its suppliers have been conceptualized as single entities. Yet, multinational corporations (MNCs) are composed of a complex, geographically dispersed internal network of subsidiaries. The supply and internal networks are inherently linked. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the interaction of these networks on firm-level financial performance.

Building on supply network, internal network and dual embeddedness research, the authors investigate the interaction of these networks using supply network data from FactSet and internal network data from Orbis. We assess the impact at the MNC level, using measures of firm-level financial performance, physical proximity between the two networks and geographic dispersion of the internal network.

The results show that the performance effect of physical proximity of the firm with its supply network is negatively moderated by the geographic dispersion of the firm's internal network. This effect can be traced back to the diminishing marginal profitability of a firm's assets. Moreover, the benefits of dual embeddedness to the individual subsidiary come at a cost at the firm-level due to the operational challenges of managing a complex subsidiary network.

This study is the first to investigate the supply and internal networks of MNCs simultaneously.

The paper extends supply network literature by considering the internal network of the focal firm and its suppliers. This paper is one of the first studies that offer an understanding of the interaction between supply and internal networks of a focal firm and the effect on financial performance.

The complexity of supplier-partner networks in the information technology (IT) sector where large suppliers utilize thousands of authorized partners requires that organizations reconsider their approach to governing and managing the relationships involved. Traditional dyadic approaches to governance are likely to prove inadequate. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between network governance mechanisms and relationship performance. Specifically, the authors examine the contingent effect of certification of partners and the use of partner communities (as formal and informal mechanisms of network governance, respectively), on complex and embedded networks of relationships.

A model examining the effect of formal and informal network governance on the relationship between embeddedness (structural and relational) and relationship performance is developed. Data were collected from a sample of partners of leading IT suppliers in the UK and Ireland. Three-way interactions assess the contingent effect of certification and partner communities on the relationship between embeddedness and relational performance.

Results support the use of a combination of certification and partner communities to strengthen the link between network structure (structural embeddedness) and relational embeddedness, as well as relationship performance. Certification requires the sharing of explicit knowledge with partners whereas partner communities aid the creation and dissemination of more tacit, contextual knowledge. Furthermore, partner communities reinforce positive perceptions of fairness in suppliers’ network management practices, overcoming any perceptions of lock-in or coercive control that certification may suggest.

Certification, despite all its procedural and reputational benefits, damages partner relationships and needs to be supported by partner communities, which themselves show particularly strong benefits in enhancing network relationships.

Despite the emerging prevalence of certification and partner communities in business-to-business relationships, to date there is a paucity of research on their effects on partner relationships and performance. Organizations with an extensive network of similar partners may suffer network overload. This research shows that such organizations can manage their partner network more effectively through network governance mechanisms, thereby addressing the challenge of overload.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships among strategic sourcing, e-procurement and firm performance, along with the moderating effects of business characteristics and environmental factors on these relationships.

This empirical investigation relies on structured survey responses from 137 managers of US manufacturing firms. The partial least squares-based structural equation modeling approach is used for data analysis.

The research results confirm that both strategic sourcing and e-procurement have a positive effect on firm performance. In addition, e-procurement is also found to have a positive impact on strategic sourcing. In addition, the research results suggest that business characteristics and the environment, especially the degree of competition, market turbulence, firm size and stage in product life cycle moderate these relationships significantly. The positive effects of strategic sourcing and e-procurement on firm performance are particularly enhanced under the right conditions.

This research is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to provide insights into the joint effects of strategic sourcing and e-procurement, and how business characteristics and the environment affect their roles on firm performance. In addition, firm performance is evaluated as a multi-dimensional construct involving financial, operational and supply chain aspects, with the measurements consisting of several second-order constructs. The study makes both theoretical and practical contributions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate two potentially key drivers of a firm's supply chain agility, namely strategic sourcing and firm's strategic flexibility. Despite some theoretical and conceptual works suggesting that some elements of these two constructs may relate to agility, this has not yet been assessed together empirically. This study aims to address this gap in the literature.

This study involves an empirical investigation of a theory‐based model based on the competence‐capability framework, and a dynamic capabilities theoretical perspective, where the internal competencies of strategic sourcing and firm's strategic flexibility relate to the dynamic capability of the firm's supply chain agility. This investigation also includes the testing of a possible mediation effect of firm's strategic flexibility on the relationship between strategic sourcing and the firm's supply chain agility. The model is tested utilizing data from 144 US manufacturing firms via partial least square methodology.

The results of the empirical study indicated that both strategic sourcing and firm's strategic flexibility were significantly related to the firm's supply chain agility. In addition, while a full mediation effect was not found on the part of strategic flexibility, there was evidence for partial mediation.

Given that the data are from specific US industries, the generalizability of current findings to other industries or countries may require additional investigation.

Given the attention paid to agility in terms of its importance to responding to business uncertainty, and more recently, as an important capability in managing supply chain disruption risks, this paper investigates how strategic sourcing and flexibility can contribute to agility.