Search results

This study examines the role of financial service providers (FSPs) in assessing the supply chain credit of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and how they help SMEs obtain supply chain finance (SCF) through an established digital platform using big data analytics (BDA).

This study conducted data mining analysis on the archival data of China's FSPs in the mobile production industry from 2015 to 2018, using neural networks in the first stage and multiple regression in the second stage.

The findings suggest that digital platforms sponsored by FSPs have a discriminative effect based on implicit BDA on identifying the quality and potential risks of borrowers. The results also show that tailored information utilised by FSPs has a supportive effect based on explicit BDA in helping SMEs obtain financing.

This study contributes to the emergent research on BDA in supply chain management by extending the contextual research on information signalling and platform theory in SCF. Furthermore, it examines the distinctive financing decision models of FSPs and provides a solution that addresses the information deficiency and overload of both lenders and borrowers and plays a certain reference role in alleviating the financing problems of SMEs.

Although the circular economy is widely regarded as an essential strategy for firms, the present understanding of the drivers and outcomes of circular economy implementation is underdeveloped. In this paper, the authors draw on the natural resource-based view and information processing theory to explore how an environmental orientation and digital supply chain platforms promote circular economy implementation, and increase the impact of circular economy implementation on financial performance.

The authors surveyed 249 Chinese firms and used hierarchical regression analysis to test hypotheses.

The empirical results reveal that three primary modes of circular economy implementation—reinvent and rethink (INV), restore, reduce and avoid (RRA), and recirculate (REC)—are all driven by environmental orientation and digital supply chain platforms. More interestingly, digital supply chain platforms have an inverted U-shaped moderating effect on the relationships between environmental orientation and INV and between environmental orientation and RRA. Most importantly, INV and RRA are positively related to financial performance, whereas REC does not have a significant relationship with financial performance.

The authors contribute to the literature on the circular economy by revealing new drivers and outcomes of different modes of its implementation. Additionally, the findings have implications for how firms should frame their circular economy initiatives in the context of the digital revolution.

The study examines the impact of digital platforms and supply chain capability on operational performance and tests the mediation effect of supply chain capability. Further, the purpose is to examine the moderating effect of digital culture and sharpen our knowledge of how organizational culture as a contextual factor affects the firm's digitalization.

The data were harvested from 194 Finnish manufacturing companies, and structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.

The findings show that digital platforms positively and significantly affect supply chain capability. Moreover, supply chain capability mediates the relation between digital platforms and operational performance. Further, this study confirms that digital culture is a contextual factor that explains the differences in the effects of digital platforms on firm performance.

This study is one of the first attempts to examine the effect of digital culture in the context of digital platforms, supply chain capabilities, and operational performance.

This study empirically investigates how ambidextrous innovations and their balancing affect the supply chain financing performance (SCFP) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), based on signaling theory. Moreover, this study explores the moderating effect of the breadth and depth of digital technology deployment on the relationship between ambidextrous innovations and the SCFP of SMEs.

A mixed-methods design is used, including a qualitative study and a quantitative study. Qualitative data have been collected from six multi-cases in different industries. Questionnaire data have been collected from 259 SMEs in China, and a multiple regression model is used to verify the research hypotheses.

The findings indicate that, in supply chain financing, both exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation are helpful in improving the SCFP of SMEs. For resource-constrained SMEs, a relative balance between exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation can help improve SCFP. The breadth of digital technology deployment can strengthen the relationship between exploitative innovation and SCFP, while the depth of digital technology deployment can weaken the relationship between exploratory innovation and SCFP. In addition, increasing the depth of digital technology deployment strengthens the positive correlation between the relative balance of ambidextrous innovations and SCFP.

To effectively obtain supply chain financing, SMEs can either concentrate their limited resources on a single type of innovation or use relative balance strategies to simultaneously pursue two innovations. In addition, in the process of obtaining supply chain financing by ambidextrous innovations, SMEs should appropriately deploy digital technologies.

This study first deconstructs the impact mechanism of ambidextrous innovation capabilities on SCFP based on signaling theory, and then discusses the balancing effect of ambidextrous innovations on SCFP in the cases of resource-constrained SMEs. This study also goes further and finds the negative moderating effect of digital technology deployment in the process of supply chain financing.

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize a manufacturing value network for digital multinationals that combines the global reach of multinationals, the power of platform business models and digitalization. Toward this, the authors assess the critical roles platform ecosystems, and Industry 4.0 play in resolving the key challenges associated with asset specificity, location specificity and information asymmetry, inherent in the conventional business models of manufacturing multinationals.

The authors take an exploratory approach in reviewing industry literature and analyzing implementations of digital technologies in manufacturing and supply chain processes at four large manufacturing multinationals from diverse industry sectors, from electronics to packaged food production. The authors also identify how value-creation activities are relocated, and how players collaborate to create and capture value. Consequently, the authors abstract a framework for global value network of manufacturing multinationals.

With changing definitions of industry, competition and organizations, the authors’ framework for manufacturing value network establishes the ways digitalization can be integrated in the global businesses of manufacturing multinationals, realizing the combinatorial effect of Industry 4.0 and platform ecosystems. The transformation redefines the ways multinationals have been leveraging their ownership-location-internalization (OLI) advantages. The authors recognize that the multinational orchestrator plays a critical role in creating shared goals for platform participants and governing the dynamics. In addition, the participants' propensity to trust the platform and the perceived trustworthiness of the orchestrator shape the scope and boundaries of the platform.

The authors raise critical questions about the role of multinational orchestrator and trust dimensions. In addition, the OLI-platform paradigm that incorporates the combinatorial effect of platform ecosystem and Industry 4.0 explains how multinationals create and capture value in new ways.

Using social network theory (SNT), this study empirically examines the impact of digital supply chain announcements disclosing corporate social responsibility (CSR) information on stock market value.

Based on 172 digital supply chain announcements disclosing CSR information from Chinese A-share listed companies, this study uses event study method to test the hypotheses.

First, digital supply chain announcements disclosing CSR information generate positive and significant market reactions, which is timely. Second, strategic CSR and value-based CSR disclosed in digital supply chain announcements have a more positive impact on stock market, however there is no significant difference when the CSR orientation is either towards internal or external stakeholders. Third, in terms of digital supply chain network characteristics, announcements reflecting higher relationship embeddedness and higher digital breadth and depth lead to more positive increases of stock value.

First, the authors consider the value of CSR information in digital supply chain announcements, using an event study approach to fill the gap in the related area. This study is the first examination of the joint impact of digital supply chain and CSR on market reactions. Second, compared to the previous studies on the single dimension of digital supply chain technology application, the authors innovatively consider supply chain network relationship and network structure based on social network theory and integrate several factors that may affect the market reaction. This study improves the understanding of the mechanism between digital supply chain announcements disclosing CSR information and stock market, and informs future research.

The purpose of this study is to identify the barriers to the adoption of blockchain technology in green supply chain management (GSCM) and further analyze the cause and effect relationship to prioritize the barriers for making strategic decisions.

The study examines 15 potential barriers related to the adoption of blockchain in GSCM which is identified from the literature review and finalized after subsequent discussions with industry professionals. Integrated Fuzzy-Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory approach is used to analyze cause and effect relationships and prioritize the barriers. Fuzzy set theory is used to handle the uncertainty and vagueness associated with the personnel biases and data deficiency problems. Three small to medium enterprises’ (SMEs’) are considered for gathering data and further analyzing the crucial barriers that are impeding the adoption of blockchain technology in GSCM.

The findings reveal that “lack of management vision” and “cultural differences among supply chain partners” are the most influencing barriers, whereas; “collaboration challenges” and “hesitation and workforce obsolescence” are the most influential barriers in the adoption of blockchain in GSCM.

The study is developed based on 15 selected barriers which were further tested using data from three SMEs’ in the emerging economy of India. The adoption of blockchain technology in GSCM is at a nascent stage and more research studies are necessary to extend the knowledge base.

Managers need to eliminate the barriers and extend the blockchain technology application in GSCM. Managers need to develop the mission and vision of the company by doing proper alignment of blockchain technology with GSCM goals. Second, managers need to make strong collaborations and remove the hesitation and workforce obsolescence barrier by providing the right education and pieces of training.

Blockchain technology in GSCM is in a nascent stage. This study extends the knowledge base by identifying and further prioritizing the leading blockchain barriers that need to be overcome for effectively adopting blockchain in GSCM.

This paper adopts a multi-tier perspective and aims to explore challenges of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in collaborative manufacturing amid the emergence of dedicated B2B platforms. Original equipment manufacturers welcome formation of demand-driven collaborations between SME suppliers to facilitate ramp-up of production capacity. While being potentially beneficial to suppliers, such collaborations face various barriers.

An exploratory study of 17 suppliers within the European Union’s aerospace industry was undertaken. The study comprised two stages. In the first stage, suppliers’ answers to self-administered interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. In the second stage, interactions between the barriers were determined through interviews with experienced SME collaboration facilitators. The authors apply system dynamics modelling to analyse the links between barriers and identify re-enforcing and balancing loops of other factors.

The authors establish five major groups of barriers to collaboration impeding: market transparency, access to orders, partner trust, contracting and (e) data sharing and coordination. The authors model application of four enablers that facilitate barrier removal for technology-enabled supply chains: digital platforms, supplier development, smart contracts and Industry 4.0.

The study is limited by the data collection from the aerospace industry; validation of the models in other low-volume high-variability manufacturing sectors is needed.

The reader will learn about the barriers which impede demand-driven SME collaboration within manufacturing supply chains, interrelationships between these barriers and suggestions about how to remove them. SME cluster managers will find managerial implications particularly interesting as they will help them to overcome collaboration concerns and better prepare cluster members for Industry 4.0.

The models developed within this study can be used to explore the effects of intervening at critical points in the model to create virtuous improvement cycles between key barriers and related variables in the model. This can help decision-making and policymaking in the area of supply chain integration.

There is currently a lack of studies about how the existing barriers amplify and de-amplify themselves and what the managerial approaches to tackle the barriers are. It is unclear how far companies will go in terms of information sharing, given the trust levels, power dynamics and governance structures evident in supply chains. This study contributes by explaining the reinforcing interaction between the barriers and showing ways to overcome these using enablers.

The study aims to identify the central paradoxical tensions existing in developing resilience in organisations. The main thrust of this study is to develop a thorough understanding of diverse conflicting tensions in building resilience and develop the possible strategies to surmount these tensions.

Using the case study approach, the study applied theory-elaboration strategy as this study is based on well-established literature from both digitalisation and resilience. The study uses the paradox theory lens in a case study to reconcile both theories with contextual idiosyncrasies.

The paradox theory lens provides perspectives to understand tensions during resilience development and the role of digital transformation in this process. It assesses the potential solutions for surmounting tensions in resilient operations. The mapping of workable solutions with different paradoxes and propositions has been proposed for future empirical research.

The study suggests that practitioners should not consider resilience and sustainability as mutually exclusive; instead, managers must embrace ongoing tensions to bring solutions to address these two essential organisational priorities.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study that applies paradox theory to understand how an organisation can build resilience while confronting several paradoxes. The study findings support that resilience practices can move in tandem with environmental sustainability goals rather than being usually mutually exclusive.

Drawing upon resource dependence theory, this study aims to examine how a firm’s information technology (IT) capabilities (i.e. IT integration and IT reconfiguration) influence its responses to disruptions – bridging with a current supplier and buffering with an alternative supplier. We further examine how such relationships are moderated by the firm–supplier relative dependence (i.e. firm dependence advantage and supplier dependence advantage).

Based on data from 141 match-paired surveys of firms in China, we test our model.

Our study finds that IT integration positively influences bridging and IT reconfiguration positively influences buffering. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the positive impact of IT integration on bridging is negatively influenced by the firm’s dependence (FD) advantage but positively moderated by the supplier’s dependence advantage. By contrast, the positive impact of IT reconfiguration on buffering is negatively influenced by the FD advantage.

Our study provides a more nuanced insight into the effects of IT capabilities on disruption responses and a better understanding of the buyer–supplier dependence boundary conditions under which these effects vary.