Search results

Building on the transaction cost theory and power structure literature, this paper aims to investigate the extent to which firms use two safeguarding mechanisms (supply chain relational investments and electronic collaboration) in different network dependency contexts in order to protect their portfolios of business relationships.

Empirical evidence is gathered though a survey data conducted with 159 firms in the wireless communication sector. The paper tests the assumption that the two safeguarding mechanisms are used to a greater extent in interdependency‐intensive networks than in other supply chain contexts.

This empirical study suggests that: in a network‐dependent context, relational investments allow firms to safeguard their portfolios of relationships; electronic collaboration seems to be a safeguarding mechanism for firms in downstream‐dependent network contexts; in general, firms appear to use both relational investments and electronic collaboration to manage their relationships in a supply chain network; and the knowledge‐based theory may explain the strong relationship between upstream and downstream use of electronic collaboration.

Overall, the present study complements the extant literature on supply chain management and inter‐firm electronic collaboration by showing how an important structural characteristic of supply chain networks (i.e. dependency) operates on the choice of using two key safeguarding mechanisms.

Results stress the importance of these safeguarding mechanisms in joint actions such as collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment.

The paper addresses interdependencies from a network perspective which encompasses the firms' complete portfolio of relationships.

The purpose of this research is to enhance understanding of the sources of relational rents in supply chains and the nature of their relationships with performance. Using the relational view framework and contingency perspective, the study develops a model and hypotheses to understand the nature of the relationships of collaboration and resource specificity with operational performance under technology context contingencies.

Data for testing the hypothesized relationships in the conceptual model were collected through a survey of managers in the Hoover’s database of manufacturing firms. The survey sample included 115 responses from a wide variety of manufacturing forms.

Findings support the conventional wisdom relating collaboration and operational improvements. Notably, technological turbulence has a differential interactive influence on collaboration and resource specificity in predicting operational performance. In the former, the strength of the performance relationship is enhanced, while in the latter, it diminishes. Product complexity enhances the collaboration–operational performance linkage. The results, however, have to be further corroborated by more confirmatory analysis in future research.

The research findings are not conclusive but of an exploratory initial evidence, as stepwise regression analysis has its limitations. Additionally, while the study specifically focused on demand-side collaboration aspects, supply chain management envelops upstream and internal collaboration as well. Investigating the performance implications and the interactive dynamics among all three partnerships in the supply chains provides a richer understanding of supply chain partnerships. Besides, more comprehensive insights could be obtained by modeling the interactive effects of other factors in the operating context.

Firms derive performance benefits from close collaboration with downstream partners because the operational enhancements from such relationships have customer service implications. Besides, the results provide a framework to managers for understanding the technology context conditions that may be best suited for leveraging collaborative initiatives and idiosyncratic investments in pursuit of operational performance improvements.

Much of the evidence on the rent generation capabilities in supply chain partnerships is still anecdotal and extant empirical research lacks adequate explanation. Another critical shortcoming in extant literature is research on the disentangled interactive influence of operating context factors on the supply chain sources of rent (i.e. capabilities)–performance relationships. The study contributes by addressing these issues.

The purpose of this research is to enhance the extant understanding of the IT‐collaboration relationship. The study aims to test the robustness of the relationships among the concepts of IT analytic capability, demand chain collaboration and operational performance besides investigating the interaction effects of environmental uncertainty variables on the IT‐collaboration relationship.

Data for testing the hypothesized relationships in the conceptual model were collected through a survey of managers in manufacturing firms from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) membership directory. The survey sample included 152 responses accounting for a response rate of 28 percent.

Findings suggest that while IT analytic capability associates positively with collaboration, the technological turbulence dimension of uncertainty enhances the above relationship. Market turbulence, however, was not found to have a significant moderating impact on the IT analytic capability‐collaboration relationship. The findings further support the link between collaboration and better operational performance.

While the study focused on a specific IT capability – IT analytic capability – firms utilize other IT resources such as database systems and e‐commerce. These IT capabilities need to be investigated as well since they could bring different functionalities and influences. Besides, a richer understanding of the interacting variables could be obtained by incorporating a broadened set of contextual variables.

Deploying advanced IT analytic capabilities in firms facilitates collaborative endeavors among supply chain partners and ultimately results in operational improvements. However, managers should also understand that the IT capability‐collaboration link is contingent upon technological turbulence: firms operating in highly uncertain technological environments can best leverage IT analytic capabilities to improve collaboration and enhance performance.

Much of the evidence on the performance impact of specific IT capabilities in supply chains is still anecdotal and extant empirical research is insufficient to suggest an unambiguous performance linkage. A critical shortcoming in extant IT and SCM literature is research on the interaction effects of environmental uncertainty variables on the IT‐collaboration relationship. The study addresses these issues.

There is only limited knowledge about the performance benefits of the alignment of sustainability-related upstream and downstream collaboration. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the deviation from an optimal profile of supply chain collaboration and its detrimental effect on sustainability performance as well as market performance.

The authors analyze the deviation from an optimal profile of supply chain collaboration and its detrimental effect on sustainability as well as market performance. Using data collected from 259 European manufacturing firms and advanced structural equation modeling approach, the authors empirically test a number of direct, mediation, and moderation effects.

The study shows that an alignment between supply chain initiatives does pay off. Furthermore, the results show that the effects of alignment on performance measures are mediated by the firm's internal sustainable production.

The paper provides research limitations and implications as part of the research.

The paper also offers important conclusions for practitioners. Particularly the paper shows that sustainable supply chain collaboration needs to be operated at an ideal profile in collaboration with advanced internal practices to generate improved performance.

This work is differentiated from earlier work through the joint consideration of alignment of supply chain collaboration for customers and suppliers, providing in combination with mediation analysis new nuances to the field of sustainable supply chain management.

Absorptive capacity, technological collaboration and servitization are analyzed to establish ways to overcome the balance between products and services in manufacturing companies. A fresh perspective is introduced by presenting a framework for innovation strategy, moving beyond product-based R&D.

The hypotheses are tested using data on Spanish firms in the high-tech chemical and pharmaceutical industries through ordinary least squares regression analysis. The sample consists of 112 manufacturing firms included in the Spanish Survey of Business Strategies.

The results show that absorptive capacity facilitates servitization and that technological collaboration moderates the relationship between absorptive capacity and servitization. The synergies between absorptive capacity and technological collaboration for servitization are recognized from the perspective of open innovation as a way of resolving the trade-off between products and services.

Future research should introduce more sources of collaboration by broadening the value chain perspective. Other approaches to innovation may also be considered, including relationships to process innovation.

The results can provide meaningful guidance for companies to determine the key opportunities of servitization driven by absorptive capacity, and the best ways to leverage open innovation and collaboration strategies to exploit such approaches.

This research enriches theories on servitization, open innovation and innovative behavior. Open innovation strategy should be linked to greater servitization activity and should support an open service strategy. This approach is crucial for building innovation capabilities through technological collaboration.

Firms that need to address growing concerns about the environmental impact of their activities could benefit from collaborating internally and externally. The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a theoretical model of the effects of internal and external environmental collaboration with customers on the firm performance of logistics service providers (LSPs).

Hierarchical multiple regression and generalised linear modelling are utilised to analyse 311 LSPs offering road transport services in Finland. The data set was collected from a Finnish nationwide logistics survey in 2012 and financial reports-based data.

External environmental collaboration with customers seems to be the most effective way to improve operational and financial performance, while internal environmental collaboration does not yield similar benefits.

Research limitations include the concentrated geographic origin of the respondents and the exclusion of potential indirect effects of environmental collaboration on operational and financial performance through environmental performance.

Managers planning to implement environmental initiatives should extend their focus from internal operations to external partners in the supply chain.

This research is one of the first attempts to focus on performance outcomes with regard to the environmental activities of LSPs. The research provides quantified insights using both self-reported and financial reports-based data.

The paper aims to develop and examine benchmarking performance measures for the extended enterprise (EE).

A research model was constructed based on 16 performance measures in eight categories. An online survey by questionnaire is conducted with manufacturing industries in China. There is an evaluation of the level of importance among these performance measures. Results of the survey are subjected to appropriate statistical tests to establish reliability and validity.

Results of the empirical research provide the benchmarking performance measures of a successful EE. Results of the survey indicate that performance measures in operation and customer categories are more important than others.

The paper has a limitation on the sample size. Further, data collection would be beneficial.

Participants of EEs can use these performance measures to design their benchmarking and key performance indictors to pursue the continued success of their EEs.

The paper builds on current literature and develops a conceptual model, which is then tested via a questionnaire survey. Only a limited literature has addressed the benchmarking performance measures for EE.

Green innovation in supply chains is crucial for socioeconomic development and stability. Factors that influence collaborative green innovation in the supply chain are complex and diverse. Exploring the main influencing factors and their mechanisms is essential for promoting collaborative green innovation in supply chains. Therefore, this study analyzes how upstream and downstream enterprises in the supply chain collaborate to develop green technological innovations, thereby providing a theoretical basis for improving the overall efficiency of the supply chain and advancing green innovation technology.

Based on evolutionary game theory, this study divides operational scenarios into pure market and government-regulated operations, thereby constructing collaborative green innovation relationships in different scenarios. Through evolutionary analysis of various entities in different operational scenarios, combined with numerical simulation analysis, we compared the evolutionary stability of collaborative green innovation behavior in supply chains with and without government regulation.

Under pure market mechanisms, the higher the green innovation capability, the stronger the willingness of various entities to collaborate in green innovation. However, under government regulation, a decrease in green innovation capability increases the willingness to collaborate with various entities. Environmental tax rates and green subsidy levels promote collaborative innovation in the short term but inhibit collaborative innovation in the long term, indicating that policy orientation has a short-term impact. Additionally, the greater the penalty for collaborative innovation breaches, the stronger the intention to engage in collaborative green innovation in the supply chain.

We introduce the factors influencing green innovation capability and social benefits in the study of the innovation behavior of upstream and downstream enterprises, expanding the research field of collaborative innovation in the supply chain. By comparing the collaborative innovation behavior of various entities in the supply chain under a pure market scenario and government regulations, this study provides a new perspective for analyzing the impact of corresponding government policies on the green innovation capability of upstream and downstream enterprises, enriching theoretical research on green innovation in the supply chain to some extent.

This study aims to demonstrate how integration is achieved in an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design by assessing the effect of collaborative cultural dimensions on supply chain collaboration amongst firms in Ghana's downstream petroleum sector. Specifically, the study examined how collectivism, long-term orientation, power symmetry, as well as uncertainty avoidance influence supply chain collaboration. Besides, it also demonstrates how integration is achieved in an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design.

Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, the study employed a partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis of quantitative data (N = 166), followed by a thematic analysis of eight semi-structured interviews to explain how and why the dimensions of collaborative culture impact supply chain collaboration.

The quantitative findings suggest that three out of the four dimensions of culture significantly predict supply chain collaboration. Integrating the quantitative and qualitative findings suggests convergence between the results of the quantitative and qualitative phases of the study as the qualitative results compliment the quantitative findings and offer more nuanced understanding of the cultural mechanisms responsible for successful supply chain collaborations.

The findings provide managers in the downstream petroleum sector with insights into how and why the dimensions of collaborative culture influence supply chain collaboration. These managers should, therefore, build corporate cultures characterized with high levels of long-term orientation, power symmetry and uncertainty avoidance.

Owing to the role of culture in successful supply chain collaborations, this study, through a mixed-methods design, links the dimensions of collaborative culture with supply chain collaboration in the downstream petroleum sector. Moreover, it demonstrates how integration and complementarity are achieved at the study design, methods, as well as the interpretation and reporting levels of an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design.

The downstream oil marketing companies (OMCs) have an opportunity to compensate their huge under-recovery by increasing non-fuel revenues through strategic planning for collaboration with organized companies (OCs) of auto-servicing sector, who are experiencing a surge in the demand for auto-servicing. The purpose of this paper is to explore the business need for strategic collaboration and empirically validate the building mechanism for collaborative capacities between the two sectors (OMCs and OCs).

The paper is designed to explore the implementation of collaboration using needs analysis, exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling process for building collaborative capacities between the two sectors.

Although alignment is a necessary condition before allowing for a valid collaboration between the two sectors, the external alignment process is highly significant for implementing collaboration unlike the internal alignment process.

Methodological limitations include the use of convenience sampling and anonymous survey-based research.

Selecting the “right” identified factors for collaboration is unquestionably one of the most important topics in the collaboration literature, which holds vast practical implications.

This study provides practical and theoretical insights for implementing collaboration based on empirical results.