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The purpose of this paper is to theorise and develop seven dimensions (strategic supplier partnership, level of information sharing, quality of information sharing, customer service management, internal lean practices, postponement and total quality management) into a supply chain management (SCM) practices (SCMPs) construct and studies its causal relationship with the conceptualised constructs of supply chain performance (SCP) and manufacturing firms’ performance (MFP). The study also explores the causal relationship between SCP and MFP.

Data were collected through a survey questionnaire responded by 249 Jordanian manufacturing firms. The relationships proposed in the developed theoretical framework were represented through three hypotheses: H1 – there is a significant relationship between SCMPs and SCP; H2 – there is a significant relationship between SCMPs and MFP; and H3 – there is a significant relationship between SCP and MFP. Linear regression, ANOVA and Pearson correlation were used to test the hypotheses. The results were further validated using structural equation modelling.

The results indicate that SCMPs have a positive effect on SCP (H1), which in turn also positively affect MFP (H3). Despite this intermediary positive effect of SCMP on MFP through SCP, the study also suggests that SCMPs have a direct and positive effect on MFP (H2).

This study provides hard evidence indicating that higher levels of SCMPs can lead to enhanced supply chain and firms’ performance. It also provides SC managers of manufacturing firms with a multi-dimensional operational measure of the construct of SCMPs for assessing the comprehensiveness of the SCMPs of their firms.

This study is among the very first SCM researches conducted on the Jordanian manufacturing sector, particularly, in relation to the practices that manufacturing firms in this country need to adopt to make their supply chains a solid competitive vehicle for their development. The results have broader implications for all manufacturing companies, particularly in developing economies where the growth of manufacturing and the development of integrated supply chains are key stages in economic development.

This paper aims to provide and empirically test a conceptual model in which artificial intelligence (AI), knowledge management processes (KMPs) and supply chain resilience (SCR) are simultaneously considered in terms of their reciprocal relationships and impact on manufacturing firm performance (MFP).

In the study, six hypotheses have been developed and tested through an empirical survey administered to 120 senior executives of Italian manufacturing firms. The data analysis has been carried out via the partial least squares structural equation modelling approach, using the Advanced Analysis for Composites 2.0 variance-based software program.

Using a conceptual model validated using an empirical survey, the study sheds light on the relationships between AI, KMPs and SCR, as well as their impacts on MFP. In particular, the authors show the positive effects of the adoption of AI on KMPs, as well as the influence of KMPs on SCR and MFP. Finally, the authors demonstrate that KMPs act as a mediator through which AI affects SCR and MFP.

This study highlights the critical role of KMPs for manufacturing firms that can deploy AI to stimulate KMPs and through attaining a high level of the latter might succeed in enhancing both their SCR and MFP.

This study demonstrates that manufacturing firms interested in properly applying AI to ameliorate their performance and resilience must carefully consider KMPs as a mediator mechanism.

The purpose of this paper is to examine various technological innovation influencers (TIIs) in small manufacturing firms. It introduces a study framework of technological innovation and evaluates the relevance of four TIIs to building and sustaining the competitiveness of Indian firms.

This research is based on an in-depth survey of 135 firms located in India’s Northern region. Multiple regression analysis was employed to examine the correlation between TIIs and manufacturing firm performance (MFP) for these firms.

The findings verify that entrepreneurial capability, technology infrastructure capability and government initiatives are the most important TIIs for small firms. The findings are also validated by using statistical t-test and canonical correlation analysis.

This study uses a single informant as the source of information on each firm. The study is limited to small-scale firms in the Northern region of India. Also, the study has been conducted excluding the service sector.

Recent studies have advocated various TIIs and discussed their impact on MFP. This paper examines the determinants of technological innovation in small manufacturing firms. It introduces a study framework of technological innovation and examines the relevance of four TIIs to building and sustaining the competitiveness of Indian firms.

Researchers have long sought to understand how risks in supply chains (SCs) affect firm performance. Yet, they have not fully subjected claims of how SC risks affect firm financial performance to theoretical and empirical scrutiny. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the links between SC risks and firm financial performance.

The author analyzes how SC risks affect firm financial performance from the perspective of marginal financial performance (MFP) using survey and financial statement data. The author employs structural equation modeling to examine the hypotheses using 106 Taiwanese listed companies across 20 industries.

The findings regarding the importance of industry-specific risk, organizational risk, internal business process risk, and demand risk are consistent with prior studies. The author finds that demand risk has an MFP of −0.20, the highest negative effect among the risk variables. The findings also show that industry-specific risk possesses an MFP of −0.16, the second-highest negative effect, despite having no direct effect on financial performance.

This paper examines how SC risks affect MFP via combining survey and financial statement data. It does not assume the reported MFP estimates apply to all businesses in other countries. However, future research could triangulate our findings.

This study combines survey and financial data to analyze how SC risks affect firm financial performance. Specifically, it provides a methodology for estimating quantitative cause-effect relationships between SC risk and firm financial performance, an important topic that receives less research interest in the field of supply chain management.

Proposes a model of strategic planning as a basis to overcome the identified shortcomings in the past empirical research. The basic assumption of the proposed model is that an appropriate strategic analysis is necessary in order to ensure appropriate strategic decisions.

Shortcomings related to empirical research in the past were identified with the aim of discussing some possible reasons why the concept of manufacturing strategy had not been more widely adopted in practice and of developing the model of strategic planning. Based on the proposed model and relating to previous research, an empirical study of two relationships has been performed: first, between business strategic competence of an enterprise and business performance, and second, between business strategic competence and manufacturing strategic decision areas.

The goals of analysis in the process of strategic planning have been explained. Empirical findings about a positive relationship between business performance and business strategic competence confirmed the results of previous research. Some empirically significant relationships between strategic decision areas and manufacturing competitive priorities results were identified.

In order to guarantee effective decision making, the role of the analysis in the process of planning has to be understood. This phase of the planning process is not getting enough attention from practitioners. This results in decision making for which quick jumping to solution‐seeking is characteristic, without appropriate determination of problems beforehand.

The paper emphasises the importance of strategic analysis and problem identification to appropriate strategic decision making. This holds true not only of practical strategic decision making inside specific companies, but also of design and implementation of empirical research.

The paper is a proof of concept (PoC) intervention study aimed for developing performance management (PM) practices in manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the longer-term aim enabling the SMEs to improve their productivity. The intervention was designed and deployed by a collaborative quartet of academics, management consultants, accountancy firm and a commercial bank manager.

The paper firstly musters a set of initialising PM practices aligned to productivity improvement. These are utilised to design a knowledge transfer intervention for deployment with a set of manufacturing SMEs incorporating some associated productivity tools. The evaluation of the intervention utilised a case study approach founded on a logic model of the intervention to assess the development of the PM practices.

The intervention contributed to a partial development of the mustered practices and the productivity diagnostic based on the multi-factor productivity (MFP) abstraction and a data extraction protocol had the strongest impact. The study revealed the importance of the three interlaced factors: Depth of engagement, feedback opportunities and the intervention gradient (the increase of independent action from the participating SME's and the diminishment of the external intervention effort).

The case study is based on a limited number of individual SME's, and within just the manufacturing sector.

SME businesses will require a more sustained programme of interventions than this pilot to develop PM capability, and depth of engagement within the SME is critical. Professional stakeholders can be utilised in recruitment of firms for intervention programmes. Business can start developing PM capability prior to PMS implementation using the tools from this programme.

The productivity diagnostic tool, based on a synthesis of MFP and the performance pyramid, an array of potential initialising practices for PM capability and discovery of potential mechanisms for PM practice development.

Despite the rapid pace of digitalization, aggregate productivity growth rates in most advanced countries have slowed down consistently in recent years. It creates a “puzzle”, as investment in information technology (IT) has often been thought of as a remedy to solve productivity problems. The purpose of this paper is to examine the “puzzle” by using industry-level data.

This research uses industry-level longitudinal data and examines changes in both labour and multifactor productivity (MFP) in Australian industries. This study uses an instrumental variable (IV) approach to estimate the models.

Findings suggest an improvement in IT-led productivity performance in recent years. Industries with an above-average share of IT (IT investment as a share of total investment) have experienced MFP boosts since 2005.

Because of the aggregate nature of the data it was not possible to incorporate firm-specific factors, such as managerial and organisational factors, in the analysis.

The performance of IT has improved despite the falling growth in technology investment in recent years, suggesting that intangible factors, such as better regulatory and policy frameworks, have potentially played a positive role.

There are only a few studies using sectoral and longitudinal-type data, with many having become dated, meaning that there is a lack of understanding surrounding recent developments.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the best supply chain management (SCM) practices that are implemented in medium- and large-sized Gulf manufacturing firms (MFs).

This study has explored seven SCM practices, i.e. supplier collaboration, flexibility with partners, usage of internet, customer focus (CF), lean production (LP), internal integration (II) and quality management (QM). It assumes that the best-performing firms must be the ones implementing the best practices. t-test and multiple linear regression analyses were used to establish the best practices, implemented by medium and large-sized Gulf MFs.

The results showed that QM, CF and supplier collaboration are considered as best SCM practices in Gulf MFs. Usage of internet may have been the best practice previously, but not anymore. LP cannot yet be qualified as, but may develop into the best SCM practice.

The study provides a useful contribution to the field of best SCM practices as it provides better decision-making insights and a benchmarking base to top managers, policy makers and academics. It is likely to result in increased overall performance of their firms.

The study provides an understanding of the distinctive characteristics of the best SCM practices, implemented by Gulf MFs. It has broader implications for all MFs, particularly in developing economies where the growth of manufacturing and effective management of their supply chains is a key element for the economic development.

The purpose of this paper is to provide and assess evidence bearing on whether government regulation in the USA is harming the international competitiveness of the US economy. A related purpose is to clarify the concept of international competitiveness from a public policy perspective.

The paper draws on various sources comparing the regulatory environment of the USA and other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries over the past 15-20 years, as well as the international competitiveness of those countries, particularly the productivity growth of home country firms. The various measures of regulatory quality and international competitiveness for the USA are compared to those for a sample of other OECD countries to provide empirical evidence on two broad issues: has government regulation become more onerous in the USA relative to other OECD countries? and has the USA economy become less competitive compared to other OECD countries?

The evidence indicates that the US regulatory environment has become more onerous compared to other OECD countries and that the relative productivity performance of the US economy has declined in recent years. Evidence also suggests that the USA has become relatively less attractive as a location for production and research and development. While the paper does not directly link national measures of performance to measures of the regulatory environment, it provides a literature review of the empirical relationship between government regulation and private sector productivity performance. The review suggests that an apparent recent weakening of the international competitiveness of the US economy can be linked to a more onerous regulatory environment.

As noted above, the paper does not directly link in a statistical manner, data regarding the changing regulatory environment across countries to changes in measures of international competitiveness. This is the focus of future research.

By assessing a range of measures of the regulatory environment and national economic performance, the paper provides a fairly comprehensive and nuanced assessment of frequently made claims about regulation in the USA relative to other countries, as well as the relative attractiveness of the USA as a location for private sector activity.

Several options exist for operations managers to control maintenance intensity. The effects of the maintenance department capability and the redundancy options within the context of capacity strategy are examined. In viewing the operations manager as a monitoring specialist, the firm′s choice is shown to depend on the economic, social, and technological implications inherent in the design of maintenance float policy.