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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.

Together with increasing ambiguity and frequency of changes, management becomes full of seemingly conflicting choices, i.e. paradoxes, coming up in the process of decision-making. Successful management of paradoxes, i.e. treating them as “both/and” constructs leads to innovative solutions and better overall organizational performance. In response to a significant research gap regarding antecedents of managing paradoxes, the aim of the paper is to investigate how individual characteristics of strategic decision-makers, specifically their age, tenure and educational background, affect the ability to combine contradictions in their strategic choices.

An empirical study was conducted among 201 managers representing furniture companies in Poland. The CATI technique with an interview questionnaire was adopted in order to identify respondents' opinions on the main features, traits and dimensions of the strategy implemented in their companies. Participants' tenure, age and education were measured by single items.

The study suggests that the ability to manage paradoxes increases with age and tenure in a company and at a current position. At the same time economic/business educational background appears to be unsupportive in this regard.

While the issue of managing paradoxes energizes researchers in various disciplines, we still do not know much about antecedents of the process. The study shed light on effects that managers' demographics have on their ability of managing paradoxes. It contributes to the theory on strategic paradoxes as well as theory on the influence of decision-makers' individual characteristics on their decisions.

The purpose of the current study is to identify the nature, scope and locus of and to systematize, the conceptual contradictions existing in dynamic capabilities research.

This paper employs a content analysis literature review of 86 papers on dynamic capabilities published between 1997 and 2019, using two databases – EBSCO and Web of Science/Knowledge databases. To structure the review, Smith and Lewis's (2011) categorization of organizational tensions is adopted.

First, the findings of this study suggest that DCs not only are shaped by a tension between efficiency and flexibility but also are built upon a large number of contradictory aspects, represented by organizing, performing, belonging and learning paradoxes. Second, the analysis identifies defensive and active responses to these tensions, with the former prevailing in the dynamic capabilities view literature. Both kinds of responses may facilitate or hinder organizational change. Third, it was found that while the literature has focused predominantly on organizing and learning paradoxes, the linkage between these categories remains under-researched.

This study makes three contributions. First, it identifies the scope (i.e. number), locus (analytical level) and nature (paradox categories and sub-categories) of DC-related paradoxes and responses to paradoxical tensions. Second, it shows that the nature and locus of conceptual contradictions are more complex than conceptualized in prior studies, going beyond the contingency and ambidexterity argument of how to deal with DC-related paradoxes. Third, it seeks to extend Di Stefano et al.'s (2014) proposition of integrating paradoxical views on different DC-related aspects. The idea of “audio console” introduced in this study highlights the interrelation of paradoxes between the categories and across analytical levels.

The primary purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of viewing paradoxes, which are commonly‐accepted logical perspectives that appear contradictory, as being useful for organizational learning and to show why organizational paradoxes need to be managed integratively.

The cultural industries (those that promote art, music and entertainment) are used as a backdrop for developing propositions that explain the benefits of dynamically shifting between poles of a paradox and the relationship between elements of managing multiple paradoxes integratively and organizational outcomes.

It is expected that organizations which move between the poles of paradoxes are more likely to increase organizational knowledge about their capabilities and to enhance their ability to deal with paradoxes.

Organizational researchers should consider identifying the direction and rate of movement along the poles of paradoxes by organizations when studying the appropriateness of various organizational methods for achieving outcomes such as growth or performance. Future research should examine a larger variety of paradoxes in order to increase understanding of the appropriateness of their integrative management.

Managers should become familiar with the speed and direction of movement (organizational change) between the poles of organizational paradoxes before making operational and strategic decisions. In addition, managers should be cognizant of the variety of paradoxes present in their organization and of the need for their integrative management.

The paper describes how movement along the poles of organizational paradox enhances organizational learning, as well as the importance of managing organizational paradoxes integratively.

The purpose of this paper is to explore different types of packaging paradoxes and the reasons for their existence in food supply chains.

The research uses a multiple case study approach with rich empirical data from seven leading companies in Swedish food supply chains. The research uses coding and a paradox theory lens to analyse packaging paradoxes, both within and between companies in a supply chain.

The paper provides a novel theoretical lens which uses comprehensive empirical data to identify and categorise four types of packaging paradoxes on two system levels in food supply chains. It presents detailed descriptions of, and underlying reasons for, the paradoxes. It also discusses strategies required to manage packaging paradoxes.

Future research should confirm and extend the findings in this study by incorporating data from companies in other countries. It should cover the importance of paradoxes, their impact on company performance and innovation, and how different paradoxes are related to each other. It should also investigate strategies to manage paradoxes further.

The findings should help companies acknowledge and identify management principles for packaging paradoxes in food supply chains.

It is the first study which systematically explores packaging paradoxes in food supply chains. The study offers a new approach to understand the complexity of packaging decisions in food supply chains. It contributes to the packaging logistics literature by extending theoretical knowledge about conflicts of interest related to packaging. The management discussion offers initial insights into management of packaging paradoxes and directions for future research.

This paper aims to investigate whether the technological paradoxes identified and prevalent in a series of technologies are also identified in the relationship between executives and smartphones, as well as which of these paradoxes is most strongly detected in this relationship.

It was adopted the simple case study method, in which the individual is the unit of analysis. Therefore, a medium-sized company that operates in the Brazilian pharmaceutical market was chosen since the majority of its senior executives use the smartphone as a tool in their day-to-day work.

Two paradoxes generated strong ambiguity regarding the use of smartphones by the executives, namely continuity vs asynchronicity and autonomy vs addiction. Furthermore, three other paradoxes were moderately associated with the use of smartphones by the executives, namely freedom vs enslavement, dependence vs independence, and planning vs improvisation.

By using only one organisation in the case study, the generalisation of results might be prejudiced.

The identification of technological paradoxes provides input for the development of strategies aimed at minimising these ambiguities on the part of executives.

This paper not only identified some smartphone-enabled paradoxes among Brazilian executives, but also established an approach to measure the intensity of these paradoxes.

The purpose of this paper studies the role of paradoxes in the adoption of entrepreneurship education (EE) in schools.

Qualitative research methods were used, and the data were collected via semi-structured interviews with Finnish teachers and principals.

Paradoxes are an important factor slowing the adoption of EE. Paradoxes appear to arise from teachers' misunderstandings, high personal standards of pedagogy and an unwillingness to change their routines. In schools, principals still regard EE as a newcomer that is easily abandoned should any difficulties emerge. The principals show unwillingness to take responsibility for managing EE or to establish relationships with companies.

The study represents Finnish practice in basic education. Due to the qualitative methodology applied, the generalizability of the results is limited. Quantitative research on the teachers' and principals' behaviour related to paradoxes in EE is needed. Furthermore, the pedagogical prioritization related to the introduction of EE warrants more research.

The results suggest good opportunities exist in training to prepare teachers and principals to anticipate the difficulties of EE.

The study introduces a new understanding of the difficulties in the adoption of EE. Paradoxes are important factors to take into account in the promotion of EE. Paradoxes stem from teachers' misunderstandings, misconceptions and their unwillingness to change. Principals seem unwilling to assume their responsibilities in managing EE. The study highlights opportunities for managing the emergence of these paradoxes by preparing teachers and principals better on the difficulties and unexpected outcomes of EE.

Third-party logistics (3PL) companies have experienced an explosion of volume during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Special tiers have been introduced to provide differentiated levels of service to the customers. However, such changes in an organization reveal and intensify tensions known as paradoxes. The purpose of this research is to identify what paradoxes emerged or have become more salient specifically due to COVID-19 in 3PLs' ground operations and how they are dealt with by ground operation managers.

This is a qualitative study conducted in two phases. Phase one utilizes a questionnaire approach to identify the paradoxes within the 3PLs operating in the USA. Phase two, conducted six months after phase one, follows an in-depth one-on-one interview approach. NVivo 12 is employed to analyze the interview data.

The results show that new paradoxes did in fact emerge due to the COVID-19 and are mostly related to the performing paradox category. Findings from in-depth interviews show that the 3PL managers focus on keeping safety as priority to manage COVID-19 related paradoxes, along with modifying operational plans, improving communication, investing in training, optimizing hub network, introducing modified/new methods and adapting modified human resource policies.

This paper is among the first known to identify paradoxes within the 3PL operations during the COVID-19 and provides insights into how these paradoxes are dealt with at mid-management level. Findings of this study provide foundations for the development of a theoretical framework on handling paradoxes within 3PLs.

This paper makes a case for the investigation of organizational paradoxes through the analysis of documents. After having presented what paradoxes are and the methodological challenges of studying them, the paper turns to document research, with emphasis on its potential contribution to paradox research. More specifically, document research typically provides ready-to-code data in a nonintrusive manner, allowing for the potential longitudinal, multilevel and multivoice analysis of organizational paradoxes and their management, in practice. To illustrate this, the purpose of this paper is to explore exemplar research based on multiple approaches to the study of different paradoxes in/around various documents and sets a research agenda.

Exemplar research on paradoxes using organizational documents as central data are presented. This highlights the range of documents and analytical strategies that can be used to explore organizations’ discursive management of paradoxes, as well as the roles documents can play in organizational contexts marked by different types of paradoxes.

A research agenda is developed, formulated around the needs to study paradoxes within documents and around them; grasp the discursive strategies deployed in documents to deal with paradoxes and/or the action of documents in contexts marked by paradoxes; follow the organizational processes involving documents, paying special attention to the paradoxes surrounding the development, adoption and appropriation of documents; and compare paradoxes in documents and those around the documents’ mobilization.

Despite growing interest in organizational paradoxes, reflections on methodological approaches to exploring them remain scarce and alternative methods largely unexplored. This paper makes the following proposition: organizational documents (strategic plans, annual reports, policies, websites, etc.) can provide a valuable entry point to explore organizational paradoxes.

Grounded in paradox theory, and with the objective of structuring and extending existing knowledge of conflicts of interest (e.g. trade-offs) in packaging logistics, the purpose of this paper is to identify categories of paradoxical tensions in packaging systems used in supply chains, and to develop a conceptual framework that describes these categories.

This research uses a theory building approach. It develops a conceptual framework of paradoxical tensions for packed products in supply chains. It revises and extends current knowledge in this domain by applying paradox theory from organisational research.

The paper develops a generic, conceptual framework that identifies, categorises and describes packed product paradoxes on two system levels: supply chain and company levels. The categories of paradoxes refer to performing, organising, belonging and learning.

The framework provides a new theoretical explanation of conflicts of interest in packaging logistics in terms of paradoxical tensions related to packed products in supply chains. It structures and increases general understanding of such tensions within and between actors in a supply chain. The paper also discusses differences in terminology between tensions which are possible to settle and those which lead to paradoxes.

The framework provides a structure for analysing the organisational impact of strategic packaging decisions. It can help highlight different stakeholders' organisational constraints related to packaging.

The framework's systematic categorisation of four types of paradoxical tensions, with thorough descriptions of the meaning of packed product paradoxes of each type, offers an expanded and in-depth explanation of the organisational impacts of packed products in supply chains.