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Manufacturing capability is a crucial component of every nation’s economy and pharmaceuticals are frequently a significant part of the manufacturing sector. Pharmaceutical supply chains are essential to health-care systems, contributing to living quality and shorter hospital stays. This study aims to examine the role of multiple integrations on business performance (BP) through supply chain flexibility (SCF) and supply chain agility (SCA).

Data was collected from 198 supply chain professionals in the pharmaceutical sector of the developing economy of Pakistan. The sample was collected based on a nonprobability purposive sampling approach. A five-point Likert-scale survey was used and analyzed with the PLS-SEM technique using SmartPLS 4.

This study found that process integration (PI) does not affect SCA, whereas relationship integration and measurement integration positively affect SCA. SCA positively impacts BP. In contrast, all integrations significantly influenced supply flexibility and BP except for PI. Finally, SCF significantly mediates the relationship between all integrations and BP.

This study examined the relationships of multiple integrations on BP, directly and indirectly, through SCF and agility. The theory of dynamic capabilities has been applied and extended to increase the comprehensiveness of the findings. A developing economy’s pharmaceutical industry supply chain was examined, producing empirical evidence of the results.

Disruptive events caused by cyber incidents, such as supply chain (SC) cyber incidents, can affect firms’ SC operations on a large scale, causing disruptions in material, information and financial flows and impacting the availability, integrity and confidentiality of SC assets. While SC resilience (SCRES) research has received much attention in recent years, the purpose of this study is to investigate specific capabilities for building SCRES to cyber risks. Based on a nuanced understanding of SC cyber risk characteristics, this study explores how to build SC cyber resilience (SCCR) using the perspective of dynamic capability (DC) theory.

Based on 79 in-depth interviews, this qualitative study examines 28 firms representing 4 SCs in Central Europe. The researchers interpret data from semistructured interviews and secondary data using the DC perspective, which covers sensing, seizing and transforming.

The authors identify SCRES capabilities, in general, and SCCR-specific capabilities that form the basis for the realignment of DCs for addressing cyber risks in SCs. The authors argue that SCRES capabilities should, in general, be combined with specific capabilities for SCCR to deal with SC cyber risks. Based on these findings, 10 propositions for future research are provided.

Practitioners should collaborate specifically to address cyber threats and risks in SCs, integrate new SC partners and use new approaches. Furthermore, this study shows that cyber risks need to be treated differently from traditional SC risks.

This empirical study enriches the SC management literature by examining SCRES to cyber risks through the insightful lens of DCs. It identifies DCs for building SCCR, makes several managerial contributions and is among the few that apply the DC approach to address specific SC risks.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and validate a theoretical model to investigate the relationship between self-organisation, information integration, adaptability and supply chain agility in humanitarian organisations.

A theoretical model was developed from extant studies and assessed through a structured questionnaire survey of 86 humanitarian organisations operating in South Sudan. The data were analysed using partial least square structural equation modelling.

The study found that self-organisation has a discernible positive influence on supply chain agility not only directly but also indirectly through adaptability. Further, information integration does not significantly influence supply chain agility directly but is fully mediated by adaptability. Together, the antecedent variables account for 53.9% variance in supply chain agility.

This study contributes to providing an empirical understanding of a humanitarian supply chain as a complex adaptive system and hence the need to incorporate self-organising and adaptive dimensions in supply chain management practice. Furthermore, it confirms the centrality of the complex adaptive system feature of adaptability when building supply chain agility through self-organisation and information integration.

The findings provide a firm ground for managerial decisions on investment in self-organisation and information integration dimensions so as to enhance adaptability and improve supply chain agility in humanitarian organisations.

This study is distinctive in the sense that it uses the complex adaptive system variables to empirically validate the relationships between self-organisation, information integration, adaptability and supply chain agility in humanitarian organisations in the world’s youngest developing economy with a long history of conflict and humanitarian intervention. The mediating influence of adaptability examined in this study is also novel.

This paper aims to explore the impact of fourth-party logistics (4PL) adoption on the agility, adaptability and alignment (AAA) capabilities within humanitarian supply chains (HSCs).

Semi-structured interviews with individuals from a large non-government organisation were combined with secondary data to assess the influence of 4PL adoption on AAA capabilities in HSCs.

The results indicate that HSCs exhibit some of the AAA antecedents but not all are fully realised. While 4PL positively affects the AAA capabilities of HSCs, its adoption faces challenges such as the funding environment, data security/confidentiality and alignment with humanitarian principles. The study suggests an AAA antecedent realignment, positioning alignment as a precursor to agility and adaptability. It also identifies three core antecedents in HSCs: flexibility, speed and environmental uncertainty.

The study shows the positive impact 4PL adoption can have on the AAA capabilities of HSCs. The findings have practical relevance for those wishing to optimise HSC performance through 4PL adoption, by identifying the inhibiting factors to its adoption as well as strategies to address them.

This research empirically explores 4PL’s impact on AAA capabilities in HSCs, highlighting the facilitating and hindering factors of 4PL adoption in this environment as well as endorsing a realignment of AAA antecedents. It also contributes to the growing research on SC operations in volatile settings.

A qualitative approach based on grounded theory was utilized, with data collected through 26 semi-structured interviews with social entrepreneurs. Alas’s Triangular Model provided the framework for data analysis and interpretation.

This study explores how Hong Kong social enterprises approached crisis and change management during the COVID-19 pandemic, examining their resilience-building strategies.

The pandemic triggered an existential crisis for many social enterprises, causing severe revenue losses. However, strong leadership and cultures based on social mission enabled resilience. Enterprises demonstrated agility by rapidly transitioning operations online and establishing partnerships. Technology adaptation and social innovation were pivotal to sustaining impact.

As the sample comprises enterprises that survived the pandemic, insights into failed enterprises are lacking. Comparative analysis could illuminate differences in crisis response between successful and unsuccessful cases.

The study’s practical implications suggest that social enterprises should focus on developing flexible crisis management plans, cultivating purposeful leadership, embracing digital transformation, strengthening collaborative networks and prioritizing organizational learning to effectively navigate crises while staying true to their social missions.

Findings demonstrate how shared values and cultures grounded in purpose can anchor organizations amidst upheaval, fostering resilience. This underscores the role of social enterprises in modeling responsiveness to societal needs.

While research has examined social enterprises’ vulnerability in crises, investigation into their crisis management practices is limited. This study enriches understanding of how social enterprises effectively navigate turbulence.

Despite the proliferation of cyberthreats upon the supply chain (SC) at large, knowledge on SC cybersecurity is scarce and predominantly conceptual or descriptive. Addressing this gap, this research examines the effect of SC cyber risk management strategies on integration decisions for cybersecurity (with suppliers, customers, and internally) to enhance the SC’s cyber resilience and robustness.

A research model grounded in the supply chain risk management (SCRM) literature, with roots in the Dynamic Capabilities View and the Relational View, was developed. Survey responses of 388 SC managers at US manufacturers were obtained to test the model.

An impact of SC cyber risk management strategies on internal cyber integration was detected, which in turn impacted external cyber integration with both suppliers and customers. Further, a positive effect of internal and customer cyber integration on both cyber resilience and robustness was found, while cyber integration with suppliers impacted neither.

Industry practitioners may adapt certain risk management and integration strategies to enhance the cybersecurity posture of their SCs.

This research bridges between the established domain of SCRM and the emergent field of SC cybersecurity by forming and testing novel relationships between SCRM-rooted constructs tailored to an SC cyber risks context.

This study aims to understand how distributed agile teams (DATs), encouraged by globalisation, and recently accelerated by the COVID-19 outbreak, adopt agile practices to achieve project goals by working virtually.

This study developed a multiple-case study involving four companies undergoing several changes, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors collected data mainly through in-depth, face-to-face interviews with seven key informants. Moreover, this study operates data triangulation by referring to secondary data sources and developing a grounded theory data analysis.

The findings highlight three main categories associated with the DAT functioning, namely, “DATs’ implementation issues”, “elements supporting DATs’ implementation” and “outcomes of DATs’ implementation”, that show DATs’ primary triggers, critical aspects and supportive actions for team functioning.

This paper produced valuable theoretical knowledge of DATs’ dynamics within a socio-technical approach that distinguishes soft and hard variables supporting DAT implementation. Moreover, the evidence provides useful suggestions for managers about creating an objective-oriented virtual work environment based on DATs’ self-organisation, digitally shared leadership and occasional on-site socialisation.

This paper provides new and interesting insights that bring to evidence the main variables related to DATs’ adoption and dynamics, showing supporting activities that enhanced their operativity. It provides a valuable descriptive framework for academics and practitioners to understand DATs’ functioning better and take action to improve their implementation.

Given the contradictory findings of standardization/adaptation of marketing strategy in explaining export performance in the extant research, this study aims to examine the contingent effects of managerial ties and born global orientation in the standardized advertising-export performance conceptualization.

The study used two-respondent method in the survey research by a sample of 155 exporting firms operating in the industrial marketing based in Australia and New Zealand and applied hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

The findings demonstrate that standardized advertising has a significant effect on export performance and this relationship is positively moderated by business ties. Such effect is particularly enhanced for born global firms (than nonborn global firms). However, political ties negatively influence the impact of standardized advertising on performance and such effect is stronger for born global firms.

A broader perspective of contingent variables should be included to examine the underlying relationship between standardized advertising and export performance in capturing the dynamism in international marketing contexts, such as institutional frameworks or sociocultural environments in host countries.

Standardized advertising is critical for born global firms’ export performance as it can increase efficiency and speed up internationalization processes. Such positive impact of standardized advertising on export performance is further enhanced if born global firms allocate resources to develop strong business ties with host country partners instead of building political ties with host country governments, because smooth business networking can facilitate standardized advertising on industrial marketing, yet justifiable political relations require intricate negotiations that often prolong internationalization progress.

This study incorporates managerial ties and born global orientation as contingent factors in fixing the theoretic interlock between standardization advertising strategy and export firm performance.

This paper analyses and assesses the effect of firm-specific determinants (FSDs) on supply-chain performance (SCP) and export performance (EP). It examines SCP’s influence on EP and its mediating effect on the relationship between FSD and EP.

This paper develops a theoretical framework based on the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic-capability theory to understand SCP’s role in the FSD-EP link while empirically validating using the Indian automobile industry segments (IAIS) data. The sample frame comprises all listed firms in IAIS between the financial year 2010-11 and 2021–22, with continuous data availability throughout the considered timeline. The paper employs factor analysis for dimension reduction, a panel-data-fixed-effect model to analyze the relationships, bootstrap to test the mediation effect and focus-group discussion for validating the results obtained through statistical analyses.

FSD directly influences SCP’s efficiency aspect and EP. Distribution efficiency and inventory efficiency characteristics of SCP directly impact EP and completely mediate the relationship between FSD and EP.

This study provides significant insights into how firms can increase EP by focusing on firm-specific and SCP-related factors. To improve EP, firms should concentrate on enhancing distribution and inventory efficiencies. Firms must focus on critical firm-level factors like age, size and raw-material import capability to increase their ability to solve SC-specific barriers and improve SCP, resulting in enhanced exports.

This study investigates the impacts of FSD on SCP and EP and examines the mediating effect of SCP on the relationship between FSD and EP. Such a mediating role of SCP has rarely been probed in the literature.

Expectations regarding the participation of management accountants (MAs) in the promotion of sustainability of multinational enterprises (MNEs) have been poorly realised. This raises the question of whether MAs are invited to join in sustainability promotion or does sustainability not fit the perceived professional role of MAs. We suggest that the development of individual-level engagement of corporate sustainability is required for MAs to start contributing to corporate sustainability.

We utilise the psychological ownership theory to investigate how MAs’ professional role could develop to incorporate advancing sustainability. Our qualitative study is based on 32 interviews conducted in seven local business units of three different technology-oriented MNEs.

We reveal features connected to the professional role of MAs that may impede the activation of the routes to psychological ownership of corporate sustainability, thus undermining their involvement in corporate sustainability enhancement. Moreover, we show that MAs’ own perceptions of their professional role may impede the stimulation of the routes.

From a managerial viewpoint, our study helps readers to understand how the routes to psychological ownership of corporate sustainability could be cultivated in the development of the future role of MAs. It also gives input for MA professional organisations and MA professional education providers to develop conditions that foster sustainability thinking among MAs. Moreover, by integrating the examination of MAs’ professional role with the psychological ownership theory, we broaden the theoretical scene both in management accounting and in business sustainability research.