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The purpose of this paper is to investigate how three core elements of critical management studies (CMSs), “de-naturalisation”, “reflexivity” and “(non)-performative intent”, can help expand the current debate in the supply chain management (SCM) field.

The authors used a systematic literature review to select 103 articles published in 12 high-ranking journals in the SCM field based on the Academic Journal Guide of the Chartered Association of Business Schools.

The findings of this study suggest that SCM studies can be narrowed down into four major CMSs themes: “power”, “ethics and environmental issues”, “diversity” and “working conditions”, but even these themes are still under-discussed and undertheorized in SCM. The literature the authors reviewed is more concerned with explaining these phenomena than questioning them and proposing new agendas. This paper, therefore, will discuss how these three core elements of CMS can help transform the “hidden” issues of SCM, which it will do by illustrating it in the context of buyer–supplier relationships and lean manufacturing.

This research will encourage SCM scholars who are interested in conducting more critical studies and teaching the harmful effects of global supply chains.

This paper highlights that a combination of SCM and CMS approaches is important when we decide to adopt a more critical “constructive” view of supply chain challenges and engage practical and critical views, respectively, to generate knowledge that not only increases (corporate) performance but also highlights social needs and values.

This study aims to explain the value of using critical realist case research in supply chain management (SCM). While positivist case research focuses on generalizable law-like rules, and interpretivist research explores social meaning, critical realist case research seeks to make objective explanations that are bound by the case context. This study demonstrates how a critical realist synthesis of causal reasoning and contextual complexity allows for stronger theorizing in SCM.

This study highlights the possibilities of conducting critical realist case research in SCM by investigating philosophical perspectives in existing literature.

Based on existing literature, this study identifies which parts of contemporary SCM research will benefit from the critical realist perspective. This study also contends that supply chain scholars can use critical realist case research to develop new types of contextualized middle-range theories.

This study proposes to complement the qualitative SCM toolbox with critical realist case research to further refine the development of novel theories. This will benefit not only researchers but also managers, as it opens the doors to new and inspiring research.

This study takes an important step toward establishing critical realist case studies as a key methodology in SCM. While other scholars have introduced critical realism as a paradigmatic approach in SCM, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first article that develops a qualitative critical realist case research approach.

This study aims to systematically review the current academic literature on the role of technologies in low-carbon supply chain management (SCM), identify and analyse critical themes and propose an integrated conceptual model.

A systematic literature review of 48 papers published between 2010 and 2022 was conducted. A conceptual model was advanced.

Based on the analysis and synthesis of the reviewed papers, this review provides an initial attempt to integrate technology adoption and low-carbon SCM by developing a diffusion of innovation model of technology-enabled low-carbon SCM within the technology–organisation–environment (TOE) framework, in which drivers, enablers and barriers to technology adoption practices are identified. The environmental, economic and social outcomes of adoption practices are also identified.

This study provides a novel and comprehensive roadmap for future research on technology-enabled low-carbon SCM. Furthermore, policy, as well as managerial implications, is presented for policymakers and managers.

This paper is aimed at introducing ḥalāl supply chain management (SCM) to the British construction sector, construction supply chains and “SCM”. Ḥalāl supply chains can optimise British construction supply chains by promoting meticulous, qualitative and mutually reinforcing systems. The British construction sector has failed to overcome the inimical, inefficient, fractured and transactional attitudes (collectively, the “complexities”) pervading it and the supply chains beneath it. Construction SCM has been able to introduce change, but with limited profound effect. This is owed to its lack of human agency, proactive quality control systems, as well as other verification and assurance mechanisms. Introducing the Sharīʿa principles encapsulating ḥalāl food supply chains can offer the input needed to optimise current construction supply chains.

This paper adopts an integrative general review of the academic literature pertaining to the British construction sector, construction SCM, ḥalāl food supply chains, ḥalāl assurance and control processes. The extensive literature review is crucial because it will enable introducing “ḥalāl” to construction SCM, hence ḥalāl construction supply chain management (“ḤCSCM”). ḤCSCM will then be applied to one of the most recent British construction SCM systems to identify how ḤCSCM can complement existing systems.

The findings indicate that ḤCSCM can further alleviate the complexities thwarting the British construction sector on a supply chain level. This is attributed to taʿrīf’s tailored identification and traceability processes, iltizām’s cross-lateral monitoring processes and istiqāmah’s Sharīʿa-compliant, assured and verifiable certification system, all of which complement the existing construction supply chain assurance and control processes in the UK.

The conception of ḤCSCM promotes an untapped area in the academic literature. Academicians and practitioners can transplant ḥalāl principles from the ḥalāl food manufacturing sector into the British construction sector – similar to how construction SCM was founded by principles originating from the manufacturing industry. This paper highlights the shortfalls of construction SCM in British construction supply chains and propounds how ḤCSCM can resolve them.

The present study seeks to explore the relationships among human resource management (HRM) practices, supply chain management (SCM) implementation and small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) performance in Australia. It also investigates whether HRM practices have any mediating effect on such relationships.

In line with the research objective, a quantitative model was applied and a multi-item survey questionnaire was developed to collect primary data. Cross-sectional surveys of a sample of 216 SMEs from different industries were undertaken to collect data, and factor analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used to analyse data and test hypotheses.

The statistical results inform that SCM implementation and HRM practices improve SMEs' performance in Australia. SCM implementation is also found to be positively linked to HRM practices and has a significant indirect effect on organisational performance when the HRM practices are mediating. HRM practices are, thus, found in this study to mediate the relationship between SCM implementation and Australia's SMEs performance.

The concurrent effects of SCM and HRM practices on SMEs' performance and how businesses' internal management such as HRM practices mediate and affect SCM and SMEs' performances have not been addressed previously in the Australian business context. This study, hence, addresses the gap in the literature concerning the effect of SCM on SMEs by integrating HRM practices as a significant behavioural support system to SCM implementation in Australia's SMEs.

This paper aims to adopt a resource-based view (RBV) to investigate the link between marketing (MRKT)–supply chain management (SCM) alignment, supply chain resilience (SCR) and firm performance. It aims to cover two gaps in the SCM literature: the missing links between MRKT–SCM alignment and the performance of a firm, mediated by the SCR, and the role of absorptive capacity (AC) in shaping such links.

After the identification of a key capability in SCM, i.e. firms’ ability to align their’ MRKT–SCM processes and the role of AC, the relationships with performance are empirically tested in a sample of 133 firms in the fast-moving consumer goods industry in Saudi Arabia. The data was analyzed using SPSS 27 through hierarchal multiple regression and the PROCESS macro.

First, MRKT–SCM alignment capabilities provide a significant direct effect on SCR, and in turn, SCR also had a significant indirect effect on firm performance. Second, there is a significant mediating effect of SCR on the MRKT –SCM alignment and firm performance relationship. Third, a novel finding shows a statistically significant interaction effect and the interaction pattern supported that absorptive capacity would substitute the positive effect of SCR on firm performance, which implies that in the absence of SCR, AC can substitute the role of SCR. Finally, the results suggest a significant moderation and mediation effect for the overall model.

The investigation is based on a self-reported cross-sectional analysis, and it is specific to a single economy. Nonetheless, it suggests a number of interesting implications. Achieving excellence in SCR requires the development of a distinct set of capabilities because the management of core supply chain activities and the alignment of MRKT with the supply chain are not mutually exclusive, rather they are complementary. Contrary to common expectations, an alignment of MRKT–SCM processes leads to improved interfunctional coordination.

In the postCOVID-19 world firms should develop and integrate their AC to capitalize on their MRKT–SCM alignment to pursue better performance. Investment in AC is required to develop, maintain and use it. It can play an important role against uncertainties in the long run.

This paper is unique in that it employs the RBV – to unpack the mechanisms through which MRKT–SCM activities contribute to SCR, and firm performance. It represents a first response to the call for research into the use of such theoretical frameworks which has recently been made in the SCM literature because of the COVID-19 pandemic. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper also offers the first empirical test of how the MRKT–SCM interacts with existing capabilities to create SCR, providing clear guidance on how to exploit its often undervalued potential.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of socio-cognitive mindfulness on resilience, stress and thriving among middle managers in higher education at two separate periods during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Study 1, the authors examined how socio-cognitive mindfulness predicted perceived stress and whether the relationship between mindfulness and perceived stress was mediated by resilience. In Study 2, the authors replicated the first study and further hypothesized that the link between mindfulness and thriving was also mediated by resilience.

The authors conducted cross-sectional correlational studies to test the hypotheses using data from 163 middle managers in higher education early in the pandemic in Study 1 and 204 middle managers a year later in Study 2.

Study 1 findings showed socio-cognitive mindfulness predicted perceived stress, and that resilience fully mediated this relationship. In Study 2, socio-cognitive mindfulness did not predict perceived stress, but it did predict thriving, and that relationship was fully mediated by resilience.

This research is the first to address how socio-cognitive mindfulness directly impacts perceived stress and thriving and its impact through building resilience. To date, few studies have focused on stress in higher education middle managers or addressed the importance of building socio-cognitive mindfulness and resilience to thrive amid ongoing challenges. Implications of the pandemic's influence on the results are also addressed.

In view of the complexity of supply chain management (SCM) in the insurance industry, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper was the first to use symmetrical and asymmetrical methos to examine how the insurer’s service quality and SCM can be configurated to explain the relationships between the insurance companies and brokers as the intermediaries. This study positions insurance brokers as the insurance companies’ customers and supply chain partners, aims to examine the relationships between service quality, SCM and relationship quality.

This paper undertook two studies and used two methods to examine how the insurer’s service quality and SCM can be configurated to explain the relationships between the insurance companies and brokers as the intermediaries. Both symmetrical and asymmetrical analyses were performed including regression and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

The results from symmetrical analyses and fsQCA from two countries show substantial differences in how service quality and SCM affect relationship quality. In particular, fsQCA show that all service quality dimensions are important antecedent conditions of relationship quality for Portuguese brokers. Interestingly for Irish brokers, the combination of assurance, responsiveness and the insurer’ empathy conjunctively accounted for their satisfaction, whereas none of these quality factors are related to their commitment and trust. All SCM factors are important to explain the brokers’ relationship quality with their chosen insurers for both countries.

This study contributes to three areas of research: service quality, SCM and relationship marketing. Firstly, this study used an asymmetrical approach to providing insights into the effect of service quality dimensions by showcasing how these dimensions were configurated to explain the outcome of interest, rather than examining their symmetrical path coefficients. Secondly, this study identified the key factors of SCM in the insurance industry and how these factors can be configurated through Boolean algebra to explain relationship quality between supply chain partners. Finally, this study has implications for relationship marketing research.

As the study was conducted with the insurance brokers in Portugal and Ireland, the findings have implications for the insurance companies for the two countries. As different service quality factors and SCM exert different effects on relationship quality, the insurance companies should look into these factors to modify their current practice to improve relationship quality with their brokers.

Theoretically, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to approach from intermediaries to address effectiveness of SCM. Methodologically, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to use fsQCA – a case-based approach to understand SCM and relationship quality between stakeholders.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic analysis about the effects of additive manufacturing (AM) technology adoption on supply chain management (SCM) processes and SCM components in an engineer-to-order environment.

Based on two explorative case studies from the hearing systems industry, the impact of AM technology adoption on SCM processes and SCM components is investigated. General systems theory and the contingency approach serve as theoretical underpinning.

Not only the internal processes and management activities, e.g. in manufacturing and order fulfillment, of producers are affected by a changeover to AM, but also the SCM processes and components relating to the supply and demand side of a firm’s supply chain. Endogenous and AM technology-related factors are contingency factors that help to explain differing effects of AM technology adoption on SCM processes and SCM components.

It is proposed that AM’s ability to economically build custom products provides the potential to alleviate the common dilemma between product variety and scale economies.

Manufacturing firms are encouraged to consider the potential effects of AM on SCM processes and SCM components when deciding whether to adopt AM technologies in the production of industrial parts.

The research adds to the widely unexplored effects that AM technology usage in customized parts production has on SCM processes and components. Moreover, the general lack of case studies analyzing the implications of AM technology adoption from a supply chain perspective is addressed. The resulting propositions may serve as a starting point for further research on the impact of AM in engineer-to-order supply chains.

This paper aims to present the results of a study of supply chain management (SCM) practice in small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in Merseyside, UK.

A questionnaire is used to identify the perceived benefits, barriers and attitudes towards SCM. The questionnaire was distributed to 250 SMEs in the Merseyside area. A total of 60 usable replies were received.

The results reveal the perceived benefits of SCM to SMEs, which centre on SCM as a means to improve customer responsiveness. It also reveals concerns over SMEs' ability to adapt to these new working relationships and therefore gain the desired benefits. Analysis of these barriers highlights that they reside at the individual, relational and organisational level, thus increasing the complexity of adapting to SCM.

Given the focus of the paper, this only looked at SMEs in the Merseyside area.

The paper provides thoughts on how SMEs can improve SCM within their own organisations and supply chains. This includes the adoption of a multi‐faceted change management approach to facilitate the adoption of SCM. This needs to cover the individual, relational and organisational levels.

Much of the SCM literature is dominated by case studies of large manufacturing organisations. The focus on the barriers and benefits to SMEs in a regional area is thus an identified gap in the extant literature.