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Based on the resource orchestration perspective, this study aims to explore whether and how strategic supply management (SSM) affects firms’ operational performance (OP) and innovation performance (IP).

Survey data comprising 404 valid responses are collected from traditional manufacturing firms in China. Confirmatory factor analysis confirms the reliability and validity of the measures. Structural equation modeling and bootstrapping are used to test all hypotheses.

SSM improves firms’ OP and IP. Furthermore, supply base resource mobilization (SBRM) and supply market resource mobilization (SMRM) have partial mediating effects on the relationships. SBRM has a greater effect on OP, while SMRM has a greater effect on IP. In addition, these two types of resource mobilization form different mediating paths between SSM and firm performance, and environmental uncertainty positively moderates this relationship.

With the development of national innovation strategies such as the “Made in China 2025” plan, the Chinese manufacturing industry aims to move from low-cost manufacturing to innovative and high-quality manufacturing. The study’s findings further emphasize the role of purchasing and supply management in external resource management. In addition to demonstrating the differential effects of heterogeneous resource mobilization on OP and IP, different mediation pathways through external resources mobilization are identified in the relationship between SSM and firm performance.

This paper aims to show how systems thinking can be incorporated in action research (AR) interventions to successfully implement organizational change. The two case studies described in this paper would be useful to managers who want to implement change in their own organizations.

Both projects used AR as the methodology due to its flexible, responsive and emergent nature. In one project, there was a deliberate attempt to incorporate soft systems thinking whereas in the other project soft systems thinking was used as a sense‐making process while carrying out AR. As an added benefit both approaches have resulted in successful completion of doctoral research.

Soft systems methodology (SSM) and AR can both help in addressing ill‐structured problems faced by managers, in collaboration with stakeholders using questioning and reflection. Both lead to an increased understanding about the problem situation. The difference is that SSM uses a more structured approach while AR is emergent in its application. SSM practitioners advocate that action researchers would benefit by declaring in advance an intellectual framework to guide their research. This has the additional benefit of overcoming obstacles in an academic environment where research processes are still governed based on traditional research methods.

The ideas presented in the paper could be particularly useful to a practice‐based discipline such as project management where research into its practice is in demand.

This paper would be useful to managers interested in a rigorous methodology to implement organizational change in addressing business problems. It demonstrates ways of combining SSM and AR, resulting in a powerful research tool to carry out rigorous research.

The purpose of this study is to examine how multi-tier suppliers respond to the institutional pressures for the implementation of sustainable supply management (SSM) practices in supply chains, and what institutional logics allow them to do so.

This study employs a qualitative research design, drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with 46 owners and managers of multi-tier suppliers and 18 key informants of diverse stakeholders. Following an abductive approach, institutional theory conceptually guides the analytical iteration processes between theory and interview data.

The findings demonstrate two kinds of thematic responses to institutional pressures – coupling (good side) and decoupling (dark side) of the supply chain – used by the factory management of multi-tier suppliers. This paper also identifies multiple institutional logics – market-led logic, values-led logic and holistic sustainability logic – that are perceived to conflict (trade-offs) and complement (synergies) the SSM implementation.

By investigating the perspectives of the factory management of upstream apparel suppliers, this study enhances the understanding of the connection between (de)coupling responses and institutional logics inside the multi-tier supplier firms. Further research would be required to include more downstream tiers including the ultimate users.

The findings may be of particular attention to brand-owning apparel retailers, industry leaders and policymakers who are seeking to understand multi-tier suppliers' challenges, conflicts and (de)coupling responses, and become aware of how they can be dealt with.

This study contributes to and expands the embryonic research stream of sustainable multi-tier supply chain management by connecting it to the wider application of institutional theory.

This study aims to investigate the role of sustainable supply management (SSM) practices in a firm’s overall sustainability performance and reflect the significance of supply management in this performance. The paper uses dynamic capability view as a theoretical foundation for the research of SSM practices and differentiates between reactive and proactive practices.

The research design includes a focus group session with nine supply management professionals and survey data collected from 111 companies. The research objectives are examined by means of quantitative analyses.

The empirical results show that SSM practices represent a significant share of the firm’s sustainability performance overall. However, the significance of the practices differs depending on the strategic type and importance of the practice. SSM practices reflecting reporting and upstream SCM activities aim to ensure sustainability of the entire supply chain and have a focal role in improving firm’s sustainability performance.

A three-dimensional matrix for the categorization of SSM practices is proposed. This is a novel theoretical contribution to the SSM literature. Reactive practices are basic ones where the strategic importance regarding the development of new capabilities is low. Proactive practices are dynamic in nature and aim toward the development of new capabilities. Thus, proactive practices have a long-term effect and are necessary for gaining higher sustainability performance.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of soft systems methodology (SSM) and review the ways in which the methodology has been applied by managers and researchers to gain a broad understanding of library and information service (LIS) activity.

Seven detailed examples of the application of SSM to LIS activity show for each the aim, rationale for the use of SSM, operationalisation, findings and benefits of using SSM to understand problem situations.

Analysis of the application of SSM in LIS contexts demonstrates the extent of its efficacy in learning and understanding in “problem situations” and the resultant changes to LIS activities.

The paper draws together examples of studies which may prompt LIS professionals and researchers to consider the use of SSM in the management of LIS.

An in‐depth review of the processes and outcomes of the application of SSM to the understanding of LIS activity is provided.

Sustainable supply management (SSM) has attracted considerable attention from researchers in recent years concentrating on how firms develop and use SSM capabilities to meet stakeholder demands. Acquiring and sharing sustainability knowledge with suppliers have been identified as critical success factors of SSM. The purpose of this paper is to identify the mechanisms that allow firms to effectively acquire and share sustainability-related knowledge with suppliers and how these knowledge generation and desorption mechanisms support the evolution of firm SSM capabilities.

To address the research purpose, four longitudinal case studies, two industry leaders in SSM and two industry followers, were conducted at multiple consecutive points in time between 2008 and 2013.

The results indicate which mechanisms constitute a sustainability-related absorptive and desorptive capacity and how they support SSM. Thereby, this research explains which mechanisms support firms to acquire sustainability knowledge, assimilate and exploit it and also share it with their suppliers over time.

This research sheds light on the development and refinement of SSM capabilities by studying the explorative and exploitative learning cycles within focal buying firms taking place over time. Findings indicate a multiplicity in applying absorptive capacity- and desorptive capacity-related mechanisms yields an ambidextrous ability to simultaneously exploit existing knowledge through incremental SSM improvements and explore new SSM knowledge for more radical refinements of SSM capabilities.

The results provide a blueprint for firms, especially for sustainability followers, seeking to develop effective SSM capabilities. Furthermore, the results explain which mechanisms support firms to acquire, assimilate and exploit sustainability knowledge and also to share it with their suppliers.

SSM knowledge acquisition, assimilation, exploitation and sharing takes place over time in focal buying firms. This ongoing process helps explain how an SSM capability development and refinement is manifested in both leaders and followers.

As focal buyers implement sustainable supplier management (SSM) to advance their supply chain sustainability, the purpose of this paper is to provide a more nuanced understanding of how buyers’ use of power may incite varying perceptions of justice from suppliers that affect sustainable supplier performance (SSP).

This paper draws on multidisciplinary literature and collects empirical data from 181 supplying firms in China to examine the complex links among power use, justice, SSM, and sustainable performance using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Both coercive and reward buyer power can facilitate SSM implementation and justice perception moderates the impact of SSM on SSP. Furthermore, coercive power adversely influences justice evaluation, thereby attenuating the effect of SSM on performance.

This study complements and extends sustainable supply chain management research by evaluating SSM: on environmental, social and economic performance; from the perspectives of suppliers; and in an emerging market where many suppliers of Western firms are located. It also adds to behavioral SCM research by examining how buyers’ exercise of power might influence suppliers’ justice perception.

To implement SSM, focal buyers cannot simply issue codes of conduct to suppliers and ignore suppliers’ disposition to commit to standards. While coercive power might be convenient and tempting for buying firms, managers ought to be judicious in the use of coercion.

This is the first large-scale empirical investigation on the links among power use, justice, SSM and sustainable performance from the perspectives of suppliers in an emerging economy.

Social marketing has gained widespread recognition as a means of motivating behaviour change in individuals for societal good. Many opinions have been shared regarding its potential to affect society or systems-wide change, leading to the macro-or systems social marketing (SSM) concepts and ideas. This paper aims to critically appraise the SSM literature, identify key features and highlight gaps for future research.

A search was conducted of peer-reviewed SSM articles published from 2000 to March 2018 inclusive. A number of online databases were mined, including but not limited to Google, Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane and Medline. Key social marketing outlets (Social Marketing Quarterly and Journal of Social Marketing) were browsed manually. In total, 28 SSM articles were identified.

SSM adopts a dynamic systems thinking approach; it is an orientation, not a theory or model; it is multi-method; and it recognises that intervention can occur on multiple levels. Yet, greater attention should be given to the complexities of the systems context and the power structures and relations that exist between stakeholders. Significant issues also include stakeholder voice and participation, the use and reporting of theories and models, the measurement of long-term intervention outcomes and the undesirable impacts of SSM.

This paper identifies issues that need to be addressed if social marketing is to become a more system-oriented means to positively influence societal change. Implications for theoretical and practical development of the social marketing field are provided.

Sustainable shipping management (SSM) has received much attention from shipping companies in recent years. Grounded on resource accumulation and orientation perspectives, this study aims to identify the antecedents of SSM and examine their effects on the performance (i.e. shippers' loyalty and financial performance) of shipping companies.

A model comprising a network of hypotheses that specifies the relationships between the antecedents, SSM, shippers' loyalty and financial performance was constructed. Subsequently, a survey questionnaire was designed. Survey data were then collected from 294 shipping companies located in Vietnam and analysed using structural equation modelling.

The findings indicate that the five antecedents have significant effects on the effectiveness of SSM. They are stakeholders' focus, strategic orientation, supply chain collaboration, sustainability resource development and sustainability technology development. Bootstrapping analysis indicates that SSM has significant direct and indirect effects on financial performance via shippers' loyalty.

Applied perspectives are complementary and offer unique explanations to SSM. However, the orientation perspective offers stronger explanation. This study also improves the allocation of resources and capabilities in managing sustainability to enhance the organisational performance of shipping companies.

This study synthesises the sustainability and strategic management literature to identify the antecedents of SSM.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an illustration of the methodological processes and resultant outcomes relating to one theme investigated during an application of soft systems methodology (SSM) in a library and information service (LIS) context, in order to contribute to the explication of the methodology to LIS professionals.

A selective but detailed description of the use of SSM is provided in relation to case study research undertaken at a UK law firm, which included, within the framework of SSM, the conduct of interviews with 42 legal and information practitioners.

The described application of SSM is a demonstration of its use for structuring learning in situations: in this instance, of a developed understanding of stakeholders' views of appropriate LIS activity in a law firm.

The paper is a selective representation of the first use of SSM by a researcher and demonstrates the methodology's applicability to any situation about which learning is considered to be desirable.

The paper provides an illustrative application of SSM which may prompt the use of, or may contribute to understanding of, the methodology by LIS practitioners, researchers and educators.

The paper provides an in‐depth illustration of the SSM‐informed processes and outcomes in a novel application area.