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This study aims to identify and prioritize the key practices and strategies for effective global sourcing and supply chain management (SCM).

The study uses a combination of Pareto analysis and multi-objective optimization based on ratio analysis research methodology to analyze and establish the relationships among the identified key practices and strategies. Pareto analysis enables organization to prioritize organizational efforts and resources by focusing on the most critical factors.

The study shows that the “eco-friendly sourcing strategy”, “lean manufacturing” and “tool cost analysis” are the top critical practices and strategy variables for global sourcing and SCM, whereas the “risk management”, “procurement strategy” and “leverage digital solutions” are the critical practices and strategy variables.

The findings of this research can also assist organizations in making informed decisions to optimize their global sourcing and supply chain operations.

By using these methods, this research paper gives valuable insights into the critical practices and strategies that can enhance efficiency, mitigate risks and drive success in global sourcing and SCM. The subjects and elements this study identified will serve as a framework and suggestions for further theoretical investigation and real-world implementations.

The purpose of this paper is to provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets with an updated Purchasing Portfolio Matrix (PPM) specifically for international sourcing. This data-driven PPM matrix is designed to provide a dynamic and process perspective that can help SMEs survive the disruptions caused by emergency situations such as the global COVID-19 pandemic.

This research reports on qualitative interviews with experienced informants from 15 SMEs in the manufacturing industry. The authors follow process-based research using a combination of retrospective and real-time case study approaches to gradually unveil the dynamics in segmentation and sourcing strategies in the international sourcing context during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings reveal the dynamics of segmentation and international sourcing strategies during global disruptions and unpack the underlying logic behind the dynamics that is specific to SMEs in emerging economies.

Existing literature on PPM predominantly focuses on static and normal sourcing circumstances. This paper addresses this gap by adopting a dynamic approach to study how sourcing strategies of SMEs from emerging economies evolve in a highly volatile environment from an international sourcing perspective.

Based on a theoretical framework of ambidexterity in technology sourcing beyond organizational and technological boundaries, this study aims to explore how start-ups balance technology sourcing in organizational ambidexterity (TSOA) to produce high venture performance.

A questionnaire survey is distributed among start-ups in the science and technology park of a university in eastern China, producing a total of 45 valid responses. The fuzzy-set approach to qualitative comparative analysis is used in this study.

The findings show that start-ups achieve high venture performance through external technology sourcing (external exploration and exploitation) in the initial stage. In the growth stage, start-ups adopt external and internal technology sourcing (internal exploration and exploitation) to produce high venture performance. The technology sourcing strategy in ambidextrous activity for start-ups is punctuated equilibrium and evolving from the external ambidexterity to internally and externally coordinate ambidexterity at entrepreneurial stages.

This study creatively adopts configuration-based thinking to investigate how to balance TSOA for high venture performance, extending the literature on technology sourcing and contributing to the balance theory of exploration and exploitation.

This paper aims to examine the optimal sourcing strategies and pricing decisions of competing toy manufacturers and to discuss how manufacturers’ decisions are impacted by competition.

The authors consider a single-period model to characterise the competition between two competing toy manufacturers. Both of them are free to choose between virgin material and recycled material. The authors consider two types of consumers: sensitive consumers who are concerned about product safety and prefer the toy made of virgin material and insensitive consumers who do not care what material is used in the toy. The competing manufacturers play a Cournot competition.

The results reveal a special case of a win-win situation for both the manufacturer and the consumer. In addition, an increasing number of sensitive consumers does not always raise the price of virgin-material toys.

The authors derive the manufacturer’s equilibrium sourcing strategies, corresponding market-clearing prices and profits obtained.

The paper investigates how toy manufacturers’ optimal sourcing strategies are impacted by competition, considering market segments.

This paper aims to minimize the mean-risk cost of sustainable and resilient supplier selection, order allocation and production scheduling (SS,OA&PS) problem under uncertainty of disruptions. The authors use conditional value at risk (CVaR) as a risk measure in optimizing the combined objective function of the total expected value and CVaR cost. A sustainable supply chain can create significant competitive advantages for companies through social justice, human rights and environmental progress. To control disruptions, the authors applied (proactive and reactive) resilient strategies. In this study, the authors combine resilience and social responsibility issues that lead to synergy in supply chain activities.

The present paper proposes a risk-averse two-stage mixed-integer stochastic programming model for sustainable and resilient SS,OA&PS problem under supply disruptions. In this decision-making process, determining the primary supplier portfolio according to the minimum sustainable-resilient score establishes the first-stage decisions. The recourse or second-stage decisions are: determining the amount of order allocation and scheduling of parts by each supplier, determining the reactive risk management strategies, determining the amount of order allocation and scheduling by each of reaction strategies and determining the number of products and scheduling of products on the planning time horizon. Uncertain parameters of this study are the start time of disruption, remaining capacity rate of suppliers and lead times associated with each reactive strategy.

In this paper, several numerical examples along with different sensitivity analyses (on risk parameters, minimum sustainable-resilience score of suppliers and shortage costs) were presented to evaluate the applicability of the proposed model. The results showed that the two-stage risk-averse stochastic mixed-integer programming model for designing the SS,OA&PS problem by considering economic and social aspects and resilience strategies is an effective and flexible tool and leads to optimal decisions with the least cost. In addition, the managerial insights obtained from this study are extracted and stated in Section 4.6.

This work proposes a risk-averse stochastic programming approach for a new multi-product sustainable and resilient SS,OA&PS problem. The planning horizon includes three periods before the disruption, during the disruption period and the recovery period. Other contributions of this work are: selecting the main supply portfolio based on the minimum score of sustainable-resilient criteria of suppliers, allocating and scheduling suppliers orders before and after disruptions, considering the balance constraint in receiving parts and using proactive and reactive risk management strategies simultaneously. Also, the scheduling of reactive strategies in different investment modes is applied to this problem.

This paper aims to examine how significantly the COVID-19 pandemic affects supply chain operations and how the firms have reacted to the COVID-19-induced supply chain crisis. In addition, this paper investigates whether the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are affected disproportionally by the COVID-19-induced supply chain crisis.

This paper developed a series of hypotheses and tested them using cross-tabulation, canonical correlation, discriminant and exploratory factor analyses of the empirical data.

The descriptive data analysis and hypothesis test results revealed that the labor productivity of the manufacturing, logistics and healthcare industry sectors was affected disproportionally by the COVID-19-induced crisis. However, outsourcing and global sourcing practices themselves did not necessarily exacerbate the severity of supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19. The authors also found that MSMEs were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to a different degree than their large counterparts.

This paper is one of the first of its kind to assess the extent of the COVID-19 adverse impact on supply chain operations using the exploratory analysis of the data collected from the questionnaire survey of US firms representing various industries sectors.

This study examines the firm-level financial consequences caused by supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 and explores how firms' supply chain diversification strategies, including diversified suppliers, customers and products, moderate the negative effect on firm performance.

Based on data drawn from 222 publicly traded firms in China, the authors use event study methodology to estimate the effects of supply chain disruptions on the financial performance of affected firms. Regression analyses are conducted to examine the moderating effects of supply chain diversification.

Firms affected by supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 experienced a significant decline in shareholder value in two weeks and a subsequent decrease in operating performance in one year. Diversified suppliers, customers and products act as shock absorbers to alleviate the negative effects. Further regression shows a substitution effect between customer and product diversification. Cross-industry comparisons reveal that service firms experienced more loss than manufacturing firms. Customer diversification mitigates the adverse effects of supply chain disruptions for both manufacturing and service firms. Supplier diversification exerts a noteworthy role in manufacturing firms, while product diversification is beneficial for service firms.

The study provides empirical evidence on the magnitude of financial consequences of supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 in both the short term and long term and enriches the current understanding of how to build resilience from the supply chain diversification perspective.

This study aims to explore supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic in the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector in Oman. This study analyzes the impact on selected supply chain drivers – facilities, inventory, transportation and sourcing. It further intends to explore whether the supply chain challenges faced by the SME sector in Oman impact their overall performance.

This study follows the quantitative technique of structural equation modeling to examine the proposed hypotheses. Data were collected electronically from SME managers/owners/entrepreneurs. All items were adopted and measured using a five-point Likert scale. One hundred and four complete and usable responses were received and considered.

The data was analyzed using SPSS and PLS statistical software. The model has been supported empirically, and the results showed a significant relationship between supply chain drivers and SMEs’ overall performance in Oman, except for supply chain inventory. The results have demonstrated that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the SMEs’ supply chain drivers in Oman and, consequently, their overall performance.

The results of this research can drive the development and implementation of a supply chain management strategy. This research will help policymakers induce the performance of SMEs affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It would further enhance strategic sourcing and supplier performance considering the developed practices associated with the resource-based view.

The originality of the current study lies in its ability to empirically test two models within the Omani SMEs context while considering the supply chain drivers as a single variable or dividing it into four separate independent variables. This study would provide a preview for scholars for such empirical investigation and serve as a reference for policymakers and practitioners to maintain a management system of crises that may protect the SME supply chain drivers.

The new geopolitical context being created by the Ukraine–Russia war highlights the need for structured approaches to planning and implementing unhooking strategies and developing associated supply chain reconfigurations.

The authors have interviewed six supply chain executives to begin the investigation of the key supply chain risks and disruptions caused by the Ukraine–Russia war.

Initial corporate responses to the Ukraine–Russia conflict were significant, perhaps unprecedented. However, as institutional, corporate and consumer sentiment influence reconfiguration responses, the authors have identified three supply chain pathways that underpin unhooking actions.

The authors selected respondents from each different type of supply chain interaction with the conflict zone (inbound, outbound and within), covering both components/intermediate products and finished goods. Therefore the sample size was small and designed to fit in with the spirit of the pathway initiative.

The authors reinforce the key role of procurement and supply chain management in not just supply but also in downstream markets that can accelerate decoupling and mitigate the associated supply chain disruptions.

The authors observe that supply chains are increasingly being weaponized, as external institutional and consumer influences necessitate companies to unhook from conflict zones, countries, or regimes. They are becoming increasingly intertwined with foreign policy.

The novelty of the contribution to the associated discourse is the perspective that after decades of increasing globalization and geographic dispersion of supply chains, the unhooking effort is not limited to a firm and its internal operations but involves multiple stakeholders. For instance, the full extent of the complex linkages of supply chains, networks and relationships that touch conflict zone geographies must be considered, particularly those that are incompatible with the firm's values and aims, including those of their stakeholders.

Supply chain vulnerability (SCV) analysis is vital for manufacturers globally because it creates a pathway for building resilient supply chains in uncertain environments. This study aims to identify drivers of SCV in the Indian manufacturing sector.

Sixteen drivers were identified from the literature review and followed by expert interviews. Interpretive structural modeling was used to determine the hierarchical structural relationship among identified SCV factors.

It was found that risk is not a board room agenda. Misaligned performance measures with incentives and lack of risk dashboard are the causal factors of SCV. Supply chain security, centralized production and distribution and lack of trust in the supply chain were driven factors.

This provides new insights to assess and prioritize initiatives for supply chain sustainability in terms of continuing business operations. The structural model provides a systemic view of SCV and helps reduce vulnerability.