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This study investigates how asset specificity, relational governance and firm adaptability relate with supply chain integration (SCI), considering selected food processing firms (FPFs) in Uganda.

This study applies a quantitative research methodology. This research draws on a sample of 103 FPFs that have been selected from a population of 345 FPFs located in Kampala district. Hypothesis testing was done using Smart PLS version 3.

Asset specificity has a significant positive relationship with SCI, and firm adaptability partially mediates this relationship. Also, there is a full mediation impact of firm adaptability on the relationship between relational governance and SCI.

This study focused on perceptual measures to get responses from managers on the level of integration with key suppliers and customers, yet firms deal with a number of suppliers and customers.

This study contributes to existing literature on SCI by applying the transaction cost theory. The study focuses on the influence of asset specificity, relational governance and firm adaptability on SCI in the food processing sector. Literature on relational governance in supply chain using the transaction cost theory remains scanty. Few studies have also focused on firm adaptability as a mediator in the FPS with specific focus on Uganda, yet the sector is highly faced with uncertain events. The uncertain events in the sector and in developing countries call for adaptive strategies. Additionally, this study is the first to use firm adaptability to mediate the influence of asset specificity and relational governance on SCI more so in a developing country like Uganda where the FPS is one of the most important in the economy.

Grounded in contingency theory and strategic fit theory, the goal for this research was to determine if managers differentiate in terms of the degree of partnership when allocating resources for planning, joint operating controls, communication and other management components to relationships and if this differentiation is based on the Partnership Model (Lambert et al., 1996).

In total, 381 managers representing 31 relationships participated in one-and-a-half-day partnership meetings, and the authors analyzed how the management components were implemented in each relationship compared to the recommendations in the Partnership Model.

Managers did not differentiate types of partnerships which led to over-resourcing relationships with low potential and under-resourcing those with the highest potential for creating value. The principles of contingency theory and strategic fit were not used for managing relationships.

Contingency theory combined with the relationship view suggests that management components should not be implemented at the same level for all relationships, but in the 31 relationships studied different partnership types were not managed based on their potential.

The research reinforces the need for a formal structure like the Partnership Model to establish joint goals for a relationship and guide management in implementation.

Effective supply chain management depends on the ability of managers to differentiate among partnership types and fit relational mechanisms that are appropriate. However, researchers tend to generalize their findings to all partnerships regardless of potential. The authors found support for the Partnership Model published in IJLM in 1996 as a method to resource different types of partnerships following the contingency perspective and strategic fit theory.

This paper aims to present the vertical integration state-of-the-art and propose an expansion of the operations and supply chain management (OSCM) field by identifying gaps and bottlenecks.

This paper uses a systematic literature review based on a sample of 173 OSCM field articles, collected from Scopus and Web of Science databases.

There are no single factors, such as future costs, structures or skills development, in the decision to vertically integrate operations. It is necessary to combine the vision of production costs with the perspective of governance and transaction costs. In addition, it is essential to consider the competency perspective and its impact on capability building.

Few studies have attempted to understand how vertical integration is used in terms of OSCM research themes and theories. Vertical integration can help companies face challenges and serve as a potential solution for achieving better prices, demand control and quality management.

The significant role of vertical integration mechanisms in supply chains is crucial for managers evaluating a firm's reconfiguration with more vertical operations. Policymakers interested in supporting the smoothness of vertical integration decisions in regulatory agencies play a key role as contingencies.

In times of global challenges, vertical integration is a strategy known to be more effective for firms to obtain a competitive advantage, making them more resilient.

This paper addresses gaps in the vertical integration theme and provides insights for future research development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of two typical relationship management approaches (trust relationship with suppliers and reciprocity) on manufacturer resilience in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. Moreover, this paper aims to deepen the understanding of environmental uncertainty's moderating effect on the association between the trust relationship with suppliers (TRS) and reciprocity.

Structural equation modeling has been used to test the hypotheses on 361 Chinese manufacturing firms' managers and independent directors during the COVID-19 crisis.

The results reveal that reciprocity positively enhances three dimensions of manufacturer resilience, namely, preparedness, responsiveness and recovery capability. Reciprocity positively mediates the relationships between TRS and preparedness, responsiveness and recovery capability. Moreover, environmental uncertainty moderates the association between TRS and reciprocity.

This study highlights the critical role of reciprocity, the relational governance approach, in enhancing manufacturer resilience in practice. This paper suggests that during emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic, managers should adopt trust and reciprocity in supplier relationship governance to strengthen the resilience of manufacturing companies and adapt effective strategies according to the environment.

This study is unique in developing new scales of manufacturer resilience through interviews and surveys with Chinese manufacturers and theoretical research. Based on the social capital theory and social exchange theory, this study shed light on the role of trust and reciprocity. It also bridges relational governance theory with the literature on manufacturing firm resilience literature to help manufacturers better understand the transdisciplinary links between relationship management and resilient operations in emergencies.

Research on the relationship between customer bargaining power and supplier performance in supplier–customer relationships has flourished in recent decades. This study aims to empirically investigate whether product market overlap (PMO) in a supply chain moderates the effect of customer bargaining power on supplier profitability.

This study uses large-scale secondary data from multiple databases. Econometric panel data techniques are used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that PMO in a supplier–customer relationship and PMO in supplier–supplier relationships both exacerbate the negative effect of the bargaining power of customers on supplier profitability.

This study contributes to the field of supply chain management. This study brings new insights into the ongoing debate surrounding the relationship between customer bargaining power and supplier profitability. The study also contributes to the literature on supply chain networks by showing the impact of indirect supply chain relationships.

This study aims to identify the driving factors that influence blockchain technology adoption in the context of a supply chain (SC), considering three dimensions: technology, transactions and collaboration.

An integrative systematic literature review of previous studies was conducted. Using three main dimensions: technology, transactions and SC collaboration, supported by the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, transaction cost economics (TCE) and concepts of SC collaboration, the authors categorized factors that contributed to blockchain technology in SC in the extant literature and proposed a theoretical model that covers these three dimensions.

The findings reveal that the information sharing category – related to the SC collaboration dimension – is the category with the greatest number of motivating factors for blockchain adoption in the SC context, followed by performance expectancy and behavioral uncertainty.

The review considers papers published until 2021 obtained from a specific database.

This study focuses on filling the research gap concerning technology adoption as it considers the interconnection formed by two organizations, interorganizational transactions and SC collaboration, using complementary theories to explain the phenomenon.

The purpose of our study is to study the impact of chief executive officer (CEO) optimism and narcissism on the company's capital structure.

(1) The authors opt for regression, machine learning and text analysis to explore the impact of narcissism and optimism on the capital structure. (2) We analyze CEO interviews and employ three methods to evaluate narcissism: the dictionary proposed by Anglin, which enabled us to assess the following components: authority, superiority, vanity and exhibitionism; count of first-person singular and plural pronouns and count of CEO photos displayed. Following this approach, we were able to make a more thorough assessment of corporate narcissism. (3) Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) technique helped to find the differences in the corporate rhetoric of narcissistic and non-narcissistic CEOs and to find differences between the topics of interviews and letters provided by narcissistic and non-narcissistic CEOs.

Our research demonstrates that narcissism has a slight and nonlinear impact on capital structure. However, our findings suggest that there is an impact of pessimism and uncertainty under pandemic conditions when managers predicted doom and completely changed their strategies. We applied various approaches to estimate the gender distribution of CEOs and found that the median values of optimism and narcissism do not depend on sex. Using LDA, we examined the content and key topics of CEO interviews, defined as positive and negative. There are some differences in the topics: narcissistic CEOs are more likely to speak about long-term goals, projects and problems; they often talk about their brand and business processes.

First, we examine the COVID-19 pandemic period and evaluate how CEO optimism and pessimism affect their financial decisions under specific external conditions. The pandemic forced companies to shift the way they worked: either to switch to the remote work model or to interrupt operations; to lose or, on the contrary, attract clients. In addition, during this period, corporate management can have a different outlook on their company’s financial performance and goals. The LDA technique helped to find the differences in the corporate rhetoric of narcissistic and non-narcissistic CEOs. Second, we use three methods to evaluate narcissism. Third, the research is based on a set of advanced methods: machine learning techniques (random forest to reveal a nonlinear impact of CEO optimism and narcissism on capital structure).

Globalisation, trade barriers, unprecedented health crises and geo-political crises have forced organisations to revisit their performance measurement systems (PMS) to better prepare their supply chain against the risk and improve performance in times of crisis. This study aims to review the supply chain operation reference (SCOR)-based PMS and propose a dynamic SCOR-based PMS for supply chain risk management (SCRM).

Due to the need for multi-stakeholder perspectives on SCOR-based PMS for the SCRM, the authors aimed to develop a theory rather than to elaborate upon or test the theory. Hence, the authors adopted an inductive theory-building approach to build research propositions. The authors also gathered 12 semi-structured interviews with knowledgeable managers from B2B international companies.

The findings of the study highlight the challenges faced by the organisations during the implementation of the SCOR-based performance indicators and the positive impacts they have on decision-making and on the continuous improvement strategy of organisations to tackle supply chain risks and improve performance. The findings suggest that the effects of these indicators are more felt during risk management and risk monitoring stages.

Like any other study, this study has some rules, and, thus, the authors caution the readers that they must interpret the findings of the research considering these limitations. The study is based on semi-structured qualitative interviews. The interviews were conducted with 12 knowledgeable managers from France; thus, the insights drawn from the study cannot be generalised to other settings. Furthermore, the samples represent something other than small and medium enterprises. In the future, the samples from small and medium firms can offer a nuanced understanding of the performance indicators for SCRM.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the few studies which has attempted to revisit the SCOR-based PMS in the B2B supply chain for risk management. The study’s findings help expand the SCOR-based PMS literature and offer numerous insights to the management and consultants facing challenges in SCOR implementation.

This study aims to explore the direct and indirect effects of sales opportunism and sales conflict as well as of non-economic and economic satisfaction in business-to-business (B2B) sales relationships. This understanding offers B2B buyers enhanced knowledge of sales business expectations towards sustainable business relationships in the future.

Through self-administered questionnaires, data were obtained from 237 sales or marketing managers/directors of small- and medium-sized companies across industries in Spain, who were randomly contacted via LinkedIn. The multivariate analysis of measurement and structural models was based on IBM SPSS Amos 27.

The study confirms that sales opportunism positively affects sales conflict. Moreover, sales opportunism is negatively associated with non-economic sales satisfaction, whereas non-economic sales satisfaction is positively associated with economic sales satisfaction. Consequently, if all associates are pleased with the relationship and the gains it can provide, a long-standing orientation can be achieved.

The study expands existing theory on seller–buyer relationships in a B2B context. It contextualises direct and indirect relationships between two antecedents (sales opportunism and sales conflict) and two postcedents (economic sales satisfaction and non-economic sales satisfaction) in sales business–buyer settings.

The study guides buyers in B2B relationships towards an improved understanding of how sales businesses perceive opportunism and conflict (as negative precursors) to impact non-economic satisfaction and how it can influence economic satisfaction.

Most studies explore B2B relationship building from the perspective of the buyer, thereby creating a shortfall in developing an understanding of all partner expectations in B2B relational intent. Moreover, the measurement of satisfaction as a multidimensional construct secured the integration of non-economic satisfaction and economic satisfaction within a single model allowing the constructs measured in this study to be holistically assessed.

This study aims to identify the decision-making process involved in the purchase of organic wine from consumer values to attitudes to behavioural intention towards organic wine via the value–attitude–behaviour (VAB) model. Involvement in wine is also taken into consideration.

The data were collected using a snowball sampling method and a closed-ended questionnaire. A total of 209 responses were analysed. Linear regression and PROCESS Macro on SPSS were used to perform data analysis.

Both biospheric-altruistic values and egoistic values are positively associated with attitudes towards organic wine. Attitude is found to mediate the relationship between biospheric-altruistic/egoistic values and behavioural intention. Egoistic values are found to significantly predict behavioural intention in the organic wine purchase context. Involvement was found to moderate the relationship between egoistic values and attitudinal loyalty.

This study identifies the decision-making hierarchy from consumer values to attitudes to behavioural intention, theoretically confirming the robustness of the VAB model in the organic wine consumption context. It also makes a practical contribution by indicating the marketing emphasis of organic wine and segmenting potential consumers according to their values and levels of wine involvement.