Search results

The purpose of this paper is to monitor the environmental efficiency of suppliers in the presence of undesirable output and dual-role factors with static and dynamic aspects. Meanwhile, it also aims to explain the main reason for the low efficiency of suppliers.

The authors propose a modified data model considering undesirable output and dual-role factors. The study integrates the modified data envelopment analysis model into the distance function of the Malmquist–Luenberger index. Moreover, this study uses the global benchmark technology to formulate a two-stage model. To verify the validity of this model, a model application is conducted on an automotive spare components company in China.

The results identify the unique status of dual-role factors based on the global optimality of the model and then categorize inefficient suppliers in an individual evaluation cycle. In addition, each supplier is projected on a frontier curve after obtaining the improved data. Furthermore, through the status plot of M-L and its components, this paper concludes that efficiency scale change is the main reason for the gap in ecological performance between different suppliers.

The proposed model considers both undesirable output and dual-role factors; however, variables with different features, such as imprecise, fuzzy and qualitative characteristics, can be embedded into the presented two-stage model.

Evaluating green suppliers through multiple consecutive evaluation cycles will aid a company in effectively managing its key suppliers. Furthermore, the evaluation provides policy guidance for further improvement of suppliers.

The objective of this paper is to propose a new data envelopment analysis (DEA) model for assessing sustainability of suppliers with partial impacts between inputs, desirable outputs and undesirable outputs.

This paper examines partial impacts of inputs on desirable and undesirable outputs and applies weak disposability assumption to propose a novel DEA model to determine the sustainability of suppliers.

This paper shows the type of resource sharing in DEA models and takes into account sustainable development and sustainability assessment concepts for sustainable supplier selection problem and develops a DEA model for selecting the most sustainable suppliers with partial sharing of resources. To select the most sustainable suppliers, this model helps managers to consider aggregate efficiency, overall efficiency and bundle efficiency. The paper introduces the supplier which is efficient at all levels as the most sustainable supplier.

For the first time, this paper suggests a new DEA model by partial impact between inputs and good outputs/bad outputs for selecting sustainable supplier and deals with the situations in which each supplier has several subunits. The new model calculates aggregate efficiency, overall efficiency and subunit efficiency of supplier. paper introduces the supplier which is efficient in all levels including aggregate efficiency, overall efficiency and subunit efficiency as the best supplier.

Extant studies on the relational capital—performance benefits in buyer–supplier relationships (BSRs) give limited attention to the value of internal resources/capabilities possessed by each party, thus imply the universal benefits of relational capital regardless of a party's own abilities. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper aims to investigate whether and how a firm's operational efficiency moderates the relation between its relational ties with the largest customer and its performance outcomes.

This study employs a large panel data of US public firms and their major customer relationships for the period of 1980–2018 from Compustat and a two-stage least square regression to address endogeneity concerns.

The authors find that suppliers achieve different performance benefits and disbenefits from their relational ties with major customers depending on their own operational efficiency. Specifically, strong suppliers achieve higher market share and lower profitability as relational ties with major customers increase. In contrast, weak suppliers who develop high levels of relational ties with their major customers tend to increase their profit-generating potential, yet their market share declines. Thus, the findings suggest that suppliers make different trade-offs between profit enhancement and pie expansion depending on their operational efficiency.

As a secondary data study, this research relies on proxy measures to capture relational ties in BSRs. Although the validity of the proxy measures are well established in the literature, additional primary information on sample firms and their relationships may be able to identify other types of internal and external resources and capabilities that can be leveraged as relational capital.

Relational ties with major customers entail both relational capital and relational liabilities. Strong suppliers trade off their profit-maximizing potential for the pie expansion opportunity via sales growth to major customers. On the other hand, weak suppliers achieve higher profits from relational ties with major customers, but this benefit comes at the expense of pie expansion due to decreasing sales to major customers. Managers should be aware of performance trade-offs between profit enhancement and pie expansion depending on a firm's internal capabilities and carefully choose to develop and exploit relationship-based assets with customers depending on their performance goals.

The contrasting performance outcomes demonstrated by strong and weak suppliers in this study challenge the prevailing assumption about the broad performance benefits of relational ties in BSRs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to empirically substantiate the contingency role of suppliers' operational efficiency in the relational capital—performance link.

This study addresses an important research question regarding how supplier-base concentration affects buyer efficiency. Drawing on the contradicting views of transaction cost theory (TCT) and resource dependence theory (RDT), the authors explore the main effect of supplier-base concentration on buyer efficiency and how this effect is contingent on buyers' characteristics (i.e. research and development (R&D) expenditure and market share).

Based on data collected from the Chinese manufacturing firms listed on National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ) between 2015 and 2019, the authors use a fixed-effect model as well as a two-stage least squares model to test the predictions.

The authors find that supplier-base concentration has a positive effect on buyer efficiency. In addition, when a buyer has higher levels of R&D expenditure and market share, the positive relationship between supplier-base concentration and buyer efficiency is strengthened.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the effect of supplier-base concentration. First, the authors provide theoretical and empirical evidence of the positive effect of supplier-base concentration on buyer efficiency. Second, the authors reveal the underlying mechanism of how to counter the potential drawbacks and benefit more from supply base reduction by introducing R&D expenditure and market share as contingencies.

In an era of global sourcing, the firm’s success often hinges on the most appropriate selection of its suppliers. Supplier selection is sometimes very complicated, owing to a variety of uncontrollable and unpredictable factors which affect the decision. Describes a multiple attribute utility theory based on the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA), aimed at helping purchasing managers to formulate viable sourcing strategies in the changing market place. An application of the methodology using actual data retrieved from a firm operating in the bottling industry is illustrated. DEA has proved to be capable of handling multiple conflicting attributes inherent in supplier selection while simultaneously trading‐off key supplier selection criteria.

A supplier may sell not only to one buyer (sole relationship configuration) but also to the buyers competitors (shared relationship configuration) for a specific product category. This study examines the performance implications when suppliers establish shared relationships with the buyer’s competitors.

Secondary data are used to test hypotheses relating a supplier’s relationship configurations to its operational performance. A seemingly unrelated regression approach (SUR) is applied to analyze the data, followed by endogeneity checks of the empirical findings.

The study shows that suppliers with less-shared ties with buying firms’ competitors exhibit superior inventory efficiency and asset turnover. Thus, suppliers can improve operational efficiency by creating relatively exclusive, deep and trust-based relations instead of more extensively shared and shallower relationships.

Based on agency theory as a theoretical lens and aerospace industry data, this research contributes by addressing the supplier’s perspective and linking its operational efficiency performance with its chosen supply relationship configuration.

Suppliers need to understand the performance implications of choosing relatively exclusive relationships versus shared relationships with buying firms. The research provides new insights for managers and can guide their supply chain decision-making.

Little is known about how a supplier’s relationship configurations can elevate, or impair, its operational efficiency. While conventional wisdom holds that suppliers should focus on multiple avenues of revenue growth by selling to buyers’ competitors, this study demonstrates that more sales to a buying firm’s rivals might, in fact, reduce a supplier’s efficiency.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study in which data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to evaluate and classify the suppliers of a Colombian motorcycle assembly company. This tool allows the integration of several attributes into single performance measures (cross-efficiency and diversity efficiency) and subsequent classification based on the values obtained for these two metrics.

The classification uses a methodology based on two main tools. The first is an input-oriented cross-efficiency DEA model with ordinal variables to evaluate the suppliers’ performance, and the second is a classification of these into categories that identifies those with good performance for features that make them outstanding.

The assembly company segments its suppliers according to supply frequency. The results show that suppliers working under a just-in-time system achieve superior performance with respect to other suppliers.

The application of this methodology in a real-world case illustrates how DEA can be a useful tool to support the evaluation and classification of suppliers (a process of increasing complexity given the current trend to include multiple strategic measures together with classical operational measures). Moreover, the methodology illustrated in the study can be adapted to other similar settings.

The main contributions of this paper are twofold. First, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to illustrate the use of DEA in a real case related to supplier evaluation. Second, the presence of ordinal variables (e.g. quality or environmental ratings) gives rise to DEA variants seldom used in this context.

Este artículo presenta un caso de estudio en el que se utiliza análisis envolvente de datos (DEA) para evaluar y clasificar los proveedores de una ensambladora colombiana de motocicletas. Dicha herramienta permite integrar múltiples atributos en dos medidas de desempeño (eficiencia cruzada y de diversidad) y la posterior clasificación de éstos con base en los valores obtenidos para ambas medidas.

La clasificación usa una metodología basada en dos herramientas. La primera es un modelo DEA de eficiencia cruzada orientado a las entradas con variables ordinales que se usa para evaluar el desempeño de los proveedores. La segunda es una clasificación de los proveedores en categorías para identificar aquellos con buen desempeño en algunas características que los hacen sobresalientes.

La compañía segmenta sus proveedores de acuerdo con la frecuencia de abastecimiento. Los resultados muestran que los proveedores que operan bajo justo a tiempo (Just-in-time, JIT) tienen un desempeño superior con respecto a los demás proveedores.

La aplicación de esta metodología en un caso real ilustra como DEA es una herramienta útil para apoyar la evaluación y clasificación de proveedores (un proceso de complejidad creciente gracias a la tendencia actual de incluir medidas estratégicas junto a las medidas operacionales comúnmente utilizadas). Además, la metodología utilizada puede adaptarse fácilmente a otras situaciones similares.

Las contribuciones de este artículo son dos. Primero, hasta donde sabemos, este es el primer estudio que ilustra el uso de DEA en un caso real de evaluación de proveedores. Segundo, la presencia de variables ordinales (por ejemplo, evaluaciones de calidad y medioambiente) resultan en modelos DEA que son poco utilizados en este contexto.

This research intends to investigate whether there are synergies that a firm could or should exploit by simultaneously implementing customer and supplier integration. In particular, the aim is to analyze the impact of customer integration on efficiency, and the moderating role of supplier integration.

This study analyzes data from a sample of 200 manufacturing plants. Two hypotheses are tested through a hierarchical regression analysis. Customer and supplier integration constructs consider items related to different aspects of the integration (e.g. sharing of production plans and customers' forecasts, feedback on performance, communication on quality considerations and design changes, joint quality improvement efforts, close contact, partnerships). The focus of the integration clearly extends beyond the dyad, as it includes the integration of focal operations upstream and downstream, with both suppliers and customers.

Supplier integration positively moderates the relationship between customer integration and efficiency, whereas the analyses do not support the hypothesis that in general customer integration positively impacts on efficiency. They also reveal that, when supplier integration is at a low level, customer integration can even produce a reduction in efficiency.

Efficiency performance optimization requires levering simultaneously on customer and supplier integration to foster their interaction, rather than investing and acting on customer integration only. In addition, before deciding whether to invest in customer integration, managers should ascertain the level of supplier integration, since it acts as a prerequisite for the successful implementation of customer integration.

Compared with previous studies investigating the main impact of customer and supplier integration on a company's performance, this research analyzes a model that considers the interaction effect between these integration strategies. This provides a number of original implications for the interpretation of the relationship between customer and supplier integration and efficiency.

The purpose of this paper is to measure trust that logistics/supply chain management (SCM) managers of supplier firms perceive toward inbound SCM managers of buyer firms, and investigate the effect of trust on supply chain collaboration and logistics efficiency. In doing so, two trust forms are introduced: affective trust and trust in competency. Besides, supply chain collaboration includes the three dimensions: joint decision making, information sharing, and benefit/risk sharing.

A path analysis was used to test whether the two trust forms affect the three dimensions of supply chain collaboration, and then, the three dimensions of supply chain collaboration, in turn, affect the logistics efficiency of supplier firms. An empirical analysis was conducted with Korean firms.

Affective trust has a significant influence on collaboration in information sharing and benefit/risk sharing, whereas trust in competency affects collaboration in joint decision making and benefit/risk sharing. Regarding supply chain collaboration, joint decision making and information sharing are found to affect logistics efficiency. Insignificant relationships are detected between affective trust and joint decision making, between trust in competency and information sharing, and between benefit/risk sharing and logistics efficiency.

By classifying trust into affective trust and trust in competency and by incorporating the three dimensions of collaboration, this paper analyzes the causal effect of suppliers' trust at the inter‐personal level on supply chain collaboration and logistics efficiency, and discusses the results compared to those focusing on buyers' trust.

The purpose of this study is to explore green supply chain management (GSCM) practices and their relationship with organizational performance. More specifically, this research explores the effect of GSCM efforts and other organizational factors on firm performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that serve as suppliers to large customer firms in the electronics industry.

This study developed a research model relating GSCM practice and business performance through three organizational variables (employee satisfaction, operational efficiency, and relational efficiency) as moderators. Statistical analyses were based on the data collected, through survey questionnaires, from 223 SMEs in the electronics industry in Korea. Reliability, validity, and goodness‐of‐fit of the research model were tested by the widely accepted statistical tools. To test the hypotheses relating GSCM practice implementation and business performance, structural equation modeling was used.

The most anticipated finding of the study was a direct link between GSCM practice implementation and business performance. However, no statistical significance was found. Instead, significant indirect relationships were found between GSCM practice implementation and business performance through mediating variables of operational efficiency and relational efficiency. This result indicates that business performance will be improved when GSCM enhances operational efficiency and operational efficiency.

Research on GSCM is still at the early stage. Further refinement of the questionnaire is needed. Generalizability of the findings is also limited because of data collected from electronics firms in Korean. This study shed several important insights. The findings of this study are generally consistent with prior studies in other parts of the world. SMEs in the Korean electronics industry believe that GSCM practices help generate new opportunities to attract clients in addition to complying with the buyer firms' demand. It was also found that implementation of GSCM practices help improve operational and relational efficiencies of supplier firms.

Few empirical studies have been done in GSCM based on the conceptual footing of resource dependence theory. Also, this study was conducted from the supplier's perspective in examining the weaknesses of SME suppliers. Thus, the authors emphasize the importance of support from large buying firms for improving SME suppliers' green management capabilities.