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In this paper, the authors introduce supply disruption ambiguity as the inability of a sourcing firm to attach probability point estimates to the occurrence of and to the magnitude of loss from supply disruptions. The authors drew on the “ambiguity in decision-making” literature to define this concept formally, connected it to relevant supply disruption information deficit, positioned it relative to supply chain risk assessment and hypothesized and tested its negative associations with both supply base ties and inventory turnover.

The authors analysed survey data from 171 North American manufacturers and archival data for a subset (88 publicly listed) of these manufacturers via Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation after ensuring that methodological concerns with survey research have been addressed. They used appropriate controls and employed the heteroskedasticity-based instrumental variable (HBIV) approach to ensure that inferences from our results are not unduly influenced by endogeneity.

Strong supply base ties decrease supply disruption ambiguity, which, in turn, increases inventory turnover. Moreover, strong supply base ties and data integration with the supply base have indirect and positive effects on inventory turnover. As sourcing firms strengthen ties and integrate data exchange with their supply base, their inventory turnover improves from access to information relevant to detect and diagnose supply disruptions effectively.

Research on supply disruption management has paid more attention to the “disruption recovery” stage than to the “disruption discovery” stage. In this paper, the authors add novel insights regarding the recognition and diagnosis aspects of the “disruption discovery” stage. These novel insights reveal how and why sourcing firms reduce their overall ambiguity associated with detecting and assessing losses from supply disruptions through establishing strong ties with their supply base and how and why reducing such ambiguity improves inventory turnover performance.

As an effective mode to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) raise working capital, supply chain finance has recently gained extensive attention. The purpose of this paper is to explore the intrinsic mechanism of how both weak and strong ties in the supply chain network impact the supply chain financing performance (SCFP) of SMEs from the perspective of the supply chain network.

Based on the extended resource-based perspective, this paper proposes a theoretical model to explain the mode in which strong ties and weak ties of SMEs in the supply chain network influence SCFP through both physical distribution flexibility and demand management flexibility. Based on data from 182 manufacturing firms in China, this paper uses multiple regression analysis to test hypotheses.

The results of this paper indicate that weak ties improve SCFP more effectively than strong ties. Furthermore, both physical distribution flexibility and demand management flexibility exert different mediating roles either between strong ties and SCFP or between weak ties and SCFP. Moreover, the effect of physical distribution flexibility and demand management flexibility on SCFP of SMEs is not reinforced.

This paper highlights the importance to expand supply chain finance research from the perspective of the supply chain network. In particular, this paper explores the poorly understood mediating effect both physical distribution flexibility and demand management flexibility exert on the relationship between network ties and the SCFP of SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how knowledge spillover and access in a supply chain network enhance the credit quality in supply chain finance (SCF) of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Drawing on network theory and a knowledge-based view (KBV) of SCF, this paper proposes a theoretical model and tests it using survey data from a sample of 248 SMEs in China.

The main finding is that both strong ties and dense ties within a supply chain network have positive effects on SMEs’ credit quality, and these effects are mediated by knowledge spillover and knowledge access. Interestingly, knowledge spillover is found to have a positive effect on knowledge access.

This paper is the first to investigate the relationship between supply chain network and supply chain financing from a KBV. The proposed model captures the complexity in the interaction among different attributes of supply chain networks (i.e. strong ties and dense ties), different aspects of knowledge transfer (i.e. knowledge spillover and knowledge access) and SMEs’ credit quality in SCF. The results not only show the importance of SMEs’ supply chain networks to SMEs’ credit quality but also contribute to the understanding of the KBV in SCF.

Prior studies have largely overlooked the potentially negative consequences of a buyer’s relational capital (RC) with a supplier for supply-side resilience, assuming a positive linear relationship between the constructs. Meanwhile, the focus of research has been at an organisational level without incorporating the role of boundary spanning individuals at the interface between buyer and supplier. Drawing on social capital and boundary spanning theory, the purpose of this paper is to: re-examine the relationship between RC and supply-side resilience, challenging the linear assumption; and investigate how both the strength and diversity of a boundary spanner’s ties moderate this relationship.

Survey data are collected from 248 firms and validated using a subset of 57 attentive secondary respondents and archival data. The latent moderated structural equation method is applied to analyse the data.

An inverted U-shaped relationship between RC and supply-side resilience is identified. Tie strength in particular has a positive moderating effect on the relationship. More specifically, the downward RC–supply-side resilience relationship flips into an upward curvilinear relationship when boundary spanning individuals develop stronger ties with supplier personnel.

A deeper insight into the RC–supply-side resilience relationship is provided. Findings are based on Chinese manufacturing firms and cross-sectional data meaning further research is needed to determine their generalisability.

In evaluating how to enhance supply-side resilience, buying firms must decide whether the associated collaborative benefits of developing RC outweigh the potential costs. Managers also need to be concerned with the impact of developing RC between organisations and enhancing the tie strength of individuals simultaneously.

The paper goes beyond the linear relationship between RC and supply-side resilience. Incorporating the moderating role of boundary spanners identifies a novel phenomenon whereby the RC–resilience relationship flips from an inverted to a U-shaped curve.

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has created disruptions across the supply chain that are beyond the resources of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to effectively deal with. This study aims to examine the idea that top managers' business and political ties can play direct roles in enhancing SCR in SMEs during COVID-19 by providing access to valuable resources. The study further investigates integrative capability as an underlying mechanism through which the effects of business and political ties can be transformed into enhanced SCR.

Responses from 217 SMEs in the country of Jordan were received via an online survey. The measurement and structural models were tested using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique.

The study found that business and political ties are positively related to SCR. However, integrative capability fully mediates the relationship between business ties and SCR, whereas it partially mediates the relationship between political ties and SCR.

The study examined only the direct and indirect impacts of business and political ties on SCR. It could be extended by exploring the conditions under which they influence SCR.

The study explicates the role of top managers' business and political ties on improving SCR in a developing country context. It further examines the mediating role of integrative capability in the relationships between business and political ties and SCR.

Digitalization encourages the manufacturer to engage in inter-organizational technological activities (i.e. supplier IT integration and supply visibility) with its major supplier, which influences supply chain (SC) governance. This study tests a moderated mediation model that considers supplier IT integration and supply visibility as mediators between supply-side digitalization and supplier opportunism, and relational ties as a moderator in the relationship between inter-organizational technological activities and supplier opportunism.

Ordinary least square (OLS) regression is used to examine data from 200 firms in China describing their supply chain management (SCM) practices and perceived relationships with their major suppliers.

Supply-side digitalization is positively related to supplier IT integration and supply visibility. Supply-side digitalization has a positive indirect effect on supplier opportunism through supplier IT integration but a negative indirect effect through supply visibility. Relational ties weaken the positive effect of supplier IT integration and the positive indirect effect of supply-side digitalization on supplier opportunism. Relational ties also weaken the negative effect of supply visibility and the negative indirect effect of supply-side digitalization on supplier opportunism.

This study enriches understanding of SC governance in the digital age by empirically confirming that digital transformation brings both challenges and opportunities to SC governance and by clarifying the interplay of relational governance and technological activities. In addition, this study contributes to the SC digitalization literature by empirically validating the role of digitalization in promoting inter-organizational technological activities, as well as by revealing its potential dark side.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of small and medium enterprises (SMEs)’ supply chain network on influencing credit quality, or more specifically, whether bridging tie (structural network) or strong tie (relational network) of SMEs in the supply chain can improve the availability of equity and debt capital through information sharing.

A survey was conducted in manufacturing industry in China and 208 valid questionnaires were used to test all the hypotheses. The data were then analyzed by employing partial least squares path modeling.

The results suggest that both strong tie and bridging tie of SMEs can lead to a positive effect on information sharing in supply chain, which can further enhance the credit quality for SMEs. However, without information sharing, the strong tie has not significant influence on SMEs’ credit quality, while bridging tie can directly impact on credit quality.

Despite their crucial role in sustaining national economies, SMEs are beset by the critical constraint of risk-free financing. Based on a survey, this research finds that the credit quality of SMEs is affected by two important factors: one concerns information sharing in supply chain and the other relates to the attributes of SMEs’ supply chain network. This study implies that a SME may have a financing advantage for better embedding in the supply chain network, but different effects will be experienced according to constraints associated with information asymmetry in the supply chain.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how focal firms in supply networks manage weak and strong ties for exploration and exploitation innovation in mature industries. In doing so, the paper extends the understanding of how focal firms manage open innovation (OI).

The empirical base is a multiple case study conducted on three companies operating in mature industries in Europe.

Findings of this study reveal, analyze and explain a diverse set of OI practices in the supply networks of mature industries in which the focal firms integrate strong and weak supply ties to enhance innovation outcomes. This study provides a fine-grained view of the benefits of the additive and interactive effects of strong and weak ties in OI. More specifically, the analysis reveals an enhancing role of strong supply ties in exploration, which previously was associated solely with weak ties. Moreover, this study sheds light on the dominant and orchestrating roles of focal firms.

The findings provide insights to enhance OI practices beyond the limited role of the weak ties of the supply network and highlight the essential role of the strong supply ties in mature industries.

While previous studies have associated exploration with weak ties, findings of this study reveal that exploration-oriented activities in mature industries also extend to strong ties. In the strong ties of mature industries, this study finds there is not only the exploitation of existing knowledge but also the reconfiguration and innovation of products.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

This study explores how factors arising from supply chain (SC) network and complexity work together in supply chain learning (SCL) behavior.

Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, which is an emerging configurational analysis method, was adopted to examine the complex combination of five influencing factors. The data were collected using a two-stage survey. First, the authors selected seven typical firms with an awareness of SCL. Second, questionnaires were sent to the partners of the seven selected firms, and 156 valid questionnaires were obtained from 76 firms.

Drawing on emergent insights from the initiative, the authors find that multiple configurations of SC network and complexity lead to high SCL. Specifically, weak ties are necessary conditions of such learning, while strong ties are also conducive to this. Moreover, a moderate SC complexity is conducive to SCL.

This study enriches the understanding of SCL and provides new insights for SC management practitioners to take measures to improve it.

This study addresses the lack of in-depth understanding of the antecedent conditions of SCL in the literature. It establishes an integrated and comprehensive theoretical framework of such learning based on contingency theory. Additionally, this study incorporates ambidextrous SCL (i.e. creation capability and dispersion capacity). An overall prototype of SCL capability is proposed on SC network and complexity theory.