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The topic of this research focuses on companies’ perceived time and relationship dependencies in supply chains. The empirical findings are based upon a mail survey in the Swedish automotive industry. The principal contribution is a typology of vulnerability scenarios in supply chains based upon perceived time and relationship dependencies towards both suppliers and customers. A methodological contribution of this study is its simultaneous consideration of companies’ inbound and outbound supply chains.

The deployment of blockchain technology (BT) throughout the supply chain is usually led by large firms that dominate the supply chain. Leading firms can encourage other resource-constrained partners to get on board by providing technical and financial support. However, due to the uncertain consequences of relying on leading firms, these partners may still be reluctant to adopt BT. Drawing on resource dependence theory, this study aims to investigate whether and when supply chain alignment can be used as a dependency coping strategy to increase the willingness of resource-constrained partners to adopt BT. Moreover, it aims to examine the motivators for supply chain alignment.

This study adopted a survey research design and collected data from 364 small and medium-sized enterprises in China.

Supply chain alignment positively affects BT adoption. The effect of supply chain alignment on BT adoption is contingent on guanxi (a Chinese cultural tradition of interpersonal connections that facilitate a mutual exchange of favors). Relative advantage, technology complexity, organizational readiness and cost are motivators for supply chain alignment. Supply chain alignment mediates the effect of cost, technology complexity and relative advantage on BT adoption.

This research addresses the problem of resource dependency in the context of BT adoption which has been overlooked by previous research. Moreover, this paper enriches the BT literature by identifying supply chain alignment as an important channel for technology–organization–environment factors to influence BT adoption.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate dependencies that arise between companies during the ramp-up of production volume in the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain.

An inter-company case study method has been used. Data were collected via tours of manufacturing plants, workshops and interviews from multiple tiers in a supply chain, namely, a niche EV manufacturer, as well as two of its tier-one suppliers and five of its tier-two suppliers.

As production volumes increased, a more relational approach was found to be necessary in inter-company relationships. The authors’ research showed that key suppliers, in addition to providing the parts, pursued a supply chain orchestrator’s role by offering direct support and guidance to the niche EV manufacturer in designing and executing its development plans.

The resource dependence theory (RDT) is used to analyse and explain the changing dependencies throughout the planning and execution of production ramp-up.

This study will help supply chain managers to better manage resource dependencies during production ramp-up.

This study explores dependencies during the early stages of the production ramp-up process in the EV sector, which is in itself in the early stages of evolution. RDT is used for the first time in this context. This study has moved beyond a simple dyadic context, by providing empirical insights into the actions taken by an EV manufacturer and its suppliers, towards a multi-tier supply chain context, to better manage resource dependencies.

Building on the transaction cost theory and power structure literature, this paper aims to investigate the extent to which firms use two safeguarding mechanisms (supply chain relational investments and electronic collaboration) in different network dependency contexts in order to protect their portfolios of business relationships.

Empirical evidence is gathered though a survey data conducted with 159 firms in the wireless communication sector. The paper tests the assumption that the two safeguarding mechanisms are used to a greater extent in interdependency‐intensive networks than in other supply chain contexts.

This empirical study suggests that: in a network‐dependent context, relational investments allow firms to safeguard their portfolios of relationships; electronic collaboration seems to be a safeguarding mechanism for firms in downstream‐dependent network contexts; in general, firms appear to use both relational investments and electronic collaboration to manage their relationships in a supply chain network; and the knowledge‐based theory may explain the strong relationship between upstream and downstream use of electronic collaboration.

Overall, the present study complements the extant literature on supply chain management and inter‐firm electronic collaboration by showing how an important structural characteristic of supply chain networks (i.e. dependency) operates on the choice of using two key safeguarding mechanisms.

Results stress the importance of these safeguarding mechanisms in joint actions such as collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment.

The paper addresses interdependencies from a network perspective which encompasses the firms' complete portfolio of relationships.

A traditional supply chain, all too often, is a sequence of weakly connected activities both within and outside the organization and leads to many misalignments. Tackling this inherent lack of coordination is a major value creation opportunity for supply chain managers. This paper aims to present a coordination framework, called ASCEND, to align the inventory decisions in decentralized supply chains.

The framework rests on three pillars – multi‐agent technology, coordination theory, and optimization technology. Inventory alignment is transformed into a decentralized constraint satisfaction optimization problem, which is then solved using a genetic algorithm‐based coordination process. The guiding principle of this framework is the establishment of a proper incentive alignment mechanism through cost‐sharing and service level contracts, taking into account the associated dependencies.

The results of the pilot study indicate that the coordination framework reduces the supply chain inventory‐holding cost, compared with the “as‐is” scenario. Interestingly, the results also indicate that not all the supply chain partners will experience lower inventory costs in the absence of a proper incentive alignment mechanism. Only through cost sharing and service level contracts can the value of coordination be realized by each partner in a supply chain network!

The coordination approach is applied to a pilot supply chain. The results of the case study lead to 10.4 percent (average) reduction in supply chain inventory‐holding costs, validating the efficacy of the coordination framework.

This research has resulted in the development of a supply chain coordination framework, which requires the establishment of a proper incentive alignment mechanism, based on cost‐sharing and service level contracts, and taking into account the associated dependencies.

Drawing on the relational view and contingency theories, this study explores supply chain relationship conditions' roles in interrelationships between environmental, social and supply chain performance (SCP), i.e. triple bottom line (TBL).

The data from industries and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to validate the proposed model. Interviews with industry experts were conducted to further understand the findings.

The authors find that relationship conditions, such as inventory information sharing, dependency, opportunistic behavior and conflicts, moderate TBL linkages. Interestingly, power asymmetry does not moderate the linkages. Social performance mediates between environmental and SCP. This indirect effect is stronger than the effect of environmental performance on SCP.

This research is perhaps the first to bring a much-needed nuanced view on the importance of relationship conditions for TBL performance linkages. The research further underlines the importance of social performance in an emerging economy.

This paper seeks to explore the integration of social issues in the management of supply chains from an operations management perspective. Further, this research aims to develop a set of scales to measure multiple dimensions of supplier socially responsible practices. Finally, the paper examines the importance of three dimensions of supply chain structure, namely transparency, dependency and distance, for the adoption of these socially responsible practices.

Drawing on literature from several theoretical streams, current best‐practice in leading firms and emerging international standards, four dimensions of supplier socially responsible practices were identified. Also, a multi‐dimensional conceptualization of supply chain structure, including transparency, dependency and distance, was synthesized from earlier research. Using this conceptual development, a large‐scale survey of plant managers in three industries in Canada provided an empirical basis for validating these constructs, and then assessing the relationships between structure and practices.

Multi‐item scales for each of the four dimensions of supplier socially responsible practices were validated empirically: supplier human rights; supplier labour practices; supplier codes of conduct; and supplier social audits. Increased transparency, as reflected in greater product visibility by the end‐consumer was related to increased use of supplier human rights, which in turn can help to protect a firm's brands. Organizational distance, as measured by the total length of the supply chain (number of tiers in the supply chain), was related to increased use of multiple supplier socially responsible practices. Finally, as the plant was positioned further upstream in the supply chain, managers reported increased use of supplier codes of conduct.

As senior managers extend, redesign or restructure their supply chains, the extent to which social issues must be monitored and managed changes. The four categories of supplier socially responsible practices identified help managers characterize their firm's approach to managing social issues. Furthermore, managers must more actively manage the development of supplier socially responsible practices in their firms when the supply chain has more firms; and when brands have stronger recognition in the marketplace.

The paper makes three contributions to the extant literature. First, the construct of social issues is defined and framed within the broader debate on sustainable development and stakeholder management. Second, social practices are delineated for supply chain management, and a set of scales is empirically validated for assessing the degree of development of supplier socially responsible practices. Finally, the link between supply chain structure and the adoption of supplier socially responsible practices is examined. This last contribution provides a basis for understanding, so that managers can extend and reshape current views about how social issues must be managed.

The article examines companies' perception of corporate vulnerability in supply chains. The areas, the causes and the contingency planning of corporate vulnerability in upstream and downstream supply chains are examined. The study is based on qualitative data, and it differs from other studies on the vulnerability construct in supply chains in that most have been quantitative. An insight of the research is that sub‐contractors in the automotive industry tend to be limited to myopic and vertical views of the key areas, and to the causes and contingency planning of corporate vulnerability in the upstream and downstream supply chains.

The purpose of this paper is to explore what theoretical lenses have been used to analyze and understand information sharing in supply chains. The paper elaborates on the predominant theories and discusses how they can be integrated to research different aspects of information sharing.

The paper carried out a structured literature review by using a combination of selected keywords to search for peer-reviewed articles in ten journals.

The findings suggest that four out of ten reviewed articles explicitly apply one or more theoretical lenses. The predominant theories used include transaction cost economics, contingency theory, resource-based view, resource dependency theory and relational governance theories such as the relational view and social exchange theory.

These theories can be applied to analyze different aspects of information sharing. By using the theories in a complementary way, it is possible to increase our understanding of information sharing between companies related to: why and what information to share with whom, how to share and the impact of antecedents, barriers and drivers.

The results of the paper highlight the importance of tailoring information sharing structures and mechanisms to the context of the transaction and the business relationship.

This paper addresses how theoretical perspectives inform empirical research on information sharing in supply chains. It puts forward an integrative conceptual framework based on cross-disciplinary theories and makes specific suggestions for future empirical research in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive framework that synthesizes approaches and contingency variables to manage the sustainability of multi-tier supply chains and sub-suppliers.

Using a systematic literature review, the authors analyse 39 studies and relevant theories to develop a comprehensive framework that integrates research efforts so far.

The authors build a conceptual framework that incorporates four approaches to manage the sustainability of multi-tier supply chains. They also identify several contingency variables (e.g. power, dependency, distance, industry, knowledge resources) and their effect on the proposed approaches.

Based on the framework, six research propositions that advance the theories on multi-tier supply chain management, allow lead firms to develop comprehensive sustainable supply chain strategies and set the ground for future research in the area were developed.

This study provides a novel framework for studying sustainability in multi-tier supply chains that goes beyond the single-tier perspective and incorporates the extended supply chain.