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In a decentralized supply chain with one supplier and one retailer, a properly designed contract can lead to supply chain coordination. In this chapter, we model the selection of an appropriate coordinating contract from a menu of contracts including wholesale price, buyback, and markdown money, while allowing both the supplier and the retailer to assume the roles of Stackelberg leader and/or supply chain captain. This work extends previous literature that assumes that the supplier is both the Stackelberg leader and the supply chain captain. In our models, either agent can make stocking and pricing decisions. Our findings suggest that the feasibility of a coordinating contract depends on the addition of Pareto-improving, profit-sharing conditions that motivate agents to take part in the contract. Further, the selection of an optimal contract is based not only on which agent holds the overstock liquidation advantage, but also on the decision structure of the supply chain. For instance, when the supplier is the Stackelberg leader and the retailer is the supply chain captain, as well as holds the inventory liquidation advantage, and controls the stocking level, then a wholesale price contract can coordinate the supply chain under the proposed Pareto-improving profit sharing, termed Pareto-improving coordination. Additional results and managerial implications are presented in the chapter.

This paper examines the relationship between supply chain network structures and firm financial performance and the moderating role of international relations. In this study, which is grounded in social capital theory and applies the perspective of systemic risk, the authors theorize the effects of supply chain network structures on firm performance.

The authors extracted data from two Chinese databases and constructed a supply chain network of the firms concerned based on nearly 4,300 supply chain relations between 2009 and 2018. The authors adopted the fixed effects model to investigate the relationship between supply chain network structures and firm financial performance.

The econometrics results indicate that network structures, including the degree, centrality, clustering coefficients and structural holes, are significantly related to firm financial performance. A significant and negative relationship exists between international relations and firm financial performance. The authors also find that international relations strongly weaken the relationship between supply chain network structures and firm financial performance.

This study, which collects secondary data from developing countries (e.g. China) and explores the impacts of supply chain network structures on firm stock performance, contributes to the existing literature and provides practical implications.

It is necessary to implement green supply chains. But green development needs to be gradual and coexist with ordinary products in the market. This paper aims to study the green and ordinary product pricing and green decision-making under chain-to-chain competition.

This paper considers consumers' multiple preferences and takes two competitive supply chains with asymmetric channels as the research object. Through the construction of the game models involving different competitive situations, this paper studies the pricing, green decision-making and the supply chains' profits, and discusses the impact of consumer green preference, channel preference, green investment and competition on the decision-making and performance. Finally, this paper further studies the impact of the decision structure on the environmental and economic benefits of supply chains.

The results show that consumer green preference has an incentive effect on the green supply chain and also provides an opportunity for the regular supply chain to increase revenue. Specifically, consumers' preference for green online channels improves the product greenness, but its impact on the green retailer and regular supply chain depends on the green investment cost. Moreover, competition not only fosters product sustainability, but also improves supply chain performance. This paper also points out that the decentralization of the regular supply chain is conducive to the environmental attributes of the green product, while the environment-friendly structure of the green supply chain is different under different conditions. In addition, the profit of a supply chain under centralized decision is not always higher than that under decentralized decision.

The novelty of this paper is that it investigates the pricing of two heterogeneous alternative products and green decision-making for the green product under the competition between two supply chains with asymmetric channels, in which the green supply chain adopts dual channels and the regular supply chain adopts a single retail channel.

This research widens the scope of the use of postponement by addressing how the generic supply chain structure and information sharing/relationship among supply chain actors affects the postponement decision, based on empirical data of Chinese manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta.

Case analysis, cross‐case comparisons, semi‐structured interviews.

A cross‐case analysis including study of the downstream structure, downstream relationship, upstream structure, upstream relationship, production method and inventory position produced a postponement classification into five categories: balanced structure without customer information; customer dominated; manufacturer dominated; balanced structure with loose suppliers, and finally virtual supply chain. Based on this classification, two propositions are postulated: when a supply chain has a balanced structure, it should use speculation or production postponement. When the supply chain has an unbalanced structure, it should use purchasing postponement or product development postponement.

This study is exploratory in nature, and more empirical data is needed to further validate the postulated results. Another limitation of the study is in its measurement of postponement, measured in this instance by the production method and inventory positions used. Other characteristics of postponement may be included in future research.

This research has extended the scope of the use of postponement by addressing how the generic supply chain structure and information sharing/relationship among supply chain actors affects the postponement decision.

Addresses postponement on the level of the supply chain, rather than company‐level. Addresses how the supply chain structure (balanced/unbalanced) and information sharing/relationship among supply chain actors affect the postponement decision.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for describing and analyzing misalignments in supply chain management related to changes in supply chain structures, processes and management components.

Based on the systems approach, a single‐case study including several embedded cases from the same supply chain was deployed. This was done according to the abductive research approach, which is favourable when extending existing and developing new theory. Data were collected through observations, interviews and workshops, and later analyzed through pattern matching. The case studied was the Swedish cash supply chain, which was appropriate since it has gone through several changes in its supply chain structure and management.

A framework to describe and analyze misalignments in the supply chain was developed. The framework consists of three steps: first, identify changes in the supply chain, second, Identify Misalignments, and third, identify symptoms. For each step, a specific and more detailed framework was developed in order to facilitate the identification processes.

Using the framework described in this paper a researcher or practitioner acquires a structured approach to mapping the management of a supply chain so that its current misalignments can be identified.

This paper aims to propose an empirically grounded governance framework based on complex adaptive systems (CAS) principles to facilitate formation of well-connected regional supply chains that foster economic development, adaptability and resilience of mining regions.

This study is an exploratory case study of the South Australian (SA) mining industry that includes 38 semi-structured interviews with the key stakeholders and structural analysis of the regional supply network (RSN).

Findings demonstrate the applicability of the CAS framework as a structured approach to the governance of the mining industry regional supply chains. In particular, the findings exemplify the relationship between RSN governance, its structure and interconnectivity and their combined impact on the adaptability and resilience of mining regions.

The data set analysed in the current study is static. Longitudinal data would permit a deeper insight into the evolution of the RSN structure and connectivity. The validity of the proposed framework could be further strengthened by being applied to other industrial domains and geographical contexts.

The proposed framework offers a novel insight for regional policy-makers striving to create an environment that facilitates the formation of well-integrated regional supply chains in mining regions through more focussed policy and strategies.

The proposed framework is one of the first attempts to offer a holistic structured approach to governance of the regional supply chains based on CAS principles. With the current transformative changes in the global mining industry, policy-makers and supply chain practitioners have an urgent need to embrace CAS and network paradigms to remain competitive in the twenty-first century.

The purpose of this paper is to provide some empirical evidence of the relationship between strategy and structure/processes in supply chains on the basis of the results of an exploratory analysis using survey data from Japanese manufacturers.

This study explores the differences of structure/processes among the four supply chain strategies, that is, efficient, responsive, efficient/responsive, and traditional. Specifically, this study conducts a one-way analysis of variance of the structure/process variables by supply chain strategies.

As the results of exploratory analysis including follow-up interviews with survey respondents, this study found many differences between traditional and efficient/responsive firms on process variables. With regard to structure variables, the existence of a supply chain management department, which is a variable of internal structure, in responsive and efficient/responsive firms is statistically more likely than in efficient firms. In addition, this study found significant differences between efficient and responsive firms, and traditional firms on some variables of external structure.

The results of this study explain why efficient/responsive firms can achieve high level of customer service and low operating cost, which is demonstrated by Qi et al. (2009). In addition, this study statistically ensures the validity of Stavrulaki and Davis’s (2010) proposition that firms with agile strategy tend to conduct opportunistic collaboration or have collaborative barriers with their suppliers because of their flexible supply base.

This is the first empirical study that explores the relationship among management elements in supply chains including not only strategy but also structure and processes. Through this study, it is implied that the strategy-structure-processes-performance paradigm adopted in this study is useful for exploring the patterns of other management elements that fit in with supply chain strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to develop exploratory propositions and a conceptual framework on the interaction between organisational structure (decision-making centralisation and internal coordination) and the relationship between supply chain fit and firm performance.

Through a case study, two corporate groups with distinctive organisational structures were examined; both are undergoing a critical moment of changes to their top management and are reshaping their corporate and supply chain strategies. Data on decision-making centralisation, internal coordination mechanisms, supply, demand and innovation uncertainties, and supply chain strategies were collected from key respondents.

The analysis conducted suggests the need to consider the joint interaction between organisational structure and supply chain fit in offsetting the implications of a potential misfit on firm performance. Furthermore, the context sensitivity of a supply chain is often overlooked, hence simply modifying supply chain strategy does not necessarily lead to a variation in firm performance.

This research is of particular importance to most organisations in the testing times of uncertainty in the global landscape. It guides supply chain practitioners to better understand which elements of the organisational structure interact with the uncertainty of supply, demand and innovation.

This paper is one of the first to investigate the interaction between elements of organisational structure and supply chain fit and identify decision-making centralisation and coordination as the internal uncertainty factors that are most relevant to supply chain fit research. A conceptual framework has been built for future testing, in which the organisational structure moderates the relationship between supply chain fit and firm performance.

Coordination is the management of dependencies between activities. Given that supply chains represent the functional integration of many interdependent activities associated with the flow of goods, coordination theory offers a framework for understanding and designing supply chains. Supply chains are separated into two distinct substructures: physical (dealing with the flow and storage of goods) and information (dealing with information associated with those goods). Optimization that alters the storage and movement of information and incorporates the impact of information technology leads to a distinct set of node connections and configurations for each substructure. Our analysis uses transaction cost economics to contrast the differences between structures infused with information technology and traditional supply chains.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of supply chain structure on market share and the differences between supply chain structures and market shares of companies in terms of product originality in the pharmaceutical industry.

In the design of this research, survey methodology was selected to collect the data. Convenience sampling technique and, as data collection instrument, a questionnaire including dichotomous scales were utilized.

Obtained results showed that supply chain structures of pharmaceutical companies in Turkey have a significant impact on their market shares. Other results indicate that there are significant differences between both supply chain structures and market shares in terms of product originality.

There are three limitations, namely, the study focused on only one sector, convenience sampling method was used in conjunction with Pareto approach and the study encompasses Turkey only.

Practitioners will benefit from this study through conceptualizing the impact of supply chain structure on market share and the relationships between these both and product originality in terms of creating competitive advantage.

The importance of this study lies on the investigation of supply chain structure with its impact on market share from supply chain management perspective and on the combination of the relationships between these both constructs and product originality as from management perspective in the pharmaceutical industry as first time.