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1 – 10 of over 6000Pushpesh Pant, Shantanu Dutta and S.P. Sarmah
Given the lack of focus on a standardized measurement framework (e.g. benchmarking tool) to assess and quantify complexity within the supply chain, this study has developed a…
Abstract
Purpose
Given the lack of focus on a standardized measurement framework (e.g. benchmarking tool) to assess and quantify complexity within the supply chain, this study has developed a unified supply chain complexity (SCC) index and validated its utility by examining the relationship with firm performance. More importantly, it examines the role of firm owners' business knowledge, sales strategy and board management on the relationship between SCC and firm performance.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the unit of analysis is Indian manufacturing companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). This research has merged panel data from two secondary data sources: Bloomberg and Prowess and empirically operationalized five key SCC drivers, namely, number of suppliers, the number of supplier countries, the number of products, the number of plants and the number of customers. The study employs panel data regression analyses to examine the proposed conceptual model and associated hypotheses. Moreover, the present study employs models that incorporate robust standard errors to account for heteroscedasticity.
Findings
The results show that complexity has a negative and significant effect on firm performance. Further, the study reveals that an owner's business knowledge and the firm's effective sales strategy and board management can significantly lessen the negative effect of SCC.
Originality/value
This study develops an SCC index and validates its utility. Also, it presents a novel idea to operationalize the measure for SCC characteristics using secondary databases like Prowess and Bloomberg.
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Jinliang Chen, Guoli Liu and Yu Wang
The purpose of this paper is to examine the nuanced effects of downstream complexity on supply chain resilience, based on portfolio theory and normal accident theory. Intelligent…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the nuanced effects of downstream complexity on supply chain resilience, based on portfolio theory and normal accident theory. Intelligent manufacturing is considered to clarify their boundary conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
The ordinary least squares regression was conducted, based on the data collected from 136 high-tech firms in China.
Findings
Horizontal downstream complexity has a positive effect on supply chain resilience significantly, while the negative impact of vertical downstream complexity on supply chain resilience is not significant. Contingently, intelligent manufacturing plays a negative moderating role in the relationship between horizontal downstream complexity and supply chain resilience, while it positively moderates the relationship between vertical downstream complexity and supply chain resilience.
Originality/value
This study disentangles the nuanced effects of both horizontal and vertical downstream complexity on supply chain resilience, based on portfolio theory and normal accident theory. It also clarifies their boundary conditions by considering the focal firm's intelligent manufacturing level as the contingent factor.
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Laharish Guntuka, Thomas M. Corsi and David E. Cantor
The purpose of our study is to investigate how a manufacturing plant’s internal operations along with its network of connections (upstream and downstream) can have an impact on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of our study is to investigate how a manufacturing plant’s internal operations along with its network of connections (upstream and downstream) can have an impact on its recovery time from a disruption. The authors also examine the inverse-U impact of complexity. Finally, the authors test the moderating role that business continuity management plans (BCP) at the plant level have on recovery time.
Design/methodology/approach
To test our hypotheses, the authors partnered with Resilinc Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based provider of supply chain risk management solutions to identify focal firms’ suppliers, customers and plant-level data including information on parts, manufacturing activities, bill of materials, alternate sites and formal business continuity plans. The authors employed censored data regression technique (Tobit).
Findings
Several important findings reveal that the plant’s internal operations and network connections impact recovery time. Specifically, the number of parts manufactured at the plant as well as the number of internal plant processes significantly increase disruption recovery time. In addition, the number of supply chains (upstream and downstream) involving the plant as well as the echelon distance of the plant from its original equipment manufacturer significantly increase recovery time. The authors also find that there exists an inverted-U relationship between complexity and recovery time. Finally, the authors find partial support that BCP will have a negative moderating effect between complexity and recovery time.
Originality/value
This research highlights gaps in the literature related to supply chain disruption and recovery. There is a need for more accurate methods to measure recovery time, more research on recovery at the supply chain site level and further analysis of the impact of supply chain complexity on recovery time.
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Frank Bodendorf, Sebastian Feilner and Joerg Franke
This paper aims to explore the significance of resource sharing in business to capture new market opportunities and securing competitive advantages. Firms enter strategic…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the significance of resource sharing in business to capture new market opportunities and securing competitive advantages. Firms enter strategic alliances (SAs), especially for designing new products and to overcome challenges in today’s fast changing environment. Research projects have dealt with the creation of SAs, however without concrete referencing the impact on selected supply chain resources. Furthermore, academia rather focused on elaborating the advantages and disadvantages of SAs and how this affects structural changes in the organization than examining the effects on supply chain complexity and performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected and triangulated a multi-industry data set containing primary data coming from more than 200 experts in the field of supply chain management along and secondary data coming from Refinitiv’s joint ventures (JVs) and SA database and IR solutions’ database for annual reports. The data is evaluated in three empirical settings using binomial testing and structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results show that nonequity SAs and JVs have varying degrees of impact on supply chain resources due to differences in the scope of the partnership. This has a negative impact on the complexity of the supply chain, with the creation of a JV leading to greater complexity than the creation of a nonequity SA. Furthermore, the findings prove that complexity negatively impacts overall supply chain performance. In addition, this study elaborates that increased management capabilities are needed to exploit the potentials of SAs and sheds light on hurdles that must be overcome within the supply network when forming a partnership. Finally, the authors give practical implications on how organizations can cope with increasing complexity to lower the risk of poor supply chain performance.
Originality/value
This study investigates occurring challenges when establishing nonequity SAs or JVs and how this affects their supply chain by examining supply networks in terms of complexity and performance.
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M. Cristina De Stefano and Maria J. Montes-Sancho
Climate change requires the reduction of direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a task that seems to clash with increasing supply chain complexity. This study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Climate change requires the reduction of direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a task that seems to clash with increasing supply chain complexity. This study aims to analyse the upstream supply chain complexity dimensions suggesting the importance of understanding the information processing that these may entail. Reducing equivocality can be an issue in some dimensions, requiring the introduction of written guidelines to moderate the effects of supply chain complexity dimensions on GHG emissions at the firm and supply chain level.
Design/methodology/approach
A three-year panel data was built with information obtained from Bloomberg, Trucost and Compustat. Hypotheses were tested using random effect regressions with robust standard errors on a sample of 394 SP500 companies, addressing endogeneity through the control function approach.
Findings
Horizontal complexity reduces GHG emissions at the firm level, whereas vertical and spatial complexity dimensions increase GHG emissions at the firm and supply chain level. Although the introduction of written guidelines neutralises the negative effects of vertical complexity on firm and supply chain GHG emissions, it is not sufficient in the presence of spatial complexity.
Originality/value
This paper offers novel insights by suggesting that managers need to reconcile the potential trade-off effects on GHG emissions that horizontally complex supply chain structures can present. Their priority in vertically and spatially complex supply chain structures should be to reduce equivocality.
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David Martin Herold and Łukasz Marzantowicz
Neo-institutional theories and their constructs have so far only received limited attention in supply chain management literature. As recent supply chain disruptions and their…
Abstract
Purpose
Neo-institutional theories and their constructs have so far only received limited attention in supply chain management literature. As recent supply chain disruptions and their ripple effects affect actors on a broader institutional level, supply chains are confronted with multiple new and emerging, often conflicting, institutional demands. This study aims to unpack the notion of institutional complexity behind supply chain disruptions and present a novel institutional framework to lower supply chain susceptibility and increase supply chain resilience.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors identify the patterns of complexity that shape the supply chain susceptibility, namely, distance, diversity and ambiguity, and present three institutional responses to susceptibility to increase supply chain resilience, namely, institutional entrepreneurship, institutional alignment and institutional layering.
Findings
This paper analyses the current situational relevance to better understand the various and patterned ways how logics influence both supply chain susceptibility and the supply chain resilience. The authors derive six propositions on how complexity can be reduced for supply chain susceptibility and can be increased for supply chain resilience.
Originality/value
By expanding and extending research on institutional complexity to supply chains, the authors broaden how researchers in supply chain management view supply chain susceptibility, thereby providing managers with theory to think differently about supply chains and its resilience.
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Zulaiha Hamidu, Kassimu Issau, Francis O. Boachie-Mensah and Emmanuel Asafo-Adjei
The authors examine the effect of supply chain resilience (SCR) on supply chain performance (SCP) while considering the moderating effect of supply chain network complexity (SCNC…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors examine the effect of supply chain resilience (SCR) on supply chain performance (SCP) while considering the moderating effect of supply chain network complexity (SCNC) on the nexus between SCR and SCP of manufacturing firms.
Design/methodoqlogy/approach
The quantitative research approach and explanatory research design were utilised for this study. A sample of 345 manufacturing firms in the Accra metropolis was drawn. The partial least square structural equation modelling was employed.
Findings
Findings from the study revealed that SCR has a significant positive effect on SCP. However, SCNC had a significant negative moderating effect on the relationship between SCR and SCP.
Practical implications
The authors advocate that manufacturing firms are prone to stronger impact from complex networks that mitigate the already existing positive relationship between SCR and SCP and is dependent on the context in which the study is executed, and the extent to which resilience strategies are robust. Thus, the SCNC has an adverse impact on how well partners interact and how well the supply chain functions.
Originality/value
This is the first study that quantitatively investigates the SCR impact on SCP in the presence of SCNC of manufacturing firms in the context of a developing economy. The study redefines SCNC from earlier studies.
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Jingmin Wang, Ligang Cui and Maozeng Xu
This study aims to find the impact of supply chain certification (SCCert) on supply chain efficiency (SCEffi) with the inverted U-shaped moderator role of supply chain complexity…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to find the impact of supply chain certification (SCCert) on supply chain efficiency (SCEffi) with the inverted U-shaped moderator role of supply chain complexity (SCComp).
Design/methodology/approach
In order to test the conceptual model and the hypothesized relationships between all the constructs, the 307 useable survey responses were collected using the purposive sampling technique on a seven-point Likert scale. The SPSS26.0 and AMOS24.0 were used to analyze data, and the hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the model.
Findings
This study reached a set of interesting results where it was confirmed that there is a significant relationship between SCCert and SCEffi. It further confirmed the inverted U-shaped moderating effect of SCComp between SCCert and SCEffi: on the left side of the threshold, the increase of SCComp will enhance the promotion effect of SCCert on SCEffi, while on the right side of the threshold, excessive SCComp will rather weaken the promotion effect of SCCert on SCEffi.
Practical implications
The findings provide implications for supply chain efficiency enablers to introduce/promote certification upgrading actions. The study provides a framework for solving the power and constraint problem of supply chain efficiency change.
Originality/value
Findings provide deeper and new insights into threshold feature of supply chain complexity, analyzing how supply chain certification activity realize supply chain efficiency reform through the moderating role of supply chain complexity.
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Tillmann Boehme, Joshua Fan, Thomas Birtchnell, James Aitken, Neil Turner and Eric Deakins
Delivering housing to resource-constrained communities (RCCs) is a complex process beset with difficulties. The purpose of this study is to use a complexity lens to examine the…
Abstract
Purpose
Delivering housing to resource-constrained communities (RCCs) is a complex process beset with difficulties. The purpose of this study is to use a complexity lens to examine the approach taken by a social enterprise (SE) in Australia to develop and manage a housebuilding supply chain for RCCs.
Design/methodology/approach
The research team used a longitudinal case study approach from 2017 to 2022, which used mixed methods to understand the phenomenon and gain an in-depth understanding of the complex issues and problem-solving undertaken by an SE start-up.
Findings
Balancing mission logic with commercial viability is challenging for an SE. The supply chain solution that evolved accommodated the particulars of geography and the needs of many stakeholders, including the end-user community and government sponsors. Extensive and time-consuming socialisation and customisation led to a successful technical design and sustainable supply chain operation.
Practical implications
Analysing supply chain intricacies via a complexity framework is valuable for scholars and practitioners, assisting in designing and developing supply chain configurations and understanding their dynamics. Meeting the housing construction needs of RCCs requires the SE to place societal focus at the centre of the supply chain rather than merely being a system output. The developed business model complements the engineering solution to empower a community-led housing construction supply chain.
Originality/value
This longitudinal case study contributes to knowledge by providing rich insights into the roles of SEs and how they develop and operate supply chains to fit with the needs of RCCs. Adding a contextual response dimension to an established complexity framework helped to explain how hybrid organisations balance commercial viability demands with social mission logic by amending traditional supply chain and governance practices. The case provides insights into supply chain configuration, needed changes and potential impacts when an SE as a focal actor inserts into a traditional for-profit construction supply chain.
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Junbin Wang, Xiaowei Dong, Yu Xiong, Umair Tanveer and Changping Zhao
This study explores how factors arising from supply chain (SC) network and complexity work together in supply chain learning (SCL) behavior.
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores how factors arising from supply chain (SC) network and complexity work together in supply chain learning (SCL) behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Practical implications
This study enriches the understanding of SCL and provides new insights for SC management practitioners to take measures to improve it.
Originality/value
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.
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