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The aim of this paper is to propose a genetic algorithms approach to develop a collaborative supply chain network, i.e. a supply chain network with genetic algorithms embedded (GA‐SCN), so as to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of a supply chain network.

The methodologies of the GA‐SCN are illustrated through a case study of a supply chain network of a Hong Kong lamp manufacturing company involving 10 entities, whose roles range from suppliers, purchasers, designers and manufacturers, to sales and distributors. A GA‐SCN is developed according to the information provided by the company, the performance results in the case study are discussed, and the concepts of network analysis are then introduced to analyze the equivalence structure of the developed GA‐SCN.

The genetic algorithms approach is a suitable approach for developing an efficient and effective supply chain network in terms of shortening the processing time and reducing operating time in the network: the processing time and operating cost are reduced by around 45 percent and 35 percent per order, respectively, in the case study.

This paper is the first known study to apply genetic algorithms for the development of a collaborative supply chain network to increase the competitiveness of a supply chain.

This paper aims to describe typical regional document supply networks in China through detailed discussion of their framework, service mode and influence on the nationwide document supply networks.

This paper highlights various kinds of regional document supply networks in China that serve as document resource sharing cooperation networks within provinces, cities and university towns. Their framework, service mode and influence on the nationwide document supply networks are discussed, followed by suggestions for improvement.

Regional document supply networks have their natural advantages in local financial support and extensive local coverage and are capable of providing fine service to meet various user needs timely and economically. They become an important part and beneficial supplement to nationwide document supply networks.

This paper studies regional document supply networks in China which has rarely been addressed in the international library literature.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of V‐A‐T analysis in the management of supply chain networks.

The paper provides a conceptual overview of V‐A‐T analysis as a procedure for categorizing manufacturing facilities, and explores the use of V‐A‐T analysis as a technique for the management of supply chain networks.

There are several challenges to the effective management of supply chain networks. However, organizations can overcome these challenges by understanding the nature of network control points as revealed through the application of V‐A‐T analysis on their supply chains.

The paper is conceptual in nature and must be validated through empirical research studies.

The concepts presented can be used by supply chain professionals to increase the likelihood of effective supply chain management within their organizations, and by supply chain researchers to further explore the use of V‐A‐T analysis as a tool for examining supply chain networks.

The paper makes a start in filling a void in the literature concerning how V‐A‐T analysis can be used as a tool to facilitate improved supply chain management.

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.

To explore the mechanism that shapes firms' supply chain learning (SCL) practices, this study examines the relationship between firms' knowledge network embeddedness and their SCL practice in a supply chain network, as well as the moderating role of supply chain network cohesion in this relationship.

Using patent application data and supply chain partner information from 869 listed firms between 2011 and 2020 in China, this study uses fixed-effect regression models to reduce endogeneity problems by controlling for individual heterogeneity effects that cannot be observed over time.

Firms' knowledge network embeddedness has an inverted U-shaped effect on their SCL, and this non-linear relationship is conditional on supply chain network cohesion, which strengthens (weakens) the positive (negative) effect of knowledge network embeddedness on SCL.

The findings show that managers can reconcile the downsides of knowledge network embeddedness on SCL by fostering greater supply chain network cohesion.

Drawing from the network pluralism perspective, this study contributes to supply chain literature by extending the research context of the antecedents of SCL from a single-network setting to a dual-network setting. It extends the network pluralism perspective by showing that not only positive effects but also negative effects of network embeddedness can transfer from one network to another.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether brokered network governance, run by the manufacturer, affects relational embeddedness and thus contributes to yielding the Coleman rent in the triadic supply chains.

Building upon the theoretical tenets of transaction cost analysis, complemented by the underpinnings of social capital theory, this study involves an empirical investigation that uses survey data collected from the triadic supply chains in Europe. The research covers a two-step analysis. In the first step, the Coleman rent was estimated through the regression analysis with the interaction effects. Then, partial least squares–structural equation modeling was used to estimate the reflective-formative nature of higher component model and test the research hypotheses.

The results of the study demonstrate that the distribution of three mechanisms in network governance is relatively even; however, market and hierarchy still emerge as the most impactful dimensions. Interestingly, though, this study shows that social capital can actually coexist with market and hierarchy in the triadic supply chains with the structural hole. Likewise, the research indicates that the impact of brokered network governance on the strength of network relational embeddedness is significant, but relatively weak, whereas network relational embeddedness has a strong and positive effect on the Coleman rent.

This study makes three major contributions. First, this study is one of very few that explicitly considers brokered network governance, run by the manufacturer positioned on the structural hole in its triadic supply chain. Second, as the triadic perspective is still uncommon in the supply chain studies, this research investigates a triad with the structural hole within the manufacturing setting. Third, the paper seeks to investigate the ability to yield the Coleman rent in the triadic supply chains with the structural hole, although this type of rent is typically linked to another arrangement called closure.

Given the increasing attention paid to the role of social capital within supply chains, this study investigates how relational embeddedness can be used by the manufacturer, sitting on the structural hole and running the network governance mechanism, to yield the Coleman rent in the triadic supply chain.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically review and assess the current status of research on supply chain sustainability from a network structural perspective and provide an organising framework for future scholarship in this area.

By adopting an evidence-based approach, this study conducts a systematic review of 73 articles from 18 peer-reviewed journals published between 2000 and 2020.

Adopting a social network analysis approach, the review identifies specific node-level (i.e. degree centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality) and network-level (i.e. network density, network sub-groups and network diversity) structural properties that play a role in supply chain sustainability. The results reveal that structural properties determine the extent of perception of sustainability risks, the diffusion of sustainability targets, introduction of sustainable innovations, development of sustainability capabilities, adoption of sustainability initiatives and the monitoring of sustainability performance throughout the supply chain.

By distinguishing between supply network and sustainable supply network types, this study extends the existing understandings of the role of network connectivity patterns in supply chain sustainability through synthesising and evaluating the extant literature. This study further clarifies the role of these network structural properties in supply chain sustainability by describing their impact on a set of sustainable supply chain management practices through which firms achieve sustainability goals across their supply chains.

This paper aims to investigate the bridging role of first-tier suppliers in diffusing sustainability in supply networks and how this role is facilitated by the procurement function.

The paper is based on an embedded case study of two supply networks of a coffee beans roasting company. The embedded cases focus on coffee beans and packaging supply networks.

The findings reveal less than expected involvement of the focal company and its procurement function in sustainability implementation with first-tier suppliers. Instead, sustainability diffuses upstream to lower-tier suppliers but also downstream, against the tide, as a result of the various bridging roles performed by first-tier suppliers.

This paper provides two theoretical contributions. First, it contributes to the sustainable supply network management literature by providing rich insights on sustainability diffusion to lower-tier suppliers and the role of first-tier suppliers in this process. Second, the paper contributes to structural hole theory by revealing a typology of bridging roles that actors, such as suppliers, undertake in the sustainability context.

The paper provides managers with practical insights on how sustainability can be diffused in the supply network and the different roles that first-tier suppliers can play in this direction.

This paper shows that sustainability diffusion to lower-tier suppliers is possible in the absence of focal company procurement involvement when bridging roles are undertaken by first-tier suppliers and their procurement functions are involved in the implementation process. These bridging roles facilitate sustainability diffusion both upstream and downstream.

The purpose of this paper is to scrutinise how the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) literature has discussed knowledge dynamics across the extended supply network, particularly in the contemporary context of fragmented, globally dispersed supply networks.

A systematic approach to reviewing the literature is applied, covering 20 years, starting with 267 references, and narrowing down to 88 articles specifically addressing knowledge diffusion processes across the extended supply network.

This study shows that vertical ties limited to direct suppliers or third-party monitoring of global suppliers are both insufficient. Lack of co-opetition is an impediment to knowledge diffusion. And the debate of whether or not global dispersion is an impediment to knowledge diffusion seems inconclusive. More importantly, there is a lack of network-level studies mapping the diversity of actors in supply networks.

First, future SSCM research should shift from an operational focus to strategic knowledge diffusion. Second, the scope of SSCM should expand from linear buyer–supplier relationships to multi-tier and multilateral studies. Special focus should be placed on the literature on social network to support processes that look at the drivers of effective large-scale, global diffusion of sustainability.

This review contends that it is paramount to set a new research direction captured in a new definition of “sustainable supply network management”. Future research should overcome the barriers of data collection at the network level in order to contribute to the field’s current challenges, which clearly lies in globally dispersed and complex supply network, not dyads or linear chains.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how over-reliance on buyer-supplier relational capital (created through the interconnected supply chain and social network) impacts firm performance in the context of the emerging market, i.e. India.

The study uses the Prowess database (on Indian firms) to identify the firms that rely heavily on relational capital and employs panel data regression analyses to test the effect of relational capital on firm performance (supply chain performance and financial performance).

The results show that over-reliance on relational capital leads to lower supply chain performance (proxied by supply chain cycle) and financial performance (proxied by Tobin's Q). The results also reveal that supply chain performance mediates the relationship between over-reliance on relational capital and financial performance. Together, these results indicate that over-reliance on relational capital created through the interconnected supply chain and social network for supply chain management may negatively affect a firm's competitive advantage, which in turn can significantly impede its financial performance.

In light of the supply chain literature and relevant theories, the study develops an objective understanding of over-reliance relational capital created through the interconnected supply chain and social network, by relying on a large panel dataset of manufacturing firms and hence contributes to the supply chain literature. Also, it presents a novel idea to operationalize the measure for relational capital using the Prowess database.