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This paper, with the tobacco industry as the background, establishes an indicator system for tobacco supply chain performance evaluation using the FAHP method.

Based on the relevant data of tobacco enterprises in Guangxi, the paper calculates the performance values of tobacco companies in various cities of Guangxi, and through the analysis of each indicator and the performance values of each city, the authors find that the improvement ability has a major impact on tobacco supply chain performance. Then, the paper establishes a system dynamics model to further demonstrate the impact of information digitalization on the performance of the tobacco supply chain in Guangxi, thus providing theoretical support for building digital tobacco logistics in Guangxi.

The findings of the study show that the performance of the tobacco supply chains in various cities of Guangxi is generally at the level of “Pass–Good,” which can barely meet the requirements of tobacco supply chain operation, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.

The authors show that digital and IT-based empowerment can maximize the performance of Guangxi's tobacco logistics performance.

This paper breaks through the limitations of the research on bullwhip effect in the traditional supply chain, extends the research perspective to digital supply chain and discusses the weakening effect of digital supply chain on bullwhip effect by comparing the overall performance of the two.

This paper starts with the weakening mechanism of supply chain digitization on bullwhip effect, builds bullwhip effect models of traditional supply chain and digital supply chain, respectively, simulates the influence of supply chain digitization transformation on bullwhip effect by using Matlab software and analyzes the causes of bullwhip effect in supply chain led by T company and the digitization process.

Firstly, digitization can reduce bullwhip effect in multi-level supply chain by reducing information feedback deviation. Second, digital transformation is conducive to improving the overall performance of the supply chain. Third, government incentives can promote the digital transformation of supply chain and inhibit bullwhip effect.

Although the study considers the heterogeneous subject -- the government's incentive effect on digital transformation and information sharing – it does not include the influence of the end node in the supply chain, that is the consumer. In addition, this paper only analyzes and discusses the bullwhip effect on the amplification of demand, without considering the situation that the market contraction will lead to the reduction of demand.

This paper considers the distortion degree and delay degree of information feedback, carries out quantitative analysis of bullwhip effect, builds the bullwhip effect model of traditional supply chain and digital supply chain, uses Matlab software to analyze the difference of the influence of supply chain digital transformation on bullwhip effect suppression and puts forward the corresponding control strategy.

The research shows that digital transformation can reduce the bullwhip effect in multi-layer supply chain by reducing the information feedback deviation, which is conducive to improving the overall supply chain performance, and government support can accelerate the digital transformation of supply chain to a certain extent.

First, break through the limitations of traditional supply chain research, expand the research perspective to digital supply chain and discuss the weakening effect of digital supply chain on bullwhip effect by comparing the overall performance of the two. Second, quantify the bullwhip effect through information feedback bias and provide an analysis method for the weakening of the bullwhip effect. Third, the driving role of the government in the digital transformation of the supply chain is considered in the study, so that the model is more close to the actual situation of enterprise operation.

Ever since its emergence, the metaverse has presented opportunities and disruptions to every stakeholder, including individual users and organizations. This article aims to offer valuable perspectives on six identified critical areas that the metaverse could significantly impact: marketing ethics, marketing communication, relationship marketing, retail marketing, supply chain management and transportation management.

Through a multi-perspective approach, this paper gathers valuable perspectives from various invited contributors to each of the six identified key areas that the metaverse could significantly impact.

For each key area identified, the invited contributors first share their valuable perspectives by discussing the roles of the metaverse. Subsequently, the invited contributors discuss their views on vital opportunities, challenges and research agenda concerning the metaverse.

With the widespread metaverse, it is expected that each key area identified is likely to undergo significant levels of disruption. Against this backdrop, this paper contributes to the academic literature and industry by gathering different perspectives from invited contributors on the relevance of the metaverse in marketing and logistics domains.

The purpose of this study is to explore how tobacco manufacturing companies can improve their sustainability performance via effective supplier relationship management (SRM).

This study has adopted a single case study of an international tobacco company. The primary data involved semi-structured interviews with participants from the case company who are familiar with sustainable SRM in the tobacco industry and are engaging in various techniques to improve sustainability performance.

The drivers for sustainable SRM commonly identified in literature are observable within the case company. There is also clear evidence of integrating sustainability in its SRM processes. However, the perception of sustainability as a requirement to meet stringent regulations limits its scope and drive in pursuing sustainable SRM. It has also limited supplier sustainability evaluation and performance metrics. Furthermore, the findings of this paper reinforce the importance of a procurement team’s ability to work with other functional teams in implementing sustainable SRM. The findings also contribute to the emerging literature on the impact of sustainability on supplier segmentation and multi-tier supplier management.

This study provides insight into the varying SRM methods used in the tobacco industry to ensure compliance and improve sustainability performance. However, further research is required to explore the generalisability of the findings of this study derived from a single case study.

The tobacco industry is an under-researched industry, particularly in terms of sustainable operations and supply chain management practices. The findings of this study seem to be relevant to those comparable industries with stringent regulations as well.

The purpose of this paper is to set the benchmark for finished goods consumer supply chain companies in terms of financial metrics driven from best performing supply chains in the world.

The paper used a financial data collected from 25 large industries in Ethiopia and 25 companies from the best performing supply chains in the world as ranked by Gartner® to identify the gaps in financial metrics. This method helps in setting benchmarks for the case companies.

The result shows that the Ethiopian supply chains are performing well under revenue growth and insufficient under revenue per employee metrics. The result shows us these supply chains are accumulating inventories and are also seen inefficient and ineffective in their performances.

Even though the research is only one of the few on case considered, it is not without limitation. The strategies to narrow the performance gaps for the respective case companies are not articulated.

It is an ideal for the managers in the case companies to look into their performance gaps and take the necessary actions to stay alive in this fierce competition era. Hence, the paper shows insights to the improvement of the supply chain performances.

The research can be considered the only one of the few in a case country. It is also the first of the type in covering large fast moving consumer goods companies’ metrics at large aligning with the best practicing supply chains in the world within the same industry vertical.

The purpose of this paper is to report on experiences from BAT's major supply chain reconfiguration program; it details practices, lessons learnt and do's and do nots. There is little research that reports on how to manage major supply chain reconfiguration programs, despite the fact that it is widely acknowledged that this can be challenging.

This paper reports insights from industry, directly captured from the responsible managers in workshops and through co‐author involvement.

Seven key lessons are shared, including how to use S&OP, measurement and other specific change management tactics and practices.

The findings reported in this paper are “straight from the horses mouth” and are very much informed by all the experience developed inside BAT. Coupled with the focus on overall lessons, the findings will be useful for many other supply chain executives engaged in major reconfigurations.

This paper provieds an insight into a major supply chain design project in BAT over a six year period. This included access to senior decision makers and those actually running the change program. Case studies of this scale, scope and longitude are a rarity in supply chain strategy.

In manufacturing industries, the levels of inventories at all stages (i.e. raw material, work-in-process and finished goods inventories) indicate the firm's competitive positioning, strategies, internal processes and relationships with suppliers and downstream customers. The authors identify patterns of manufacturing industries based on levels of raw material and finished goods inventories to classify inbound and outbound supply chain strategies.

The authors review literature on supply chain inventory strategy and perform cluster analysis to analyze patterns of manufacturing industries based on manufacturing industry data collected from US Census of Bureau. Following Porter's Five Forces Model, the authors perform in-depth case studies of four representative industries to analyze factors driving supply chain strategies, including industry intensity of rivalry, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers, and bargaining power of buyers.

This study identifies three streams of research on supply chain strategy: Fisher's model and its variations, lean and agile paradigms, and push/pull systems. It finds that whether an industry shows low or high raw materials or finished goods inventories depending on its products, processes, and the dynamics of all forces described in the Five Forces Model.

This study is not able to include supplier selection, production strategies, warehousing and distribution, and even product design into the analysis of supply chain strategy due to data limitation. This study classifies industries based on average inventory levels of raw materials and finished goods, while inventory levels and supply chain strategies for specific firms may vary significantly within each industry.

This study contributes to the supply chain management literature by providing a parsimonious framework of mapping inbound and outbound supply chain inventory strategies, and the results based on the analyses of all US manufacturing industries provide a baseline picture for supply chain management professionals with manufacturing firms.

This research seeks to undertake a comparative study of Chinese distribution centers (DCs) with UK DCs in order to explore the relationship between the supply chain, logistics and distribution functions, and the gap between the countries. The study has been undertaken in light of Chinese corporate standardization programs in distribution channels. The main goal of the standardization programs has been to create efficient supply chains to be able to control the flow of information, capital, product and other resources. The focus of the study was Fujian Province where the standardization program has meant that functional areas such as marketing and distribution are measured by key performance indicators (KPI), under specific evaluation keys. The study highlights benchmarked KPIs where supply chain entrepreneurship can be brought to bear.

The method used in this research is quantitative via a small scale sample. Questionnaires were sent to Chinese DCs in Fujian Province with additional quantitative information sought through telephone follow‐up.

The data have been analyzed and compared to UK DCs for inventory level, order lead‐times, customer segmentation, value‐added activities, and floor area utilization. DCs are a long way from internationally competitive best practice across complex product categories. This provides opportunity for entrepreneurial third party inventory storage and management. DCs also exhibits low transportation efficiency due to low vehicle loading factors, also affecting DC order lead‐time efficiency and value‐added activities. There is opportunity here for entrepreneurial activity in offering efficient (lean) and responsive (agile) third party transport services. There is also evidence of poor process management implying opportunity for the application of entrepreneurial consulting capability to resource and reengineer end‐end process chains.

The research generalisability is limited due its small scale sample in a single Chinese province.

Despite a modernization program the implications of this study are that Chinese DCs are not ready for traditional international competition, but in the short‐term entrepreneurs may be able to design sustainable lean and agile supply chains that are at least as good as those in the UK.

The study's originality is its comparative benchmark of Chinese with UK DCs.