Search results

The COVID-19 pandemic has fuelled the transition in the workplace into the digital era. The purpose of this review paper is to highlight how the pandemic has further exposed the digital divide and the structural inequalities in remote workers’ access to home-location technology infrastructure and services. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) is adopted to highlight how the pandemic has forced the workforce to accept and use digital technology from home for work purposes.

This desktop-based review paper is drawn from the existing literature. Although both benefits and disadvantages are noted, technology plays a critical role in connecting remote workers to the digital world.

The paper found that remote workers did not necessarily struggle to work remotely from home to undertake their daily work tasks. Still, the critical challenge was the available Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure in their respective residential areas.

The paper seeks to highlight that even though the COVID-19 pandemic and related events have fast-tracked the switch of many work activities into the digital era, the uneven distribution of ICT infrastructure accentuates the barriers to effective home workplaces for many in developing communities. The research found a significant role that the advancement and acceptance of technologies play in the efficacy of remote working from home.

The relevance of this paper is in its contribution to the literature in extending knowledge about the UTAUT on remote working during a pandemic. The arguments presented herein may contribute to policy development and the ongoing debate about how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift into the digital era on a global basis.

Blockchain can track the material from the manufacturer to the end customers. Therefore, it can ensure the product's authenticity, transparency and trust in the retail supply chain (SC). There is a need to trace and track the retail products before it reaches the customers to check the quality of the products so that expired products can be recycled and reused, which in turn will help gain customers' trust. This research aims to investigate retail employees' behavioural intention to adopt blockchain in the retail SC.

To examine the behavioural intention of employees in the retail SC, the research uses three theories – the technology acceptance model; the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology; and the theory of planned behaviour. The technology acceptance model measures the employee's acceptance of blockchain in the retail SC. The unified theory of acceptance is used in this research to measure how blockchain adoption will improve the performance of the employees. The theory of planned behaviour is used in this research to measure whether the employees intend to adopt blockchain. A survey was carried out in the retail stores of India. Exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used for data analysis.

This study found that the employees of the retail stores have a positive intention and attitude to adopt blockchain technology. Further, it was found that perceived behavioural control and effort expectancy was not promoting blockchain adoption in the retail sector.

This study will help the retail stores' employees understand the blockchain in their operations and will motivate the top management of the retail companies to adopt this technology. The study is limited to the retail SC in India only.

This study uses three theories technology acceptance model; the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology; and the theory of planned behaviour, which were not used in earlier studies of blockchain adoption in the retail SC.

This article aims to comprehensively review the measurement and management of supply chain performance (SCP) and strategic performance (SP). It strives to identify integrable features regarding frameworks, measurement approaches, practices and emerging research issues in these areas to integrate SCP and SP for measuring and managing performance. It intends to develop a dynamic-integrated-performance-system by incorporating integrable aspects of SCP and SP to link these domains for organizational performance improvement.

Using systematic-literature-review, this study analyzes 154 articles published in selected peer-reviewed international journals from 2000 to 2023 regarding SCP and SP. It assesses existing knowledge regarding research-design followed, challenging areas and imperatives in these critical business domains to investigate the prior conceptual, empirical, case study-based and literature-review-based articles.

The study identifies integrable features regarding key theoretical and measurement frameworks, critical objectives, significant measures, effective practices for measuring and managing SCP and SP and emerging research issues common to these areas. The findings help develop a dynamic-integrated-performance-system that uses the theoretical lenses of resource-based-view/dynamic-capability-theory and adopts a comprehensive framework like DBSC (system-dynamic-model with BSC perspectives). It incorporates identified integrable measures and best practices to monitor, measure, manage and improve organizational performance for sustainable competitive advantage. The article reveals that earlier studies have overlooked analyzing SCP and SP integration aspects.

From the theoretical viewpoint, the present SLR is unique in three ways: first, in investigating both the measurement and management of SCP and SP holistically; second, in identifying integrative features of these two; and third, in proposing a DIPS to link SCP and SP for performance improvement. The study reveals that existing literature has focused on measuring and managing SCP and SP in isolation without attempting a comprehensive and unified approach to integrate the respective domains. The present SLR adopts a holistic approach to link SCP and SP from SCM and strategic-management perspectives. The study proposes a dynamic-integrated-performance-system to measure, manage and improve performance in a unified method.

This study provides SC and strategy practitioners with an understanding of strategy-performance pathways for achieving strategic objectives and executing risk mitigation initiatives to counter disruptions. It enables SC managers to comprehend SC practices and SCP leading to dynamic SC capabilities development. Operationalizing the proposed DIPS will help firms link SCP and SP, align operational SC practices with strategic sustainability and circularity objectives and meet sustainable development goals while benefiting social and environmental stakeholders.

Assessing relationships and identifying a unified approach integrating SCP with SP have not been addressed earlier. This study's uniqueness is finding integrable features of SCP and SP and constructing a dynamic-integrated-performance-system to link these domains for achieving strategic competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to analyse what theories assume about multinational enterprises (MNEs) when they claim these are superior and to discuss possible explanations for why MNE superiority seems to be dominant in the international business (IB) research field.

A common theme in mainstream IB theories is that multinational enterprises (MNEs) are superior in terms of cost efficiency and innovativeness compared with other types of organizations. A closer look at transaction cost economics (TCE)/internalization theory, evolutionary theory and dynamic capability theory reveal a bias toward MNE supremacy because of how MNEs are conceptualized as firms and therefore fail to explain the essence of “multinational advantage”. These revelations and the strong dependence on the benevolence to provide unbiased data means that MNE supremacy posited by mainstream IB theories is as much a rationalized myth as an empirical fact.

Although mainstream theories differ when it comes to the building blocks that constitute MNE supremacy, they have one attribute in common: they are silent as to why MNEs are superior compared with, for example, domestic firms or other types of economic agents. Irrespective of whether the focus is the strength of the hierarchy, the skill of managers or a common identity, nothing in the theories tells us that these factors are more pronounced in MNEs than in other types of economic actors.

The paper deals with the issue of multinational advantage. It claims that mainstream theories of MNEs tend to assume, explicitly or implicitly, that MNEs are superior in terms of cost efficiency and innovativeness compared with other types of economic agents. The analysis demonstrates that this tendency is a consequence of how MNEs are conceptualized as firms in the different theories as well as of the strong dependence in IB research on the benevolence of MNEs to provide unbiased data. It is concluded that MNE supremacy posited by mainstream IB theories is as much a rationalized myth as an empirical fact.

This paper aims to show that evolutionary game theory not only provides a general and unified theory of political philosophy and strategic management theories but also a positive theory of interactive behavior.

This study suggests a way of the evolutionary game-theoretical model.

The model presented in this paper demonstrates coopetition is derived from balance points in multi-actor games. As the political–philosophical address of those strategic games will of all becomes convention in this balance point at which common knowledge occurs global optimum.

This study explores the connections between several streams in philosophy and strategic management. What does a particular philosophy contribute to strategic management with respect to game theory? When addressing this question in historical or exploratory terms, or in a combination of both, the end result is similar: particular philosophical issues, properly explained, are discussed in relation to important questions in strategic management.

What are the psychological and behavioral underpinnings of strategic decisions of this kind? What type of cognitive frames and managerial mental models, such as the game-theoretical model, might enable or hinder the integration of real-world problems in strategic decision-making?

What explains the evolution of such mental models, as well as the development of philosophical ideas, in informing the origins? How does the evolution of social and political contexts influence change in the cognitive and behavioral underpinnings of strategic decision-making?

This study highlights the overt power of strategic management ideas – competition, cooperation and coopetition – which have historically been built on the foundations of organizational theory, while also underlying the potential of philosophies, collective wisdom and Condorcet’s jury theorem and Rousseau’s (1998) correctness theory in games of evaluation. This study investigates whether the many produce better decisions than the wise few.

Digital communication technologies have become ubiquitous for various firm processes related to international business (IB) and global strategy. However, IB and strategy scholars lack an encompassing and theory-based typology of these technologies that facilitates analysis and discussion of their uses and effects. Likewise, managers have a large choice of technologies at their disposal making it difficult to determine what technology to use in different IB areas. This paper aims to develop a typology of digital communication technologies based on the synchronicity and interactivity of these technologies and capture their fundamental social and temporal dimensions. This results in four ideal types: broadcasting, corresponding, aggregating and collaborating technologies.

This is a conceptual paper incorporating theoretical perspectives to theorize about four ideal types of digital communication technologies. A subsequent empirical test of this typology has been provided in the appendix.

The authors discuss how the typology might be applied in IB decisions and some of the contingencies that impact this choice. Building on that, the authors develop directions for future research to increase their understanding of the use of digital communication technologies to help improve IB functions. Overall, the authors suggest future research explores contingencies about where and when different types of digital communication technologies should be used. Finally, the authors provide implication of having a unified typology for both academics and managers.

The authors offer a robust framework for thinking about and capturing different types of digital communication technologies that can be applied by researchers and used by managers when making decisions related to IB. The authors also provide some initial testing of the typology with a three-country study design helping to determine its validity.

Many manufacturers are exploring adopting smart technologies in their operations, also referred to as the shift towards “Industry 4.0”. Employees' contribution to high-tech initiatives is key to successful Industry 4.0 technology adoption, but few studies have examined the determinants of employee acceptance. This study, therefore, aims to explore how managers affect employees' acceptance of Industry 4.0 technology, and, in turn, Industry 4.0 technology adoption.

Rooted in the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model and social exchange theory, this inductive research follows an in-depth comparative case study approach. The two studied Dutch manufacturing firms engaged in the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in their primary processes, including cyber-physical systems and augmented reality. A mix of qualitative methods was used, consisting of field visits and 14 semi-structured interviews with managers and frontline employees engaged in Industry 4.0 technology adoption.

The cross-case comparison introduces the manager's need to adopt a transformational leadership style for employees to accept Industry 4.0 technology adoption as an organisational-level factor that extends existing Industry 4.0 technology user acceptance theorising. Secondly, manager's and employee's recognition and serving of their own and others' emotions through emotional intelligence are proposed as an additional individual-level factor impacting employees' acceptance and use of Industry 4.0 technologies.

Synthesising these insights with those from the domain of Organisational Behaviour, propositions were derived from theorising the social aspects of effective Industry 4.0 technology adoption.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This paper lays the groundwork for future research in supply chain transparency in two ways. First, the authors delineate the construct and explore how it is shifting the business landscape. Second, the authors connect nine theories to the construct to guide future scholars in this growing research area.

The authors explore the practical implications for the future of supply chain transparency research through the application of nine theories: stakeholder theory; the technology acceptance model; transaction cost theory; commodity theory; competing values theory; ambidexterity; the natural-resource-based view of the firm; actor-network theory and neo-institutional theory. The authors also consider the blending of theories to provide further insights into the ways firms engage in supply chain transparency.

This analysis relates theories from several disciplines (i.e. marketing, supply chain management, economics, information systems and organizational behavior) to add theoretical insights to the concept of supply chain transparency, with suggestions for using these theories in conjunction to address complex emerging issues. The authors offer guidance and direction for cross-disciplinary research to help supply chain and logistics influence other fields.

Supply chain transparency is a boundary-spanning phenomenon swiftly proliferating multiple aspects of business. This research applies nine theoretical perspectives to guide future researchers and lays the foundation for managers looking to adopt transparency into their supply chains.

With the change in climate and increased pollution, there has been a need to reduce environmental carbon emissions. This research aims to develop a framework for reducing environmental carbon footprints to improve business performance.

This study uses Scientific Procedures and Rationales for the Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) approach. Articles are searched in the Scopus database using various keywords and their combinations. It resulted in 651 articles initially. After applying different screening criteria, 61 articles were considered for the final study.

This study provided four themes and sub-themes within each category. This research also used theories, methodologies and context (TMC) framework to provide future research questions. This study used the antecedents, decisions and outcomes (ADO) framework for synthesising the findings. The ADO framework will help to achieve carbon neutrality and improve firms' supply chain (SC) performance.

This study provides theoretical implications by highlighting the various theories that can be used in future research. This study also states the practical implications for the achievement of carbon neutrality by the firms.

This study contributes to the literature linking carbon neutrality with business performance.