Enhancing hospital supply chain performance: A relational view and empirical test

Improving hospital supply chain performance has become increasingly important as healthcare organizations strive to improve operational efficiency and to reduce cost. In this study, we propose a research model based on a relational view, delineating the factors that influence hospital supply chain performance: trust, knowledge exchange, IT integration between the hospital and its suppliers, and hospital–supplier integration. Testing results of the research model based on data from a sample of 117 supply chain executives from U.S. hospitals show positive direct effects: (1) from trust and from IT integration to knowledge exchange respectively; (2) from knowledge exchange and from IT integration to hospital–supplier integration respectively; and (3) from hospital–supplier integration to hospital supply chain performance. The results also show the following indirect effects: (1) the influences of knowledge exchange and IT integration on hospital supply chain performance are partially and fully mediated by hospital–supplier integration, respectively and (2) the influences of trust and IT integration on hospital–supplier integration are fully and partially mediated by knowledge exchange, respectively. In addition, the results show the following moderating effects: (1) hospital system membership moderates the relationships between IT integration and knowledge exchange and between trust and knowledge exchange; (2) hospital environmental uncertainty moderates the relationship between trust and knowledge exchange; and (3) trust moderates the relationship between knowledge exchange and hospital–supplier integration. Implications of the study findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Impact of relational norms, supplier development and trust on supplier performance

Supplier relationship management and supplier development initiatives assume a fundamental role in enterprise supply chain management. An important aspect of effective supplier relationship management is the role of trust. This paper seeks to understand whether supplier relationship management or supplier development initiative should be emphasized as a firm strives to achieve superior supplier performance. The analysis and discussion draws upon sourcing strategy literature and is based on empirical survey-data of mid to upper level managers with responsibility for supply management initiatives in their respective organizations in Denmark and in the USA. It examines the interrelationships among “relational norms”, “trust”, “supplier development initiatives” and ensuing “supplier performance”. The data analysis shows that firms must emphasize relation and trust building activities before investing in supplier development initiative. Supplier perception audits must be routinely performed to gauge the level of trust and strength of relational norms.     

供应链环境下供应商选择方法研究综述

分析了供应链环境下供应商评价选择的重要性，在讨论供应链一般概念基础上，对供应链环境下供应商评价选择方法的研究现状进行了综述。最后指出未来对供应商选择方法的研究重点应该关注的几个方面，以期为该领域的研究者和实践操作者提供参考意见。     

基于零售商促销努力的混合契约设计

在供应链协作中,供应商与零售商之间的合作尤为重要。零售商的促销水平极大的影响了产品的需求与销量,但促销活动同时也为零售商带来了额外的经营成本,经营成本的增加将导致零售商缺乏足够的积极性加大对促销活动的投入,因此需要供应商分担部分经营成本。利用回购契约与销量返利组合契约,分析了在允许二次进货的情况下供应商和零售商之间的利益关系,并设计了一种混合契约,以激励零售商为获得更多利润而加大促销努力的投入。     

Participation of suppliers in greening supply chains: An empirical analysis of German automotive suppliers

The public increasingly holds companies accountable for environmental misbehavior in their supply chains. To offset that risk corporations start initiatives to green their supply chains. Yet suppliers often fail to properly participate in these initiatives. This paper presents a conceptual framework to explain supplier participation in green initiatives, by investigating customer requirements, supplier readiness, relational norms and customer investment as possible drivers. The framework and hypotheses were tested using survey data of 54 German automotive suppliers. Partial least squares methodology was deployed for hypothesis testing. The study found supplier readiness and customer requirements to be significant drivers in supplier participation. Relational norms and customer investment did not per se yield significant importance for explaining supplier participation, but when taking into account firm size, the data suggests that cooperative relation norms and customer investment work as an additional driver in green supply chain management for larger suppliers. This research is one of the few studies that explore drivers for supply chain participation at the supplier's level.     

Antecedents to supplier integration in the automotive industry: A multiple-case study of foreign subsidiaries in China

Supplier integration has become an important concept for improving supply chain performance. The aim of this paper is to identify factors that facilitate and inhibit supplier integration in the context of the Chinese automotive industry. An inductive approach based on grounded theory was chosen as the research methodology, where data was collected through 30 detailed case interviews with subsidiaries of foreign automotive companies operating in China. The results indicate that buyer-side leadership is an important antecedent for building motivation, trust, and commitment among suppliers and for shaping their mindsets. This, in turn, facilitates strategic alignment and enables suppliers to build collaborative capabilities, which are finally shown to be a key enabler for successful supplier integration.     

Exploring the circular economy paradigm: A natural resource-based view on supplier selection criteria

The paradigm of circular economy and the transfer of its principles to supply chain management has recently received much attention from researchers and practitioners. Limited natural resources, governmental legislation, and social responsibility for environmental preservation are the main factors for the development of circular supply chains. Especially in the automotive industry, critical materials are used to produce electric vehicles, reinforcing the importance of circularity for the industry. As the first stage of the supply chain, suppliers have a considerable influence on creating self-sufficient production systems, and in the automotive sector, a low level of vertical integration is important. Therefore, selecting suppliers is an enabler for circular supply chains, but this decision is a complex process due to multiple, partly conflicting criteria. To contribute to the knowledge in this research area, this study applies a fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory approach for supplier selection in a circular supply chain in a case study of electric vehicles. First, a set of criteria for supplier selection in circular supply chains was identified based on a literature review and was systematically categorized based on the natural resource-based view. Afterward, the criteria were assessed and refined by experts with a strong procurement background in the automotive industry. Second, the experts were interviewed for value collection, and finally, the mutual influence of the criteria was determined. The results show that the most important criteria for circular supplier selection in electric vehicle supply chains are environmental standards, environmental-related certifications, resource consumption, and waste generation. Regarding the natural resource-based view, short-term focused criteria addressing the capability of pollution prevention have a higher importance compared to long-term criteria that drive sustainable development. In addition, this study classifies the criteria into the categories of causes and effects, discusses the prominence of the criteria, and presents a strategic map showing the mutual influences of the criteria. The results contribute to the theoretical and practical discussion on circular supply chains by identifying the key criteria for circular supplier selection and providing decision-making support for procurement managers.     

供应链数量折扣契约与退货契约研究评述

供应链契约是目前供应链管理研究的前沿问题之一,主要目标是解决如何协调供应链中各方的决策和利润分配,其中数量折扣契约和退货契约是目前研究较多、应用较广泛的契约形式.本文综述了数量折扣契约和退货契约的研究现状,指出以下问题是未来重要的研究方向:(1)不确定需求下的数量折扣契约;(2)数量折扣与退货的组合契约;(3)跨国供应链数量折扣契约、退货契约;(4)多级供应链的数量折扣契约、退货契约.     

Robust planning: a new paradigm for demand chain planning

This paper proposes a new paradigm for tactical demand chain planning (DCP), called robust planning, based on risk assessment of the supply and demand chain. The concepts of supply chain management (SCM), and its extension demand chain management (DCM), have been at the center of much recent research. One of the reasons for this is that, over the last years, a significant number of information systems have emerged, which claim to support the concept. The paper argues that these systems mostly adopt a myopic view of planning, based on pure deterministic planning methods. It demonstrates that such an approach fails to coop with the considerable uncertainty of the planning information. The proposed robust planning paradigm is then introduced and its impact explained, using the well-known example of the beer game. It holds the promise of reducing the number of re-planning cycles, through a better characterization of the expected service level performance over a medium planning horizon. Finally, a case study will show the value of robust planning in a European chemical enterprise.     

供应商供应绩效评价指标体系的建立与控制

随着供应链管理理论的发展，企业角色及外部需求的变化，竞争的加剧，以及信息技术飞速发展所带来的革命性影响。供应商供应绩效评价受到了越来越广泛的关注和日益深入的讨论并逐步在实践中采用。文章主要对供应商绩效评价指标体系进行研究，目的是能够符合对供应商的动态跟踪评价，同时有助于对供应商的有效控制。     

中国新鲜农产品市场能力、供应链管理以及物流问题

首先,介绍了供应链伙伴能力的概念并从购销相互关系角度对供应链类别进行了划分;并对中国新鲜农产品的供应链情况进行了全面的分析和描述;最后,讨论了供应链伙伴能力变化中呈现的供应链管理结构,并探讨了中国新鲜农产品面临的物流挑战。     

基于集配中心的供应物流协同补货决策模型

考虑了由供应商、集配中心和制造商组成的三级供应链的协同计划问题,建立了协同补货决策模型并设计了求解算法。算例分析表明在集配中心运作模式下通过协同补货可以实现供应链成本的最优化,也验证了模型的有效性,对于大型集配中心的运作具有一定的实际意义。     

供应链合作机制的多Agent分析

集成供应链要求节点企业建立紧密的合作关系。论文研究了供应链节点企业间在信息共享与库存管理方面的合作机制，应用多Agent技术理论分析了一个供应商与一个制造商合作博弈行为，并对结果进行分析。     

A coordination mechanism through value-added profit distribution in a supply chain considering corporate social responsibility

The consumers pay more and more attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR), which has been a new competitiveness for the enterprises. This paper constructs a supply chain consisting of a dominated retailer, a socially responsible supplier and a non-socially responsible supplier (compared with the socially responsible supplier), consider the consumer preference and exploit the game analysis technique to analyze the optimal decisions under the decentralized and concentrated decision, and then design a coordination mechanism based on value-added profit distribution. The results show that compared with the decentralized decision, the retail price and order quantity of two products are lower, the CSR effort degree of socially responsible supplier is higher, and the performance of the whole supply chain is better under the concentrated decision. In addition, the mechanism designed can induce the socially responsible supplier to undertake CSR without damaging its profit, prompt the supply chain members to make the concentrated decisions, and promote the competitiveness of the retailer-dominated supply chain.     

需求信息不对称下的供应链协调

分析了单供应商和单零售商组成的供应链在需求信息不对称下的协调问题。当市场规模和价格敏感系数同时预测偏差时．为使供应链收益最大,提出了调整生产计划和零售价格的协调机制。进一步证明了利用数量折扣机制可协调需求预测偏差下的分权供应链．而且该机制还实现了供应链收益在供应商和零售商间的任意分配。最后进行了实例分析。     

The effects of volume consolidation on buyer–supplier relationships: A study of Chinese firms

Volume consolidation is a major consequence of supply base reduction. This study explores the relationships between volume consolidation and supply chain outcomes such as buyer coordination costs, supplier performance, buyer environment learning ability, and buyer learning from the supplier. This study also examines the effects of these supply chain outcomes on buyer satisfaction. Based on results derived from an empirical study of 398 Chinese manufacturing companies, it is found that volume consolidation enhances supplier performance, buyer learning from the supplier, and its environment learning ability. It is also determined that coordination costs negatively affect supplier performance and buyer satisfaction. Environment learning ability does not affect buyer satisfaction, while supplier performance and buyer learning from the supplier positively affect buyer satisfaction. As such, the effects of volume consolidation are not limited to enhanced supply chain performance, but also to organizational learning in the supply chain.     

基于库存调剂的易逝品供应链合作利益分配问题探讨

本文将解决多人合作博弈问题的Shapley值方法用于解决两级易逝品供应链合作利益分配问题。考虑由一个供应商和两个零售商所组成的两级供应链模型,零售商与供应商不合作时,零售商根据供应商的批发价确定订货量,合作时共同决定库存,零售商之间的合作为共同决定订货量且通过库存调剂(转运)共享库存,三方合作可获最大利益,采用Shapley值法可合理分配合作利益,从而使合作更稳定。     

Supply chain planning of vaccine and pharmaceutical clusters under uncertainty: The case of COVID-19

As an abrupt epidemic occurs, healthcare systems are shocked by the surge in the number of susceptible patients' demands, and decision-makers mostly rely on their frame of reference for urgent decision-making. Many reports have declared the COVID-19 impediments to trading and global economic growth. This study aims to provide a mathematical model to support pharmaceutical supply chain planning during the COVID-19 epidemic. Additionally, it aims to offer new insights into hospital supply chain problems by unifying cold and non-cold chains and considering a wide range of pharmaceuticals and vaccines. This approach is unprecedented and includes an analysis of various pharmaceutical features such as temperature, shelf life, priority, and clustering. To propose a model for planning the pharmaceutical supply chains, a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is used for a four-echelon supply chain design. This model aims to minimize the costs involved in the pharmaceutical supply chain by maintaining an acceptable service level. Also, this paper considers uncertainty as an intrinsic part of the problem and addresses it through the wait-and-see method. Furthermore, an unexplored unsupervised learning method in the realm of supply chain planning has been used to cluster the pharmaceuticals and the vaccines and its merits and drawbacks are proposed. A case of Tehran hospitals with real data has been used to show the model's capabilities, as well. Based on the obtained results, the proposed approach is able to reach the optimum service level in the COVID conditions while maintaining a reduced cost. The experiment illustrates that the hospitals' adjacency and emergency orders alleviated the service level significantly. The proposed MILP model has proven to be efficient in providing a practical intuition for decision-makers. The clustering technique reduced the size of the problem and the time required to solve the model considerably.     

Public procurement for innovation through supplier firms' sustainability lens: A systematic review and research agenda

Public sector purchasing processes are gaining increasing prominence as a demand-side innovation tool for addressing national sustainability challenges. Accordingly, there has been growing research attention to this topic. Prior studies suggest three key rationales that underlie the use of public sector procurement to drive innovation: (i) the buyer–user rationale (for creating new needs); (ii) the market/system failure rationale (for improving suppliers' capacity to innovate); and (iii) the public services rationale (for improving public services). However, operational activities at the upstream supply chain affecting the sustainable innovation capacities of supplier firms appear to be under-researched in the public procurement for innovation (PPI) scholarship, despite knowledge about innovation capacity being critical to successfully implementing PPI. This paper adopts a systematic literature review approach to synthesise existing fragmented literature on sustainability-oriented PPI, focusing on supplier perspectives. Findings from a synthesis of 41 relevant articles suggest, among others conditions, that a procurement framework that maintains a good balance of competition and innovation, builds buyer–supplier relationship and urges strong supply networks, maintains a stable political commitment, offers security for niche markets with effective innovation risk management culture would enhance suppliers' sustainability capacity and propensity to innovate. This paper contributes to the PPI literature and the literature on determinants of sustainable innovation systems from supplier firms' sustainability lens.     

基于供应链协调机制的物流成本优化能力分析

本文以一个供应商和一个采购商组成的二级供应链为例,建立同时考虑库存成本和运输成本的物流成本模型,比较分析传统供应链和供应商管理库存两种协调机制的物流成本优化能力。研究发现:在集中决策的情况下,两种协调机制的供应链物流成本是相同的;在分散决策的情况下,传统供应链的协调机制在采购商和供应商分别负担运输成本的两种情况下物流成本均不会优于供应商管理库存协调机制的物流成本;传统供应链在集中决策的情况下能够实现供应链物流成本的最优,在分散决策的情况下由供应商负担物流成本有利于物流成本的优化。