Rational and intuitive decision-making in sourcing teams: Effects on decision outcomes

According to dual process theory, individual decision-making can be based on rational procedures and experience-based intuition, and the decision-making approach can influence decision outcomes. We investigate how the application of rational procedures and experience-based intuition affects the outcomes of supplier selection decisions taken by cross-functional sourcing teams. Specifically, we examine whether the selected supplier׳s cost and quality/delivery/innovativeness performance is higher when more team members use a highly rational and/or a highly experience-based decision-making approach. From data on 54 teams, we find that the use of rational procedures enhances cost performance. Conversely, when sourcing team members use their experience-based intuition, the decision is more likely to result in satisfactory supplier performance along all tested performance dimensions.     

The mediating role of speed in the global sourcing decision process

The principal aim of this study is to provide theory and testing to elucidate the role of decision-maker's decision process and speed during the global sourcing decision-making process (GSDP). In order to achieve this goal, we examine the behavior of a sample of 202 decision-makers belonging to Italian SMEs in the manufacturing sector. Our main finding suggests that faster decisions during the GSDP process lead to superior financial and non-financial performance of the selected supplier. Moreover, we find support for dual processing theory wherein rationality and intuition of the GSDP are associated with increased supplier performance both directly and through their effects on decision speed. Results are discussed in terms of the GSDP, SME and strategic decision-making literatures and practical implications for managers in SMEs.     

The Role of Human Resource Management in Strategy Making

Among the strategy scholars, there is general consensus that responsive‐integrative strategy making is essential for ensuring a competitive advantage in contemporary dynamic environments. What is the role of HR in this process, and how can HR support responsive‐integrative strategy making? To answer these questions, we use illustrative experiences from Chr. Hansen, a global supplier of bioscience‐based ingredients to the food, health, and animal feed industries. We argue that HR's strategic role lies in providing support for both centralized and decentralized strategy making by offering aspirations for strategic decisions and by gathering various sources of inspiration for strategy discussions. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The impact of stakeholder orientation on sustainability and cost prevalence in supplier selection decisions

The stakeholder approach has taken a prominent role in the discussion of sustainability measures at varying strategic levels and corporate functions. Literature on sustainability suggests that firms have to cope with enhanced pressure from different stakeholder groups regarding their upstream supply management practices. At the same time purchasing managers face the trade-off between sustainability and cost prevalence in selecting new suppliers. Thus, it is of major concern for companies in general and purchasing organizations in particular to know and understand how purchasing managers react to the influence of specific stakeholder groups when it comes to supplier selection decisions. Following this notion we formulate six sets of hypotheses linking the adoption of ethical business culture to the prevalence of sustainability and cost criteria in supplier selection decisions to be tested in a path analytical model.Based on the results of an empirical study conducted with purchasing managers from multi-national firms located in Germany, this paper makes two major contributions: first, it sheds light on direct effects of shareholder, public, and customer orientation on the evaluation of the outlined-trade off; second, it investigates the indirect effects by introducing the formalization of ethical culture as a mediating variable to assess the impact of the three kinds of shareholder orientation on the propensity to select suppliers based on their performance in terms of social and environmental criteria as well as cost performance.     

Individual modes and patterns of rational and intuitive decision-making by purchasing managers

This study extends the literature on decision modes in purchasing. While decision modes have traditionally been divided broadly into rational and intuitive processing modes (dual-process approach), following the tenet of recent psychology research, we further differentiate the latter into experience-based and emotional processing (multiple systems approach). Previous decision-making research has been inconsistent in its findings about the relationship between decision modes and performance. Using the purchasing manager's supplier selection decision process as our unit of analysis, we first investigate the relationship between individual decision modes and the financial and non-financial performance of the selected supplier. Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that rational processing is positively related to both financial and non-financial performance, while emotional processing is negatively related to financial performance, and the interaction of rational and emotional processing is positively related to both performance outcomes. Because recent cognitive psychology assumes that some combination of rationality and intuition is commonly used, we then apply a configuration approach and develop a taxonomy of decision-making modes surrounding supplier selection. Cluster analysis results show five decision-making patterns that are related to the performance of the selected supplier.     

Practice and promise of formal supplier selection: a study of four empirical cases

In this paper an experimental study of formal decision-making models for supplier selection is described. Attention is paid to all phases of the supplier selection process: the recognition of the need for a new supplier, the formulation of decision criteria, the qualification of suitable candidates and final selection. It appears from the experiments that formal decision models may prove to be useful in various ways throughout the whole supplier selection process and in different purchasing situations.     

Green supplier selection: a new genetic/immune strategy with industrial application

With the onset of the ‘climate change movement’, organisations are striving to include environmental criteria into the supplier selection process. This article hybridises a Green Data Envelopment Analysis (GDEA)-based approach with a new Genetic/Immune Strategy for Data Envelopment Analysis (GIS-DEA). A GIS-DEA approach provides a different view to solving multi-criteria decision making problems using data envelopment analysis (DEA) by considering DEA as a multi-objective optimisation problem with efficiency as one objective and proximity of solution to decision makers’ preferences as the other objective. The hybrid approach called GIS-GDEA is applied here to a well-known automobile spare parts manufacturer in India and the results presented. User validation developed based on specific set of criteria suggests that the supplier selection process with GIS-GDEA is more practical than other approaches in a current industrial scenario with multiple decision makers.     

The influence of reputation on supplier selection: An empirical study of the European automotive industry

Using an original database, integrated with information by the web, we propose an ex-post analysis on the main factors influencing the selection process of tier 1 suppliers in the automotive industry. There is plenty of literature on how buyers should select their suppliers, but the literature on how they really do so is scarce. We contribute analysing an original database collecting purchasing contracts information within the automotive components market in Europe. We investigate, through different econometric approaches the influence of traditional supplier selection criteria in combination with different reputation factors. Our findings suggest that reputation plays a crucial role more than classical criteria; in particular, suppliers, which serve a diversified customer portfolio or with strong exposure to premium brand customers have better chances to gain additional orders and broaden their customer base even more. The latter means that OEMs have to increase their reputation in order to be more attractive for suppliers.     

What is required for greener supplier selection? A literature review and conceptual model development

This paper examines the existing literature on green supplier selection. In total, 60 articles are reviewed, all published in peer-reviewed journals between 1991 and 2011. The articles are analyzed in terms of several general variables such as type of research and theoretical viewpoint, as well as more specific variables such as the supply chain position considered, stages of the supplier selection process studied, and the perspective taken on environmental criteria. The main findings are threefold. First, analytical research, focusing on developing normative decision models for the final stage in green supplier selection is clearly most dominant, employing a wide range of techniques. Second, empirical research is less prominent and generally lacks a clear theoretical background. Third, very little conceptual research has been done linking green supplier selection to an organization's strategy. Research on green supplier selection is highly fragmented and in danger of overemphasizing the technical aspects of supplier selection. Based on this review of the articles, a conceptual model of green supplier selection is presented, aimed at integrating the different dimensions of green supplier selection and identifying directions for future research.     

Experimental Study of Firm Bounded Rationality and the Pattern of Trade

This paper describes an experiment and simulation with features of a spatially explicit trading environment. Decision makers repeatedly make decisions about firm headquarters, input demands, and export patterns. A goal of this research is to determine if subjects’ management decisions reflect profit maximization, learning, or heuristic decision making. It also considers what impact decision makers’ bounded rationality has on the aggregate pattern of trade. Results indicate that bounded rationality in the form of learning and heuristic decision making are ubiquitous features of subjects’ decisions. This manifests as under‐reaction to trade‐driver stimuli and produces Trefler's missing trade, suggesting a behavioral basis for this anomaly.     

Organisational Supplying Behaviour: Understanding supplier needs,wants and preferences

The purpose of this article is to enhance understanding in the P&SM field of supplier behaviour by exploring their needs, wants and preferences. The characteristics of customers that suppliers need, want and prefer have been conceptualised as ‘Sources of Supplier Value’ (SOSV) and the article seeks to establish a vocabulary for describing supplier needs, wants and preferences and their impact on buyer attractiveness. To achieve this a pilot study was conducted using face-to-face interviews with key account managers and Managing Directors in 14 SMEs supplying UK supermarket buyers. The research identifies 49 elements in buyers’ purchase offerings, behaviours and characteristics that suppliers regard as important. The practical implication of this research is to improve the P&SM field's understanding of the behaviour of suppliers with a longer term view to improving the ability of all buyers to influence the behaviour of suppliers in ways that match the buyers’ requirements and preferences. Furthermore, in view of the current paucity of research and understanding in this subject area, the article presents a coherent theoretical framework, terminology and rationale for investigations into the phenomenon of Organisational Supplying Behaviour.     

基于多粒度二元语义的供应商选择方法

供应商选择是一个多属性决策问题,既包括定性的因素也包括定量的因素。把成本、质量、服务水平、供应商的能力和外部因素作为供应商选择的标准,并将基于多粒度二元语义信息处理的群决策方法应用于供应商的选择,给出了基于二元语义信息处理的群决策的步骤,最后给出了一个算例。     

群体决策复合准则在供应商选择中的应用

供应商多属性的本质是供应商选择问题复杂性的主要原因之一,特别是属性为描述性质的模糊数时,有限理性的个体在决策制定过程中受到很大的局限。实际操作过程中,专家评分法运用广泛,在此基础上,文中将其与群决策理论相结合,首先指出了对供应商进行评价时常出现的平局问题,将群体决策复合准则引入到供应商选择过程中,然后建立模型,对其求解,最后结合算例,说明该方法的有效性。     

A round of dancing and then one more: embedding intuition in the ballet of entrepreneurial decision making

The dance metaphor allows us to figuratively depict entrepreneurial decision making processes. Being conventionally conceived of as a sequence of purposeful behaviors rooted in a rational cognition process, entrepreneurial decision making can be featured as a ‘ballet’. This interpretation puts in the background the improvisational nature of decision making, which revokes ‘lindy hop’ as a dance style. The article intends to illuminate the role of intuition, highlighting its overlap with rationality in the entrepreneurial decision making dance. For this purpose, a bibliometric analysis followed by an interpretive literature review advances a comprehensive report of 66 peer-reviewed journal articles published from 1995 to 2019, constructing evidence on the nature of entrepreneurial decision making and on the interplay between intuition and rationality. Literature is categorized in five clusters, which are reciprocally intertwined. Firstly, intuition is unconsciously used as a strategy to deal with the uncertainty that inherently affects entrepreneurial ventures. Secondly, intuition is rooted in the entrepreneurs’ impulsivity, that echoes the role of emotions in decision making. Thirdly, the merge of rationality and intuition improves the entrepreneurs’ ability to keep up with the erratic rhythm of the decision making dance. Fourthly, the mix of intuition and rationality serves as a catalyst of entrepreneurs’ ability to thrive in complex and unpredictable environments. Fifthly, intuition generates drawbacks on entrepreneurs’ meta-cognitive knowledge, which should be carefully recognized. Embracing the dance metaphor, intuition turns out to be crucial to make entrepreneurs able to fill in the gap between rationality and uncertainty.

     

项目管理中的平衡决策研究

许多项目决策为多目标决策,涉及多种资源、多个行为主体以及受多种因素影响,大量的决策问题都表现为一种寻求各方均衡协调。本文研究了项目管理中需要进行平衡决策的一些情形,并论述了实现平衡决策的方法和应用平衡决策应当注意的问题。     

Governing local supplier opportunism in China: Moderating role of institutional forces

China provides a vast and prominent manufacturing base, so curtailing its local supplier opportunism represents a primary concern for local and foreign buyers. Drawing on institutional theory, this study examines how regulatory uncertainty and relationship structure moderate the role of contracts and trust in restricting local supplier opportunism in China. An analysis of 293 buyer–supplier dyads in China reveals that contracts are more effective in deterring supplier opportunism when regulatory uncertainty is high. In addition, contracts help curtail opportunism more in domestic, compared with international, buyer–supplier relationships, whereas trust is more effective in restricting supplier opportunism in international relationships than in domestic ones.     

Do Individual Preferences Affect the Environmental Decision‐Making Process in Teams? The Role of Participation

Literature on organizations and the natural environment has focused on the importance of individual managers and leaders. However, this literature has scarcely ever focused on individuals in the team context, even when teams have been considered to be key for a firms’ environmental progress. Although teams’ environmental decisions can be enriched by the different contributions of team members, it is necessary that team members actually participate and contribute their preferences during the decision‐making process. We used an adaptation of the legislative dilemma task with 84 students to contribute to environmental management literature by analyzing members’ participation during the team decision‐making process. The results of this paper show how those members with environmentally proactive preferences have a higher participation during the decision‐making process, and as a consequence they have a greater influence on the team decision. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

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.     

The impact of supplier dependence on suppliers' CSR: The moderating role of industrial dynamism and corporate transparency

To improve corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the supply chain, focal buyers may use supplier dependence to influence the supplier's resource strategy to promote the supplier's CSR initiatives. Thus, supplier dependence is particularly critical to the supplier's CSR, especially for Chinese suppliers with resource constraints. However, there is limited understanding and research on the degree to which a supplier depends on major buyers for the supplier's CSR from the supplier's perspective. Based on a sample of 284 Chinese listed companies, this study analyses the relationship between supplier dependence and suppliers' CSR through the lens of resource dependence theory (RDT). In addition, we investigate the moderating roles of industrial dynamism and corporate transparency in the relationship between supplier dependence and suppliers' CSR. The results indicate that supplier dependence has a negative impact on the Chinese supplier's CSR performance. Meanwhile, the negative impact of supplier dependence is mitigated for the supplier's more volatile industrial context, while improving corporate transparency enhances the negative impact of supplier dependence. This study verifies the applicability of RDT for the analysis of CSR in the supply chain in emerging markets such as China. Moreover, the study further extends research on the role of buyer-supplier relationships in CSR in the supply chain by extending the research perspective to the supplier side and adding the external and internal uncertainty of the supplier to the theoretical framework for analysis. We also provide managerial implications for implementing Chinese suppliers' CSR from the buyer's and supplier's perspectives.     

Optimizing the credit term decisions in supply chain finance

We study a credit term determination problem in the context of a supplier-buyer supply chain. The supplier's credit term decision is simultaneously made with its production and inventory decisions, and most importantly, it is impacted by the buyer's order quantity. We present a new game-theoretic framework to model this problem, which captures the interaction between the supplier's credit term decision and the buyer's order decision in a multi-period setting. An exact method based on nonlinear programming is implemented to obtain the optimal solutions. We apply our methodologies on a real world case. The computational results show that our approach significantly outperforms the heuristics with fixed credit terms, and either a short or a long credit term can be sub-optimal for the supplier in profitability. Our work offers the first data-driven model and solution approach that assists purchasing and supply managers to make optimal dynamic credit term decision in conjunction with production, ordering and inventory decisions in a game-theoretic setting.