Developing and managing strategic partnerships

This paper reports the empirical work carried out in the first stage of a three year Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded project. The first stage of the project: “The Development of Partnership Strategies” is the subject of this paper; it is concerned with testing, in an inter-firm context, a technique which has been validated in an intra-firm context. The technique is concerned with identifying the nature, strength, and sustainability of competitive advantage in terms of the features which customers value, the intangible resources which produce these features and the development scenarios for each key intangible resource. The companies collaborating in the research include: Flymo Ltd. (Electrolux) and Cellnet plc (British Telecom.).     

Construction supply chain partnerships: skills,knowledge and attitudinal requirements

This paper examines the skills requirements necessary for effective supply chain partnerships in the UK construction industry. Current SME skills are explored in terms of their relevance to developing more efficient supply networks. A range of SME companies are interviewed in order to determine if their current knowledge, skills and attitudes are appropriate for achieving better supply chain integration. The implications of current skills and attitudinal deficiencies are assessed in terms of whether they act as barriers to effective supply chain partnering in the future.     

Supplier diversity and supply chain management: A strategic approach

Although purchasing trends are moving toward consolidation, a strong economic argument can be made for supplier diversity. In fact, most Fortune 500 companies currently employ supplier diversity initiatives. If integrated into the overall corporate strategy, supplier diversity can become a source of competitive advantage for corporations. In order for such integration to successfully occur, however, the initiative must have top management commitment, a supportive culture, and the availability of champions to promote the proposal. Minority suppliers, in turn, need to realize that their failure or success in this highly competitive environment depends on their ability to continually develop overall competences, to be learning organizations, and to become increasingly attuned to and adept at building strategic alliances amongst themselves and with their corporate customers. In these respects, they can make use of intermediary organizations (such as local supplier councils) to improve their competences and competitive edge.     

Developing an entrepreneurial mindset in supply chain managers: Exposing a powerful potential

Entrepreneurship and supply chain management (SCM), respectively, have enjoyed meteoric rises in business practice and scholarly attention over the past three decades. Further, each of the two disciplines has much to offer the other. Yet, we have not witnessed sustained, meaningful integration of principles, practices, and influences despite powerful potential. This paper explores this potential by featuring prospects for entrepreneurship to influence SCM, and vice versa, bringing an entrepreneurial mindset to SCM and supply chain orientation (SCO) to entrepreneurial activities. In particular, we illustrate a validated assessment and diagnostic tool, the Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment Instrument (CEAI), adapted for supply chain managers with the intent of instilling corporate entrepreneurial activity among supply chain professionals. Granted, supply chain managers are typically tasked with meeting expectations toward customer service effectiveness, efficiency, asset utilization, and safety. Yet, we believe that forming an organizational environment conducive to entrepreneurial thinking could be extremely valuable in the supply chain realm, enhancing capabilities like agility, plasticity, and responsiveness such that innovation and business growth are achieved alongside traditional SCM expectations. Further, we feature several avenues for future research at the interface of entrepreneurship and SCM.     

The relationship of strategic purchasing to supply chain management

This research tested four hypotheses on the relationship of strategic purchasing to supply chain management. The hypotheses were tested with a survey of purchasing executives and the results were analyzed using a regression analysis. All of the hypothesized relationships were supported. The results indicate that strategic purchasing is positively related to supplier responsiveness, changes in the supplier market, supplier communication and the firm’s performance. Managerial and research implications are discussed.     

Retail supply chain management practices in India: A business intelligence perspective

The study surveyed executives of a major food retailer in India and explored their perspectives on supply chain management practices, competitive advantage and firm performance; to assess the importance accorded to application of business intelligence (BI) in their operations. Nine dimensions for SCM practices and four dimensions for competitive advantage are identified which are found to strongly relate to each other. The dimensions of SCM also strongly relate to firm performance. Though information sharing with suppliers and their inclusion in strategic decision-making emerge as key dimensions of SCM, their impact on competitive advantage is perceived to be insignificant by retailers.     

战略伙伴的求同存异--提高应对中俄双边关系中变数的能力

尽管中俄战略伙伴关系具有以2001年签署的《睦邻友好合作条约》为标志的法律基础;自两国建交以来在一系列重大国际事务上总的来说也还算协调得体;两国在2000年签署边界协定后,亦未因边境上三个岛屿的归属问题各执己见或持有异议进而出现争吵或冲突;两国经贸和合作项目的金额以年均10％左右的增速向前发展,态势良好。但也毋庸讳言,中俄两国间的战略伙伴关系在许多方面并不尽人如意,人们对它的质疑不断增多。     

供应链企业间战略合作关系的利益分配机制问题研究

供应链管理是一种全新的管理思想和管理模式,本文以供应链管理为主要背景,以企业战略合作为前提,对供应链企业间战略合作关系的利益分配机制问题中利益分配特点、模式、原则及方法进行相关研究,并指出合理的利益分配机制是供应链管理成功的关键.     

Developing competence in retailing: strategic advantages

Since the late 1980s, the UK Government has invested significant levels of funding in the development of national competence-based qualifications in an attempt to improve skill levels and therefore international competitiveness. The paper provides an overview of the progress which has been made by the UK retailing industry and presents the implementation experiences of five major retail companies. The paper concludes with an analysis of the strategic implications.     

供应链管理视角下的采购模式探析

供应链管理是一种集成的管理思想和方法,供应链采购是一种供应链机制下的采购模式.传统的采购模式存在着交易成本大、采购质量难以控制以及供需双方关系对立等问题.而市场需求多样化的特征促使企业转变采购模式成为必然,供应链采购可以在适当的时间、地点,以适当的数量和质量提供买方所需的物料,极大地提升了企业的竞争力.     

Paradox strategic cognition and ECSR in China: a three-tripod perspective

Literature rooted in institutional theory and stakeholder theory offers conflicting views on the relationship between environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) and financial performance. However, both failed to explain why firms interpret this relationship variously which is subjective to a firm’s strategic cognition. How firms interpret this relationship affects the ECSR decision and implementation. Drawing on the paradox theory, four hypotheses were proposed and examined using data from 170 manufacturing firms in China. This study found paradox strategic cognition positively affects ECSR. Legal enforcement inefficiency, competitive intensity and industrial power weaken the effect of paradox strategic cognition on ECSR.     

Purchasing materials in the supply chain: managing a multi-objective task

Purchasing materials that has long been recognized as a multi-objective problem gained in importance in the present “Lean Supply” management environment. The authors discuss one of the “user-friendly” alternative multiple criteria decision support systems—visual interactive goal programming (VIG). The personal computer-based technique is applied to an original equipment manufacturer's multiple-replenishment purchasing problem and assists in selecting suppliers and allocating orders among them. The authors conclude with the benefits of VIG and contributions of the analysts.     

Public partnerships,governance and user involvement: a service user perspective

This paper explores public partnerships and governance from a service user perspective, drawing both on the author's own involvement in service user organizations and movements and on material associated with and produced by these organizations and movements. It addresses the ambivalent relationship between service user organizations and movements and the idea and practice of ‘partnerships’, and explores their preference for ideas of ‘alliance’. It charts the different approaches to and ideologies underpinning user involvement and their implications for partnership between state and service users and their organizations. It offers a set of components for improving such partnerships as well as highlighting the growing interest of service users' organizations and movements in developing and extending alliances.     

Rogues and Deviants: a game-theoretic perspective on opportunism in strategic alliances

ABSTRACT

This research examines how relational factors, such as monitoring, relative alliance identity (RAI), and trust, influence opportunism and, consequently, alliance performance. The authors suggest that the strategic alliances literature would benefit from recognising that opportunism does not always originate from the firm (rogue opportunism), but can also originate from individual employees (deviant opportunism). Hypotheses are tested in a multi-method approach within a business simulation and a cross-sectional sample of alliance executives. The results demonstrate a U-shaped relationship between trust and opportunism; however, monitoring moderates the relationship such that at high levels of trust, opportunism is practically non-existent. Further, results indicate that employees’ identification with the alliance impedes opportunism. Additionally, both types of opportunistic behaviours negatively impact the performance of partner firms and alliances.     

The building blocks of a supply chain management theory: Using factor market rivalry for supply chain theorizing

As the supply chain discipline matures, opportunities emerge to develop or define theories that are specific to supply chain phenomenon. The current research specifies characteristics that we offer which comprise the building blocks of supply chain theory. These characteristics include the flows of material through a supply chain network, the temporal management of these material flows, the dyadic and triadic interactions of firms within the supply chain network, and the outward focus on supply chain management (SCM), in other words a supply chain orientation, of firms in a supply chain. Further, recognizing that supply chain theories must contain the previously identified characteristics, we offer Factor Market Rivalry (FMR) as a theory of SCM. FMR refers to intense battles for resource positions that are needed to manufacture, provide, or deliver firm products or services. We argue that FMR only occurs within supply chain phenomena. The piece concludes with a future research agenda based upon the practical implications of further developing FMR as a theory of SCM.     

An empirical analysis of risk mitigation in the pharmaceutical industry supply chain: A developing‐country perspective

Global pharmaceutical supply‐chain risk mitigation has become an important issue in the corporate boardroom. This article reports on the empirical findings of the quantification of risks that decision makers consider most important when deciding on a risk portfolio to mitigate and the manner in which risks are prioritized according to their importance. The empirical findings suggest that decision makers attached great importance to counterfeit, Food and Drugs Board, and exchange‐rate fluctuations. With respect to risk‐mitigation strategies, risk reduction is considered most important, followed by risk avoidance. Dynamic sensitivity analysis with respect to a change (increase) in the Food and Drugs Board did not result in any change in the ranking of risk policy options, while a change (increase) in counterfeit resulted in a change in the ranking between risk reduction and risk avoidance. Risk avoidance ranked number one, followed by risk reduction. Implications distilled from this article are far‐reaching for the Ghanaian pharmaceutical firms' managers. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Globalization and organizational restructuring: A strategic perspective

The new market opportunities, competitive threats, and diffusion of business models associated with globalization have been key drivers of organizational restructuring over the past decade. Companies have responded to these developments in a variety of ways with the objective of improving their cost and/or revenue structures through reorganizing their vertical, horizontal, and spatial boundaries and governance mechanisms. Major forms of restructuring at the business level have included labor intensification, investment in new technologies, downsizing and reengineering, the formation of strategic alliances and networks, spatial reconfiguration, and a shift from international and multinational to global and transnational strategies. To be most effective, any type of restructuring must be clearly and explicitly aligned with a firm's business‐level strategy in order to maximize the efficient and effective allocation of resources in pursuit of competitive advantage. A strategic use of restructuring which links such efforts to broader competitive strategy, and where possible to a “high‐road” approach to overall competitiveness, should result in more sustainable benefits which generate increased value‐added to shareholders as well as greater well being in the broader stakeholder community. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Ethics as excellence: A strategic management perspective

Confidence in Australian business was severely shaken by the corporate scandals and collapses of the 1980s. Many commentators called for more emphasis on ethics education. This paper surveys the initiatives of Australian business schools and professional bodies and finds them superficial and ineffective. It then presents a case study in Quality Improvement which highlights the need to take a strategic and integrated approach to the development of core values such as quality, trust, ethics and social responsibility. In exploring the process of cultural change, the paper identifies a number of key leadership roles, responsibilities and competencies which are distinguished from the more traditional management functions.John Milton-Smith has been Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Curtin Business School, since 1990. He is currently conducting the Australian Business Ethics Project, part of which is reported in this paper. His other research interests include The Strategic Management of Corporate Culture, Global Business Strategy and International Trade Diplomacy.     

Four supply chain management systems: From supply chain strategies to human resource management

This article develops a conceptual model that supports and aligns supply chain strategies with organizational culture and leadership styles. We examine various supply chain theories and organizational behavior concepts to develop an integrated supply chain: the human factor model. Based on the underlying dimensions of environmental uncertainty and product complexity, we propose a 2x2 typology to identify four different supply chain systems that can be used by organization leaders to identify suitable supply chain strategies and compatible people management practices. We provide a useful and practical framework to analyze the alignment between the external environment and the internal organization of a supply chain system.