Supply chain finance: From traditional to supply chain credit rating

Traditional credit rating models, adopted by financial institutions to assess the credit risk of a company, adopt a purely financial perspective, and often fail to properly assess small and medium enterprises. On the other hand, buyers usually assess suppliers by means of comprehensive vendor ratings, considering a broad range of operational performance. This paper investigates whether financial and vendor ratings can be integrated into a supply chain credit rating model that jointly considers financial indicators of the supplier and its operational evaluation provided by buyers; the paper also investigates the benefits and the challenges of such a model for all the stakeholders involved (buyers, suppliers, financial institutions, and technology providers), adopting the lenses of the stakeholder theory. We adopted both multiple case studies and an iterative focus group, involving representatives from suppliers, buyers, financial institutions, and technology providers. The results confirm the potential value of such an integrated rating, mainly for strategic suppliers, showing the expected benefits for all stakeholders and highlighting the potential challenges to face.     

The effects of tariff increases on supply base complexity: A conceptual framework

Recent protectionist trends around the world have raised interest in newly enforced or increased tariffs and their effects on global supply chains. For firms sourcing globally, tariff introductions or increases significantly affect importing costs, which ultimately affect product costs. Such tariff changes may incentivize firms to adjust their supply base to mitigate these cost increases, thus altering the structure and complexity of firms' supply bases. In this paper, we first characterize the U.S. tariff landscape from 1997 to 2017. We then develop a conceptual model to explain how the severity and timing uncertainty of expected tariff increases influence a firm's speed of adapting to the changing tariff environment. Specifically, we explore firms' propensity to form or delete ties to suppliers, which influences supply base complexity. Moreover, we consider factors that moderate the relationship between severity, timing uncertainty, and supply base complexity, including a tariff's geographical scope, a firm's relative purchase spend, and supply risk. Our conceptual model offers both research and managerial implications.