Blockchain technology for enhancing supply chain resilience

With the soaring value of bitcoin and frenzy over cryptocurrency, the blockchain technology that sparked the bitcoin revolution has received heightened attention from both practitioners and academics. Blockchain technology often causes controversies surrounding its application potential and business ramifications. The blockchain is a peer-to-peer network of information technology that keeps records of digital asset transactions using distributed ledgers that are free from control by intermediaries such as banks and governments. Thus, it can mitigate risks associated with intermediaries’ interventions, including hacking, compromised privacy, vulnerability to political turmoil, costly compliance with government rules and regulation, instability of financial institutions, and contractual disputes. This article unlocks the mystique of blockchain technology and discusses ways to leverage blockchain technology to enhance supply chain resilience in times of increased risks and uncertainty.     

ENSURING SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE: DEVELOPMENT OF A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. In a world of turbulent change, resilience is a key competency since even the most carefully designed supply chain is susceptible to unforeseen events. This article presents a new Supply Chain Resilience Framework to help businesses deal with change. The conceptual framework is based on extant literature and refined through a focus group methodology. Our findings suggest that supply chain resilience can be assessed in terms of two dimensions: vulnerabilities and capabilities. The Zone of Resilience is defined as the desired balance between vulnerabilities and capabilities, where it is proposed that firms will be the most profitable in the long term. We identified seven vulnerability factors composed of 40 specific attributes and 14 capability factors from 71 attributes that facilitate the measurement of resilience. The article concludes with managerial implications and recommendations for future research.     

An improved method for managing catastrophic supply chain disruptions

This article analyzes the differences between frequent and rare risks for supply chain disruptions, and proposes a new, improved risk measurement and prioritization method to account for the characteristics of rare risks. The varying idiosyncrasies of decision makers are integrated into this method such that risk management can be brought into alignment with an individual manager's preferences. Also woven into this tapestry is the notion of detection, which is familiar to those who have applied failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), but novel in the arena of supply chain risk management. Rare risks in the supply chain are, by their nature, unsettling: unforeseen disruptions are always present, probability estimates are imprecise, and comprehensive data collection is impossible. These difficulties are taken into account by the presented risk management framework. While the proposed ordinal scales are perhaps unsettling to many who desire greater precision, measurement methods must fit the precision that is possible. By considering rare risks along with frequent risks, managers can be better positioned to deal with the unforeseen.     

An integrated approach to managing extended supply chain networks

In an effort to improve their competitive position in a rapidly changing marketplace, many companies have replaced their traditional supply chains with extended supply chain networks built on a foundation of supply chain collaboration. These extended networks require the use of decision support tools and technologies to improve both operating efficiencies and customer service, but many companies have struggled to realize the expected benefits of these tools and the increased collaboration. This article recommends that companies adopt an integrated strategy of people, processes, and technology to achieve their competitive supply chain goals. Our recommendation is backed by the results of a survey we conducted of senior-level practitioners concerning the importance and challenges of supply chain collaboration. The article concludes with a set of managerial recommendations to improve a company’s collaborative efforts within its supply chain.     

Process chain: A new paradigm of collaborative commerce and synchronized supply chain

Despite much improvement in supply chain visibility and collaboration, even supply chain masters have not yet fully grasped the maximum performance potential in this era of the Internet. Now is the time for corporate America to rethink managing business and the supply chain. Future success in business competition relies on harnessing the power of process chain, a new paradigm toward achieving global optimization of a common performance goal for a total supply chain. It is imperative that corporate executives embrace this new vision of collaborative commerce and synchronized supply chain.     

Revenue-sharing contracts across an extended supply chain

Revenue-sharing contracts have been heavily researched and promoted in the academic literature. However, despite some well-documented examples (e.g., the way Blockbuster and film studios were able to increase availability of the latest video releases in rental shops through a revenue-sharing contract), they seem to be much less prevalent in practice. A possible reason for this gap between theory and practice is that most academic research has focused on two-party contracts involving only one buyer and one supplier, while in reality, most supply chains consist of multiple stages. When there are several stages in the chain—as is the case for many extended, global supply chains—the traditional revenue-sharing contract is no longer optimal for the two contracting parties, as every other participant in the chain is able to leverage the revenue-sharing contract to its own advantage. Put another way, a revenue-sharing contract between only two parties is not incentive-compatible across all participants. Accordingly, we suggest that a revenue-sharing contract should involve all the supply chain partners, and propose a spanning revenue-sharing contract that accomplishes coordination and incentive-compatibility across the same.     

Strategic supply chain choices for multi-channel Internet retailers

Multi-channel retailing—selling through multiple, distinct channels—has been a part of the retail industry as long as there have been main street merchants selling through catalogs. Since the mid-1990s, however, multi-channel retailing has increased dramatically due to traditional retailers selling over the Internet. This trend presents considerable operational challenges because Internet and traditional retail have vastly different demand drivers, product variety issues, optimal inventory configurations, cost structures, supply chain structures, and delivery mechanisms. Consequently, the optimal supply chain configuration for Internet delivery differs considerably from the optimal supply chain configuration for a retail store structure, so designing a supply chain system to serve both channels well is difficult. Accordingly, a set of strategic choices and trade-offs must be made. Here, we present some strategic alternatives.     

Shopping in the omnichannel supply chain under price competition and product return

In recent years, omnichannel retailing has created value for prospective consumers. The rise of omnichannel retailing has changed consumers' buying habits, and manufacturers are facing stiff competition from retailers. To reduce this competition effect, manufacturers and retailers often work together to reduce showroom display costs. Despite this practice, there is little understanding of how omnichannel retailing impacts supply chain (SC) profit under competitive conditions. We investigate the test-in-store-and-buy-online (TSBO) retailing strategy and its impact on SC profit and price competition between manufacturers. The retailer sells products of both manufacturers through its website but displays products of only one manufacturer in the showroom, which bears the displaying cost. The retailer adopts a return policy for the other manufacturer. Stackelberg game was used to examine how members of the chain interact, and Nash equilibrium was used to find optimal strategies for players under decentralized and integrated channels. The results show that the TSBO strategy in retailing benefits all supply chain players under the integrated channel. A further interesting finding is that omnichannel SC profits are highest when retailers adopt a return policy. When two manufacturers compete and adopt different sales models, the manufacturer who uses the TSBO retail model reaps the most profit. Several other managerial insights are drawn from sensitivity analyses.     

The supply chain implications of recycling

Until recently, end-of-life (EOL) product management was the purview of a small number of firms that could make money out of recycling and/or remanufacturing. Now, changing customer expectations and stringent product take-back regulations are forcing many goods producing organizations to confront EOL product management, even in cases in which there is no clear economic incentive for doing so. This article presents a framework that highlights the supply chain implications for firms forced into EOL product management where recycling is the only viable option. Discussed are the various recycling options available to managers, as well as the strategic implications of each of these choices.     

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.     

Planned disruption and unintended consequences: Postponement by strategy vs. intervention in the U.S. beer supply chain

Supply chain strategies are used to increase efficiency, save money, or reduce uncertainty and disruption. Disruptions can be unexpected and potentially devastating for supply chains. However, sometimes supply disruptions are built into supply chains using a postponement strategy. When postponement is implemented as a supply chain strategy, it can smooth the flow of goods, provide cost savings, and improve customer experience. When postponement is forced on supply chains via government intervention it can break down the seamless flow of goods and information, causing them to work inefficiently. In this article, we show how intervention through postponement creates unintended consequences that negatively impact beer supply chains and make recommendations to help managers mitigate these consequences. We also address policymakers, who can decrease the likelihood of unintended consequences resulting from regulations they enact—including how to prevent legislating these regulations in the first place.     

Exploring social media use in B2B supply chain operations

This research examines current applications and potential capabilities of a wide array of social media applications such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others within the context of B2B supply chain operations. Specifically, we use social media affordances (SMA) as a framework to explore how social media is used in B2B supply chain settings. We report findings based on a survey of 209 professionals in supply chain areas. These findings include the extent to which social media and different social media tools are used in B2B supply chain operations, the impact of company size on social media use, the areas in which social media is used, the perceptions of social media, and other relevant issues such as social media policy and security. Based on these findings, this study provides a discussion regarding the current and future use of social media in B2B supply chain operations.     

Entry mode selection and its impact on an incumbent supply chain coordination

This paper considers a supply chain where a manufacturer sells its product through a retailer. In such a market, a potential entrant can make a substitute product by imitating the incumbent's product and then sells it to the common market with one of three alternative entry modes: (i) selling through the incumbent's retailer, (ii) selling through another independent retailer, or (iii) selling directly to consumers. Faced with the entrant's entry, the manufacturer has managed to offer a value-added service to add to its product's value at a cost. We investigate the entrant's optimal entry mode when the manufacturer offers profit-sharing contracts to the retailer and when it does not, and discuss the impact of the potential invader's entry on the incumbent firms' performances. The results show that: (1) the entrant sells directly to consumers when faced with weak value competition, and sells through another retailer against fierce value competition. (2) If the value competition is relatively fierce and the efficiency of the value-added service is relatively high as well, the incumbent firms can benefit from the new entry. (3) A profit-sharing contract, as a coordination policy, can fully coordinate the incumbent supply chain no matter whether there exists a potential entrant or not, yet the entry can affect the distribution of the profits between the incumbent manufacturer and retailer.     

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.     

Optimal generic and brand advertising efforts in a decentralized supply chain considering customer surplus

While the previous researches of advertising efforts decisions focus on only the firms' profit target, no literature introduces corporation social responsibility target into advertising efforts decisions of a supply chain (SC). To fill this gap, we consider a two-stage SC with a manufacturer and a retailer where the SC members consider the customer surplus. Both the retailer and the manufacturer can invest in generic advertising efforts to influence and increase the products' sales volumes. This paper investigates the following four scenarios: (1) The retailer cares the customer surplus (Model I); (2) The manufacturer cares the customer surplus (Model II); (3) Both the retailer and the manufacturer care the customer surplus (Model III); (4) We then extend the model III to the case that the manufacturer invests in both the generic and brand advertising efforts (Model IV). The objective of this paper is to determine the optimal retail price, the optimal advertising efforts, and the optimal profits of SC members, and find the influence of customer concern level on the SC performance. Finally, numerical examples are conducted to investigate the influence of the customer concern levels of the retailer or the manufacturer on the profits of the SC members and the entire SC. We also study the joint impacts of the customer concern levels of the retailer and the manufacturer on the SC performance. We find that the SC obtains the highest profits when the retailer's customer concern level and the manufacturer's customer concern level are relatively high, and the best cooperative strategy for the retailer and the manufacturer is that they improve customer concern level simultaneously.     

A supply chain management framework for services

While services represent the largest sector of the global economy, 86.8% in the United States, most supply chain management (SCM) research is focused on product flows. Executives in manufacturing firms have benefited from frameworks created to implement SCM processes, but this is not the case for their counterparts in service companies. The two most cited SCM frameworks for services have methodological and conceptual deficiencies. Drawing upon the service-dominant logic of marketing and using an empirical research approach, we developed supply chain structure maps for nine service firms. Our findings indicate that the supply chain structure maps of service companies are comparable to those in the product-based literature, which supports the service-dominant logic. Then, we identified the six key processes that constitute a framework to manage service supply chains. The customer relationship management and the supplier relationship management processes form the critical links in the supply chain, and the other four processes are coordinated through this linkage. The SCM framework for services provides direction for executives in service firms who need to increase cross-functional integration within their firms and with other members of the supply chain. For academics, 12 avenues for future research are identified.     

Analysis on supply chain risks in Indian apparel retail chains and proposal of risk prioritization model using Interpretive structural modeling

Indian apparel retail industry is on a complete transformation journey and trying to evolve as an organized industry. It is very common to find the disruption factors in every business and the ways to mitigate and manage them is of current research interest. The paper discusses the selective risks associated with the apparel retail supply chains in India by structural analysis of the controllable risks that are identified. The work also reveals the use of Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM) to establish the interdependencies between these risks spread across various supply chain functions of retail industry. The relationships are established based on expert opinions using Delphi technique followed by ISM modeling technique and Fuzzy MICMAC analysis. It also classifies the risk factors based on their driving and dependence power. ISM is proved to be a useful tool to help understand the impact of risks at stages of retail supply chain. Globalization, labor issues and security and safety of resources turns out to be the strong drivers of other supply chain uncertainties. The domino effect of these risks leads to financial crises for the organization.The paper also proposes a new model for the Risk Priority Number (RPN) calculation using ISM and Fuzzy MICMAC methodology for the applications in retail and various other domain risk studies. The sample size of experts is small and to remove the biasness of opinion, the model can be further validated using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in the future. The outcome would help practicing managers to analyze and to take actions for managing the factors by improving the bottom line of the organization by proper utilization of resources.     

基于层次分析法的食品供应链风险影响因素评价研究——以生鲜食品为例

食品供应链可分为原料采集阶段,加工制造阶段与分级销售阶段。在供应链的各个不同的阶段中,都会面临来自供应链自身以及外部的诸多风险,概括起来主要有原材料采购风险,物流运输储存风险,市场需求风险。它们直接或间接的受到诸多因素的影响,各影响因素的不断变化决定着供应链风险的高低。本文总结出了4大主要影响因素,即自然条件,信息因素,物流技术及设备,市场需求因素,并应用层次分析法对这四大影响因子进行重要性排序,结果表明,这四个因素对于生鲜食品供应链风险的影响程度排序为:物流技术和设备,信息因素,市场需求环境,自然条件。本文以上述排序为基础,提炼出了相应的解决方案和措施,为如何规避当前我国生鲜食品供应链存在的风险提供合适的建议。     

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.