A Global Analysis of Orientation,Coordination, and Flexibility in Supply Chains

Global supply chains are growing rapidly, and the ability to manage cross border logistics operations has become a necessity to maintain a competitive advantage in a dynamic environment. This research addresses current gaps in the literature by investigating the buyer–supplier integration dynamics in a global context with a focus on the antecedents and outcomes involved in the process. Empirical data from 320 U.S. based manufacturing companies that source from overseas was collected and used to test the framework. In addition to providing empirical evidence for the importance of orientation on collaboration, operational coordination, and integration this research explains how manufacturing companies can enhance the flexibility of their global suppliers and how that impact their logistics as well as overall firm performance. Managerial and research implications are provided as well as areas for future research.     

Customer Satisfaction in Retail Banking

Professional services firms (PSFs) engaged in international operations present a unique challenge for governments. They directly and indirectly affect governmental policies and the agencies that enforce these policies through policy development, problem solving, and implementation. Yet, governments that seek to advance rational, forward thinking public policy have little, if any, regulatory control over the input and influence of these professional experts. International professional service firms face an increasingly competitive marketplace and complex challenges that demand skill sets that are markedly different from those characteristically required of consumer service companies. This study identifies the qualities of the best performing PSFs that engage clients worldwide. Implications are discussed for governments to ensure the greater public good.     

零售业多渠道库存策略研究

本文运用报童模型研究了在B2C电子商务模式下开辟多渠道的零售商普遍采用的三种库存运作策略,并通过数值算例分析了不同库存运作策略下的零售商、供应商的最优库存,同时分析了需求的不确定性程度对零售商、供应商及供应链整体的利润水平的影响。研究结果显示零售商分散化管理库存策略和供应商共享库存策略有利于零售商和供应商分别发挥各自优势,实现风险共担,利益共享,提高供应链整体利润水平。     

需求不确定条件下基于调货中心的供应链库存模型

在需求不确定的条件下,由制造商设立调货中心,建立共享安全库存来代替各销售商的安全库存是一种有效的供应链库存模式。它运用基于调货中心的供应链库存模型能够在保证顾客服务水平不变的条件下进一步降低供应链库存总成本,并能在一定程度上抑制牛鞭效应的产生。     

Testing the Negative Effects of Time Pressure in Retail Supply Chain Relationships

In today's rapidly evolving business environment, retailers must develop highly responsive supply chains in order to satisfy constantly changing market demands. One approach to achieving this objective is to leverage the capabilities of other supply chain members to achieve cycle time compression of key business activities. However, when viewed through the theoretical lenses of Social Exchange Theory and Reciprocity, a potential conflict exists between facilitating supply chain responsiveness and maintaining close retailer–supplier relationships. The purpose of this research is to quantitatively test how the imposition of time pressure affects key elements of retail supply chain relationships. Scenario based experimental methodology was utilized to test the effects of time pressure on two distinct types of retailer–supplier relationships. Results of this research offer evidence to support the notion that time pressure can reduce collaborative behaviors, relationship loyalty, and relationship value in critical retailer–supplier relationships.     

The effect of presentation,product availability and ease upon transaction reliability for online food delivery aggregator applications – moderated mediated model

ABSTRACT

With advancements in mobile technologies, online food-delivery aggregators (OFA) have become an important distribution channel for restaurants. This study examines how the OFA applications affect diner’s cognitive and affective states and subsequent behavior by empirically testing a research model that incorporates antecedents of transaction reliability for restaurant order booking using a mobile application. Data collected from a survey of 458 respondents are analyzed using SEM. Drawing from SOR, CVT, and cue theory, the research established that product presentation and ease of use predict transaction reliability and are important mobile application attributes while choosing a particular OFA. The moderated mediation model extends the stimulus-organism-response framework and the consumer value theory. The findings demonstrate the moderating influence of gender, where the relationship is stronger for females. The study has a positivist approach with causalities satisfying the fundamental law of SOR theory. Higher media richness shall lead to a positive feeling about the product. A good presentation of the products on the mobile screen shall enhance the perception of product availability. The presence of abundant products makes it easy to search, thereby ease of searching the mobile screen. Mobile applications should be updated regularly to keep pace with the ever-changing mobile technologies.     

Exploring Supply Managers' Intrapreneurial Ability and Relationship Quality

This article examined the degree to which a supply manager's intrapreneurial ability influences the quality of individual-level relationships with internal customers and the supplier's account executive. The moderating influence of the buyer's firm-level commitment to the supplier and how these relationships subsequently impact supplier performance were explored. The study assessed the supply manager's intrapreneurial ability using survey data gathered from 110 supply managers across a variety of industries. In key supplier relationships, a supply manager's intrapreneurial ability positively influences the quality of internal and external relationships. The firm's commitment to the supplier weakens the relationship between intrapreneurial ability and relationship quality. The findings highlight the value of individual skills to enhance relationships The ability to behave intrapreneurially shapes the quality of internal and supplier relationships. However, only the supply manager's relationship with the supplier's account executive is related to supplier performance. By examining the impact of intrapreneurial ability on individual-level relationships with internal customers and supplier's account executive, a more comprehensive view of business-to-business relationship management in the supply chain is gained.     

服务补贴与具有相同供应商的供应链博弈研究

针对由两个零售商和一个共同的供应商组成的供应链,供应商将具有可替代性的两种产品通过两个零售商进行销售,零售商为其产品提供服务,供应商为零售商提供服务补贴。分析得出:向零售商提供服务补贴虽然能够提高零售商针对自己产品所提供的服务水平,增加其产品的市场占有率和供应商的利润,但并不能增加零售商的利润,反而会使其利润减少。如果在供应商向零售商提供服务补贴的供应链中采用纳什讨价还价机制,不仅可以使产品的服务和销量保持在不采用纳什讨价还价机制的供应商向零售商提供服务补贴时供应链的水平,还可以使供应商和零售商的利润都增加,此时供应商愿意提供服务补贴,零售商愿意接受服务补贴。     

From Supply Chains to Supply Ecosystems: Implications for Strategic Sourcing Research and Practice

Traditionally, sourcing decisions such as what to buy and from whom to buy it were viewed as clerical in nature. Today, however, many executives view sourcing decisions as strategic and these decisions are being made from more prominent positions within firms. Indeed, over time more companies are embracing the concept of strategic sourcing—making acquisition decisions with the intent of creating value and achieving a competitive advantage. In this article, we introduce the Special Topic Forum articles on strategic sourcing and performance. Each offers important implications for strategic sourcing research and practice. An overall implication is that some traditional supply chains appear to be giving way to supply ecosystems, which represent a set of interdependent and coordinated organizations that share common adaptive challenges and that collectively shape the creation and nurturing of a sourcing base that contributes to competitive advantage and superior performance. We offer several theoretical perspectives that hold promise for explaining supply ecosystem functioning and outcomes. In terms of practice, firms need to adapt their strategic sourcing to this evolution or run the risk of being weakened.     

改善零售服务供给与挖掘居民消费潜力

扩大居民消费对于当前中国转变经济发展模式具有重要意义。文章构建了考虑消费者购买活动成本的理论模型,并采用2009-2014年省际面板数据进行计量分析,说明除了提高居民收入、完善社保体系等旨在提升消费意愿的需求提升措施以外,改善零售服务供给也能够在消费挖潜中发挥积极作用,从机制上减少当前城乡居民放弃或抑制消费,转移消费或集中购买,以及选择劣质商品等现象。当前实体零售业经历的转型升级与挖掘消费潜力的宏观目标具有一致性,必要的政策引导则能够更好地促进行业调整与提振消费之间的契合。     

Postservice Recovery Customer Satisfaction in Indian Retail Banking: Scale Development and Validation

The construct of postservice customer satisfaction with respect to Indian retail banking has been studied. Furthermore, the development and validation of the postservice recovery customer satisfaction scale in Indian retail banking is detailed. The scale development process was carried out over three stages (item generation, scale purification, scale validation) and comprised of conducting depth interviews and focus groups for item generation and three separate phases of data collection, involving a total of 851 individual respondents. The data provide evidence for face, content, discriminant and convergent validity, dimensionality, reliability, and generalizability of the customer satisfaction scale in Indian retail banking.     

Implementing Supplier Codes of Conduct in Global Supply Chains: Process Explanations from Theoretic and Empirical Perspectives

Western buying companies impose Supplier Codes of Conduct (SCC) on their suppliers in developing countries; however, many suppliers cannot fully comply with SCC and some of them even cheat in SCC. In this research, we link contract characteristics – price pressure, production complexity, contract duration – to the likelihood of supplier’s commitment to SCC through a mediating process: how the buying companies govern their suppliers. Our structural equation model analysis shows that the hierarchy/relational norms governance is a perfect mediator of contract characteristics’ effects on the likelihood of supplier’s commitment; the market governance, an insignificant one. The managerial implications are provided for successfully implementing SCC in global supply chains.     

需求不确定对单周期产品的生产商—零售商供应链的影响

在单周期产品的生产商—零售商的供应链中,由于市场存在着激烈的竞争,市场需求的不确定性必然会对供应链双方的决策产生很大的影响。借助传统的报童模型,建立Stackberg博奕模型,考虑了一个供应商面对两个不同零售商时的情景,分别分析了当零售商决策依据是最大化期望利润和当两零售商的市场需求相关时,以及在零售商的决策依据是在给定利润水平时最大化其概率的情况下,市场需求不确定会对供应链双方产生怎样的影响。     

零售业的服务失误归因及服务补救策略

零售企业是一个与顾客紧密联系的服务型企业,失误的频次相对较高,容易流失顾客,形成"不良口碑"。寻找服务失误的原因以及实施补救措施,降低顾客流失,减弱"不良口碑"成为零售企业所追求的目标。本文根据零售企业的运营模式将服务失误的原因进行了分类,从企业、顾客和供应商三个方面挖掘服务失误的原因并给出了相应的服务对策。     

Knowledge Management in Supply Chains: The Role of Explicit and Tacit Knowledge

We theorize, building on the knowledge‐based view and the theoretical distinction between explicit and tacit knowledge, that knowledge management capability across the supply chain manifests itself in explicit and tacit knowledge, which in turn effectuates supply chain performance. The model is tested with survey data from 195 small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises reporting on their primary supply chain. The results indicate that the supply chain's knowledge management capability manifests itself in both explicit and tacit knowledge, with the latter being influenced more strongly. Moreover, it was found that while both explicit and tacit knowledge influence supply chain performance, the latter exerts a significantly greater impact than the former. Exploratory post hoc analyses add robustness to these findings and investigate mechanisms inherent to the transformation of tacit into explicit knowledge. Overall, this research contributes to academic theory development in logistics and supply chain management by the dichotomization of knowledge types and the demonstration of their differential magnitude of effects, and to managerial practice by providing important guidance for logistics managers structuring their knowledge management efforts across supply chains.     

Exploiting Mobile Technology for Achieving Supply Chain Integration in Indian Retail

For decades supply chain coordination has been subject to research interest, and technology has been seen as an agent that accelerates this process. In developing countries, with far-flung markets and unorganized distribution networks, using technology for improving supply chain performances and accessing information is not an easy task. The research was directed to understand if mobile technology is being used by downstream supply chain partners for information sharing and thus improving supply chain performances. Findings suggest that supply chain integration with suppliers and customers is done through extensive use of mobile networks.     

Channel Selection and Coordination in Dual-Channel Supply Chains

This paper investigates the influence of channel structures and channel coordination on the supplier, the retailer, and the entire supply chain in the context of two single-channel and two dual-channel supply chains. We extensively study two Pareto zone concepts: channel-adding Pareto zone and contract-implementing Pareto zone. In the channel-adding Pareto zone, both the supplier and the retailer benefit from adding a new channel to the traditional single-channel supply chain. In the contract-implementing Pareto zone, it is mutually beneficial for the supplier and the retailer to utilize the proposed contract coordination policy. The analysis suggests the preference lists of the supplier and the retailer over channel structures with and without coordination are different, and depend on parameters like channel base demand, channel operational costs, and channel substitutability.     

基于客户需求的供应链物流服务质量研究

基于客户需求的物流服务是供应链物流服务质量管理的核心,具有可得性、经济性、时间性和可靠性等特点,其内涵在基本物流服务系统、物流运作绩效、客户认同的物流服务质量等三个方面中有所体现。企业要持续长久地赢得客户满意,必须从整体上建立令客户满意的物流服务运作体系,建立完善的物流服务质量系统,充分认识和把握物流服务质量的显著特点和基本内涵,从满足客户需求出发,为客户提供价廉质优的物流服务。     

Niche Firms and Partnerships in International Food Supply Chains

This study applies the partnership model to explore how internationally oriented niche firms organize and develop partnerships with their supply chain members, and how these niche firms are benefiting from these partnerships. This exploratory study uses semistructured in-depth interviews of key informants in four supply chains to obtain qualitative data.

The findings include observations of the drivers, facilitators, components, and outcomes of niche partnerships in supply chains. The results suggest that niche firms are able to overcome some of the weaknesses, without losing the advantages of being small, by forming channel partnerships.