Customer and Supplier Portfolios: Can Credit Risks be Managed Through Supply Chain Relationships?

While supply chain risk has been the subject of an ever‐increasing amount of research attention, the importance of credit risk has been less studied, at least by supply chain researchers. Yet, there may be risks inherent within a firm's portfolios of supply chain relationships that are manifested in the credit risk of a firm. Moreover, portfolio characteristics may serve as a signal to the external market regarding these risks. While customer and supplier portfolio characteristics may impact the firm's exposure to risks, the specific issue of how portfolio characteristics relate to credit risk has rarely been examined by supply chain scholars. This research bridges extant works in supply chain management and finance to relate supply chain characteristics to a critical reputational outcome, namely credit ratings. In this research, we utilize a sample of firms that recently underwent an initial public offering to empirically examine the theoretical predictions of Resource Dependence Theory regarding the relationships between different supply chain portfolio characteristics and credit risk.     

Quantifying Sources of Risk in Global Food Operations and Supply Chain

The food industry plays a significant role in food supply. However, it is increasingly facing a significant number of risks to tackle. This article provides insight into sources and quantification of risk, which can restrict food operations and supply chain performance. Certainly, risks imposed by today's constantly changing global environment makes it imperative for food and agribusiness firms to develop purposeful proactive and predictive risk management for their global supply chains. We proposed the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model to analyze sources of risks attached to the focal firm's global food operations and supply chain. The identified risks were from a review of relevant literature, expert opinions from the focal firm supply chain C‐level executive, and consultants in the food industry. We grouped the identified risks into seven categories and discussed the risk mitigation strategies. We validated the proposed model using a case study involving a focal food and agribusiness firm with global presence. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Using Country Sustainability Risk to Inform Sustainable Supply Chain Management: A Design Science Study

The sustainability of our global supply chains is an essential concern in strategic supply chain management research. Modern information and communication technologies enable stakeholders to punish buying firms for any sustainability‐related grievances at their suppliers, even in remote locations. This study investigates how the notion of country sustainability risk can inform sustainable supply chain management, in particular with respect to sustainability risk assessment at the individual supplier level. Drawing on institutional theory, we provide insights surrounding the emergence of environmental, social, and governance‐related country‐level sustainability risks and show their implications for and application in sustainable supply chain management. The study employs a design science methodology, based on cooperation with a multidivisional German technology firm, to develop a supply chain sustainability risk (SCSR) map as technological solution design. This article contributes to the study of SCSR by reconciling the scholarly SCSR discourse with the buying firms’ pursuit of efficiency. Moreover, it elucidates the augmentation of a research agenda through a design science approach. In practical terms, the technological solution design can directly inform managers about SCSR at the country level and serves as a decision basis for the management of individual suppliers.     

水产品加工业供应链风险及其控制策略

根据对文献的研究成果,结合对水产品加工业的深入调研分析,本文着重从供应、物流、财务、信息、需求、环境等方面对水产品加工业供应链风险进行剖析。供应链中各种风险因素之间并非独立存在,而是相互影响、互为因果。因此,在明确水产业供应链每种风险产生根源及其变动规律的基础上,提出适宜的风险控制策略,以期规避风险,确保水产业供应链整体安全高效运行。     

EXPLORING A GOVERNANCE THEORY OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: BARRIERS AND FACILITATORS TO INTEGRATION

Supply chain management is rapidly growing as both a strategic initiative and an academic discipline. As firms increasingly include their supply chain partners in the development of business strategy, researchers will have to constantly reevaluate the underlying themes and emergent theories of strategic logistics, management, and marketing by introducing new topics and revisiting seminal extant results. As such, this research was developed to explore the important concept of supply chain integration through strategic governance theory development. Since supply chain governance is a relatively new topic, a grounded study of both new and existing integration facilitators and barriers is presented. The study was initiated with a qualitative “managerial” development of scale items followed by a full empirical analysis. The result is an industry based returning to the source methodology for testing current governance related issues in industry. Contributions include the development of multiple dimensions of supply chain governance across facilitators and barriers, an explanation of the interplay between governance facilitators of, and barriers to, integration, a discussion of strategic level managerial implications, and a call for the future extension of governance research into the theory wanting domain of logistics and supply chain management.     

Supply Chain Integrity: A Key to Sustainable Supply Chain Management

As stakeholders continue to increasingly hold firms accountable for environmental and social performance in their supply chains, the importance of understanding how firms can be more sustainable becomes more prescient. Based on the underlying premise of stakeholder theory that business and ethics decisions are intertwined, the current research introduces the concept of supply chain integrity (SCI) to explore how the interdependence of business and ethics decisions can lead to improvements in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices. Exploratory analysis employing secondary data sources in an elastic net (EN) logistic regression provides support for the proposed construct, by providing preliminary empirical evidence that SCI, measured through two subdimensions of structural and moral SCI, can be linked to firm sustainability. The research contributes to the supply chain management literature by: (1) introducing the concept of SCI; (2) performing an exploratory econometric analysis to provide initial validity of the SCI construct; and (3) providing a research agenda to guide further research on the concept of SCI and its role in SSCM.     

How Environmental Management Competitive Pressure Affects a Focal Firm's Environmental Innovation Activities: A Green Supply Chain Perspective

Recently, environmental management offers firms a source of competitive advantage in the marketplace. The development of environmental innovations is critical to the success of today's firms. Drawing on the Schumpeterian perspective of competition, this research examines how the perception of rival firms' green success influences a firm to pursue and produce environmental innovation through its green supply chain integration activities. Using survey data from 230 firms, a conceptual model is developed and tested using structural equation modeling. We find that the firms in our sample do perceive pressure from their competitors' success in environmental management activities, and thus take supply chain action to pursue integration activities. By differentiating incremental and radical environmental innovation, this study also reveals the role of three dimensions of green supply chain integration (internal, supplier, and customer integration of green product development) on incremental and radical environmental innovation separately. Specifically, findings suggest that green supply chain integration has a positive impact on developing incremental environmental innovation, while only customer integration has a significant positive impact on developing radical environmental innovation.     

Improvement of Operational Performance of Internationalized Companies through Collaboration in Distribution Networks

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide theoretical insights on the impact of supply chain collaboration on the operational performance of firms and collaborative advantage as an intermediate variable in the context of the supply networks of internationalized firms. The research is based on a case study of a distribution network constituting Russian and international firms. The obtained results indicate that supply chain collaboration improves operational performance of internationalized firms and firms in domestic market. Moreover, the study advocates that collaboration in distribution networks can be considered as driving factor for international firms to enter the emerging markets through supply networks.     

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.     

DO PERCEPTIONS BECOME REALITY? THE MODERATING ROLE OF SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCY ON DISRUPTION OCCURRENCE

The concern and study of supply risk and supply continuity has recently come to the forefront in managing business and conducting research. This empirical study of U.S. and German firms investigates the relationship between perceived supply risk sources and supply disruption occurrence, as well as the use of supply chain resiliency practices to reduce disruption frequency. We demonstrate that supply managers' concerns with risk emanating from suppliers and the supply market are positively related to supply disruption occurrence. We further show how and when implementing flexibility and redundancy may reduce the effects of supply disruptions.     

Competing with Marketing Channels and Logistics in Africa's Booming Markets: An Investigation of Emerging Supply Chain Management Practices in Ghana

Using Ghana as the African context for testing the applicability of supply chain management, this study reveals that firms there place less emphasis on logistics and channels management practices relative to product and pricing marketing mix elements. However, this situation is changing in response to the perceived positive impact of the regulatory and technological environment on market-share competitive performance. Those firms that emphasize integration of both logistics and channels management practices exhibited the strongest competitive market-share and financial performance; firms whose practices placed moderate emphasis on both logistics and channels management integration reported moderate levels of market-share and financial performance. These results suggest that firms in Ghana compete along a continuum of supply chain integration primarily on the basis of the increasingly market-oriented business environment.     

Analysis of Social Performance in the Spanish Financial Industry Through Public Data. A Proposal

Banking firms are becoming increasingly aware that their clients’ management of environmental and social risks may in term threaten their own business as lenders and investors. In addition, stakeholders are requiring banks to improve their social performance. As a result, some banks are developing corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and management systems to reduce potential risks and improve their performance. In the Spanish financial system, half of the banking firms are savings banks, most of which have always used some Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) criteria in their management. Private Banks have only recently started to integrate social aspects in their performance. However, no formal analysis has been carried out on the impact of CSR strategies. Various initiatives have been launched nationally and internationally to include the social dimension in management systems. The purpose of this research is to analyse the social performance of the main Spanish financial companies through public data such as social or sustainability reports and media sources. In order to do this, we need to determine which CSR criteria most greatly affect banking firms and to choose the most accurate quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure social performance.     

Relationship Quality and Performance Outcomes: Achieving a Sustainable Competitive Advantage

As firms strive to develop a sustainable competitive advantage, the relationships formed among supply chain parties become a critical consideration. Firms seek to establish relationships that can provide the desired level of performance and competitiveness. Relationship quality provides a global measure of buyer–supplier relationships and can be used to assess the types of relationships a firm has within its supply chain. This research examines the impact of relationship quality on supply chain operational performance and satisfaction with strategic performance while considering both buyer and supplier perspectives and collaborative and arm’s length types of relationships.     

The Coevolution of Relationship Dominant Logic and Supply Risk Mitigation Strategies

How and why do risk mitigation strategies evolve? And which resources are needed for engaging in such changes? This paper contributes to the understanding of risk management in supply chains by developing theory about the interplay between supply risk mitigation strategies and the purchasing team's relationship dominant logic (RDL), which we define as the purchasing team's orientation toward and shared cognitive map of the management of its supply chain relationships. Specifically, we propose that RDL and supply risk mitigation strategies are fundamentally intertwined. Following a Straussian approach to grounded theory, this study analyzes data generated from the purchasing teams of Western green‐tech firms trying to mitigate supply risk for technically indispensable rare earth metals from China. Our findings from this context that is heavily shaped by state‐influenced supply chain members show that the firms chose their mitigation strategies in line with their RDL. Human capital, social capital, and financial capital seem to moderate the link between RDL and mitigation strategies. We link our findings with the strategic management literature in deriving theoretical propositions concerning these relationships.     

Supply Relational Risk: What Role Does Guanxi Play?

The topics of supply chain risk and global sourcing have garnered significant attention in recent years. Although there is ample circumstantial evidence of global sourcing risk, especially from the western‐firm perspective of sourcing from China, few published studies have investigated the root causes of this risk. In this paper, we argue that much of the risk associated with sourcing from China stems from the differences associated with institutional norms and philosophical orientation between western and Chinese thought and culture. Based on an in‐depth literature review and case analysis, we compare western forms of supply chain relationship management with Guanxi, the Chinese form of relationship management and propose a framework of how western firms are exposed to supply relational risk when sourcing from Chinese suppliers. The framework proposed in this article sheds light for supply chain managers with regard to the potential pitfalls facing firms when working with Chinese suppliers, and provides the groundwork for future research regarding supply chain practices and Guanxi networks.     

Perceived Risks in Supply Chain Management E-Collaboration

ABSTRACT

Supply chain management is an accepted concept involving a process-oriented, integrated approach to procuring, producing, and delivering products and services to customers. The boom in applying Internet-based applications is driven by corporate desires to use wireless access, extranets, Internet-based EDI, e-marketplaces, web services and other remote networks for supply chain activities. This paper reports the findings of a study that aims to examine perceived risks of e-commerce in supply chain activities. The conceptual model developed from previous research identifies four types of risks, namely technological, organizational, implementation, and relational risks. The model is tested via in-depth multiple case studies in seven firms from a cross-section of different industries who applied e-technologies in their supply chain activities. The findings highlight factors that contribute to risks and the related undesirable consequences that the firms experienced.     

GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN RISK MANAGEMENT

Global supply chains face a multitude of risks. A review of the recent literature reveals a few structured and systematic approaches for assessing risks in supply chains. However, there is no conceptual framework that ties together this literature. The purpose of this paper is to integrate literature from several disciplines ‐ including logistics, supply chain management, operations management, strategy, and international business ‐ to develop a model of global supply chain risk management. The implications for stakeholders and how future research could bring more insights to the phenomenon of global supply chain risk management are also discussed.     

国外国防工业SCR管理研究现状及启示

随着全球化的深入,国防工业供应链向全球延伸的同时,也凸显了SCR,需要采取有效措施进行管理与防范。本文对国外国防工业SCR管理研究的现状和关注领域进行了评述,得出了一些有益的启示。     

基于供应链柔性的供应链风险控制研究

社会竞争日益激烈,供应链管理中风险的控制对于企业来讲越来越重要。本文从供应链柔性的角度来分析供应链的控制问题,首先分析了供应链风险的来源,供应链风险一般来自外部风险、内部风险以及资源流风险,然后从供应链柔性的角度来控制供应链风险。     

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS OF PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE EXTENSION: THE CASE OF THE A‐10 AIRCRAFT

Firms are faced with challenging decisions when capital equipment reaches the end of its designed service life. This research examines the risks of deciding to extend the retirement date of a capital asset in terms of performance and cost and offers recommended actions to mitigate this risk. Through study of the United States Air Force's A‐10 aircraft, the authors analyze one example of decreased performance and increased costs experienced when supply chain implications are not explicitly considered when making service life extension decisions. In this case, the Air Force's efforts to save money through life extension of existing aircraft actually exceeded the seemingly enormous initial investment of acquiring new aircraft. Arguments are presented suggesting the Air Force, in particular, may reap benefits from forming supply chain relationships and creating continuity plans to manage problems such as parts shortages and cost increases when extending the use of capital assets beyond its intended service life.