Electronic marketplaces and supply chain relationships

Electronic marketplaces and supply chain management (SCM) are two notions, which have attracted much attention among both academicians and practitioners during the last 5 years. However, the discussion of the relationship between the two notions has been limited and fragmented. In this paper, we will present a critical summary of the discussion of Internet-driven electronic marketplaces (IEMPs) based on an extensive literature review. Then, we will discuss the interrelation between IEMP and SCM from a procurement portfolio perspective. Our proposition is that different types of buyer-supplier relationships require different types of IEMPs. We propose a relationship/IEMP-grid that should help to identify the right selection strategy for IEMP in various procurement situations. Finally, we present proposals for future research within this area.     

Coping with time pressure in interfirm supply chain relationships

In today's evolving marketplace, firms must increasingly focus on developing responsiveness to meet customer demands. In the pursuit of such rapid response to customer needs, firms often demand that other members of their supply chain reduce cycle times of key business activities. Although tight deadlines are commonly imposed by customers, little is known about how supplier firms respond to such time pressure. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to learn more about the phenomenon of time pressure in interfirm relationships and determine how firms cope with this common situational constraint. Grounded theory methodology was utilized to discover a time pressure coping strategies taxonomy that is driven by evaluative criteria such as the frequency, magnitude, and attribution of time pressure. The model that emerged from this research provides information about the potential costs of leveraging interfirm relationships in order to achieve supply chain responsiveness.     

The governance of inter-organisational relationships during different supply chain maturity phases

Supply chains and inter-organisational relationships have increased in popularity in recent years and supply chain management has received a vast amount of academic attention. The objective of this paper is to explore the implementation of supply chain management and, in particular, the changing phases of a supply chain as it moves towards maturity. We employ the minimal structure framework of van der Meer-Kooistra and Scapens [“The governance of lateral relations between and within organisations”, Management Accounting Research, 2008] to analyse the governance of a supply chain as it moves through the various phases. Drawing on the findings from a case study in an aero-manufacturing company, we explore how the minimal structures emerge and evolve as the supply chain matures.     

Organizational and institutional barriers to value-based pricing in industrial relationships

In their effort to differentiate themselves from cost-driven rivals, many industrial companies are beginning to serve their customers through value-based offerings. Such companies often engage actively in collaborative value creation with their customers. To capture a fair share of the value created, they need to adopt a value-based pricing approach. Therefore, value-driven competition necessitates value-based pricing (VBP). The present study explores the barriers to exercising value-based pricing and suggests ways to overcome those obstacles in putting value-based pricing into action in B2B sales. The study is implemented as an exploratory multi-case study applying an abductive research methodology. Our cases show that industrial sellers try to understand and influence their customers' desired value perception, influence customer-perceived value (CPV), and improve their bargaining position as means to overcome these barriers to improved value capture. Hence, our findings deepen the current understanding of value-based pricing in industrial buyer–seller relationships. In doing so, it contributes to the literature on customer value, organizational capabilities, business models, and sales management in previously unexplored areas. Moreover, the study provides guidance to business practitioners willing to develop value-based pricing as part of their business model.     

Making the transition to collaborative buyer-seller relationships: An emerging framework

In recent years, many business-to-business marketers have been influenced by the concepts put forth in the area of relationship marketing, with its emphasis on long-term collaborative relationships among trading partners. However, buyers and sellers alike have found it difficult to make the transition from an arm's length, “invisible hand of the market” relationship to one of collaboration, for a variety of reasons. We propose a framework, still emerging, that captures the elements critical to the transition process. We do not advocate collaborative relationships in all buyer-seller relationships; however, where they make sense we demonstrate how to overcome barriers to collaboration. Explicitly recognizing the elements of the framework and their relationship to one another would help potential collaborators better manage the transition process and thereby increase the likelihood of reaping the benefits of a truly more collaborative relationship.     

Agility index in the supply chain

To achieve a competitive edge in the rapidly changing business environment, companies must align with suppliers and customers to streamline operations, as well as working together to achieve a level of agility beyond individual companies. Consequently, agile supply chains are the dominant competitive vehicles. Embracing agile supply chain requires asking some important questions, namely: what exactly is agility and how can it be measured? Moreover, how can agility be effectively achieved and enhanced? Due to the ambiguity of agility assessment, most measures are described subjectively using linguistic terms. Thus, this study develops a fuzzy agility index (FAI) based on agility providers using fuzzy logic. The FAI comprises attribute’ ratings and corresponding weights, and is aggregated by a fuzzy weighted average. To illustrate the efficacy of the method, this study also evaluates the supply chain agility of a Taiwanese company. This evaluation demonstrates that the method can provide analysts with more informative and reliable information for decision.     

Performance based contracting in long-term supply relationships

The study investigates performance-based contracting in long term-supply relationships. Evidence in the context of supply relationships involving manufacturers of consumer and pharmaceutical products, service providers and grocery retailers indicates that the performance that companies buy and sell can be analyzed as specific combinations of effectiveness, efficiency and risk. While firms engage in a complex and time-consuming process to design and agree upon performance targets, incentive mechanisms and involved risks of buying and selling future performance, they often fail in achieving excellence in all performance targets.     

An autonomous multi-agent approach to supply chain event management

Organizations have made a significant effort to implement software for planning and scheduling, but disruptive event management is still a problem to be solved. Since a disruptive event can affect the overall performance of the supply chain, SCEM (Supply Chain Event Management) systems presenting different automation levels such as monitoring, alarm and decision support have been proposed. However, the management of disruptive events, taking into account the distributed nature of the supply chain, the members' autonomy and the ability to exert corrective control actions, has been identified as a problem that requires further research. This work presents an agent-based approach for the SCEM problem, which can perform autonomous corrective control actions to minimize the effect of deviations in the plan that is currently being executed. These control actions consist of a distribution of the variation between supply chain members, using the plan's slack in a collaborative way. An innovative feature of this approach is its focus on resources, which are affected by disruptive events in a direct way. Based on this approach, a SCEM system is designed as a net of control points defined on resources connected through supply process orders. Two novel aspects are the distributed collaborative inter-organizational architecture of the SCEM system and a Double Contract Net Protocol. This protocol allows a set of resource:representing agents to interact through an agent, representing a supply process order as a mediator. An application to a case study of the Multi-Agent SCEM system implemented with JADE is provided.     

OEM厂商努力控制供应链

跟踪产品退货是一回事,要找出供应链或其他某个地方是否存在问题则是另一回事。在制造前流程(premanufactring mix)中引入有害物质限制(RoHS)和其他环境规定,以及深入研究退货流程可能就像是尝试解开一团杂乱无章的绳子那样困难。     

Inventory inaccuracies in the wholesale supply chain

The inventory level shown in the Information System contrary to popular belief and assumptions in most academic papers and in spite of the considerable amounts invested in information technology, is often inaccurate. The inventory inaccuracy occurs when the inventory shown in the Information System is not in agreement with the actually available inventory. In this paper, we first describe the major factors generating inventory inaccuracy. Then, we provide situations permitting to manage an inventory system subject to errors. We provide a general framework permitting to model the inventory inaccuracy issue. In particular, we link the inaccuracy issue with the well known random yield problem. The shown link permits us to derive the optimal ordering policy of an inventory framework where demand satisfaction is done based on the inventory records (which are subject to inaccuracies). We also propose an analysis permitting to show the added value of an advanced identification system such as the RFID technology.     

Decision models in global supply chain management

Integrative decision making is key to effective supply chain management (SCM). This article examines five illustrative supply chain decision models that demonstrate the importance of integrating the decisions across the supply chain. The models that are discussed illustrate the diversity of analytical approaches and their usefulness in managing global supply chain issues. The paper identifies potential areas of additional research where analytical modeling can generate useful insights. The paper also presents a short categorization of decision models from literature.     

The consequences of voluntary traceability system for supply chain relationships. An application of transaction cost economics

This paper analyses the effects of voluntary traceability on vertical relationships within food supply chains using a transaction cost perspective. The analysis makes reference to the Italian situation where the national standard organization has introduced a private standard for traceability that provides a higher degree of information associated with the individual product than the European mandatory traceability system. A survey was conducted by questionnaire to assess changes in transaction characteristics, costs and governance after the introduction of voluntary traceability. The sample represents all Italian firms applying this standard. Factorial and cluster analyses were applied to find the different reorganizations of transactions. The results highlight an increase in asset specificity and a decrease in the uncertainty level throughout the supply chains. The introduction of voluntary traceability shows increased vertical coordination for firms that previously used oral agreements and variation in transactions conditions for firms using contracts. Instead vertically integrated firms do not reveal any variation in the governance of transactions as they are already internally safeguarded.     

Short-term financing in a cash-constrained supply chain

In this paper we consider a two-level supply chain with a single retailer and a manufacturer, where both the firms are facing financial constraints and can not produce/order their optimal quantity. Our work shows that a lender who finances the manufacturer has a motivation to finance the retailer as well. Motivated by this, we investigate lender's problem of financing both the firms by making a joint decision on the loan amount and comparing it with the case when lender makes independent decision on loan amount for both the firms. Our numerical study indicates that if one of the firms in the supply chain has sufficiently low cash, joint decision (we refer to it as supply chain financing) may be better not only for the lender but for the retailer and manufacturer as well.     

The role of e-marketplaces in supply chain management

Electronic marketplaces (e-marketplaces) have a profound influence on the way in which organizations manage their supply chains. Proponents of the e-marketplace concept suggest that web-based trading systems, such as World Wide Retail Exchange (WWRE) and GlobalNetXchange (GNX), would enable companies to more efficiently buy, sell, and manage their supply chain processes on a global scale. This study investigates the extent to which e-business tools of the e-marketplace are used by channel members in the retail sector for business-to-business supply chain management (SCM). The study is based on a survey involving food service companies, retailers, and wholesalers in the UK. It is shown that the e-marketplace supply chain applications enable the majority of companies to automate transaction-based activities and procurement-related processes rather than strategic supply chain activities. The results also indicate that full participation in e-marketplaces requires companies to integrate their internal and external supply chain activities and share strategic information.     

Applying activity-based costing in a supply chain environment

Traditional intra-firm cost accounting tools are not appropriate in the context of supply chain management, as there are no standards for the definition and composition of costs. This prohibits exchange and comparison of cost data among different supply chain members. Against this background, several activity-based costing models for inter-firm cost accounting have been proposed. Evaluating these models, a conceptual framework for activity-based costing in a supply chain has been developed. This also forms the basis for a single case study conducted at Europe's largest company for façade components. This demonstrates how significant inter-firm cost saving opportunities can be identified and offers a first step in assessing the suitability of the proposed model.     

供应链关系资本对企业创新绩效的影响研究——基于需求拉动型吸收能力的视角

针对受国外技术和市场牵引较严重的4个制造类企业,构建了供应链关系资本、需求拉动型吸收能力和创新绩效三者间的概念模型,实施问卷调查,用结构方程模型验证假设。得到的结果表明:以信任为基础的供应链关系资本能够促进企业及时获取和掌握市场信息和技术知识,从而提高创新绩效。但是,样本企业供应链关系资本中的关系承诺维度对知识吸收的促进作用有待加强;需求拉动型吸收能力的知识转化和利用环节对于创新进程的促进作用有待提高。     

Collective action for market chain innovation in the Andes

The Papa Andina network employs collective action in two novel approaches for fostering market chain innovation. The participatory market chain approach (PMCA) and stakeholder platforms engage small potato producers together with market agents and agricultural service providers in group activities to identify common interests, share market knowledge and develop new business opportunities. These forms of collective action have generated commercial, technological and institutional innovations, and created new market niches for Andean native potatoes grown by poor farmers in remote highland areas. These innovations have benefited small farmers as well as other market chain actors. This paper describes Papa Andina’s experiences with collective action for market chain innovation. It then discusses the implications of these experiences for the understanding of collective action and the policy implications for research and development organizations.     

Coordination in a retailer-led supply chain through option contract

This paper develops a model to study channel coordination and risk sharing in a retailer-led supply chain. Such chains are characterized by a dominant retailer who aims to coordinate the upstream production quantity. We investigate a coordinating contract based on an option with two parameters. An option price is paid by the retailer for each additional unit of product reserved beyond the initial order. An exercise price serves as the unit purchasing price when the retailer sets a second order if realized demand is more than the initial order. A successful coordination needs two conditions. One condition is to maintain a negative correlation between exercise price and option price. Particularly, we draw the functional form. The other is that the firm commitment must be lower than the optimal production quantity in a centralized system. In a risk sharing mechanism, we prove that such a contract brings benefit to each party.     

Managing channel coordination in a multi-channel manufacturer-retailer supply chain

With the rapid development of e-commerce and the adoption of dual channels, increasingly manufacturers and retailers are implementing differentiated branding and profit sharing strategies in order to improve channel coordination and supply chain performance. In this study, we focus on the strategic roles played by differentiated branding and profit sharing in a multi-channel manufacturer-retailer supply chain. We use an analytical model to investigate this issue. Our results show that although differentiated branding effectively alleviates channel competition and conflict, it is general not sufficient to achieve full channel coordination, and an additional coordination mechanism is necessary. The additional coordination mechanism we consider is profit sharing, using the Nash bargaining model. Based on our results, we derive optimal market strategies and identify probable paths for future research.