Parallel sourcing and supplier performance in the Japanese automobile industry

Japanese auto makers are reported to enjoy high supplier performance through long-term relationships, specific investments, and sole sourcing. Quality management consultants in the U.S. have been strongly advocating adoption of these practices. But economic and management theorists would predict that the combination of a high level of relationship-specific investments and sole sourcing will lead to problems with supplier performance. In fact the Japanese auto makers use a hybrid form of organization we term parallel sourcing. We present a transaction costs model that shows how parallel sourcing provides incentives for supplier performance associated with multiple sourcing while preserving claimed benefits of sole sourcing.     

Globalization, marketing resources, and performance: Evidence from China

Two important areas are underexplored in the relationship between marketing resources and performance. First, the subject has been primarily investigated in the context of Western countries, and inadequate attention has been given to emerging economies. Second, despite the recent growth in globalization, the moderating role of globalization on the link between marketing resources and performance has not been investigated. Addressing these important gaps, this article focuses on an emerging economy (China) and explores the moderating effect of globalization on this link. Specifically, the authors develop several hypotheses highlighting the moderating role of globalization activities (global product sourcing, global market seeking, and global partnership) on the link between marketing resources (market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and innovative capability) and firm performance. The findings of the moderating role of globalization provide several important implications for marketing theory development and managerial practice. Xueming Luo (luoxm@uta.edu) is an assistant professor in the Department of Marketing in the College of Business Administration at the University of Texas at Arlington. Before joining the University of Texas at Arlington faculty, he was on the faculty of the State University of New York at Fredonia. His research has appeared in various journals, including theJournal of Business Research, the International Journal of Research in Marketing, the Journal of Advertising Research, the Journal of Interactive Advertising, and Industrial Marketing Management. K. Sivakumar (Ph.D., Syracuse University; k.sivakumar@lehigh. edu) is the Arthur Tauck Professor of International Marketing & Logistics and a professor of marketing at Lehigh University. Prior to joining Lehigh in 2001, he spent 9 years at the University of Illinois in Chicago. His research interests include pricing, global marketing, and innovation management. His research has been published or is forthcoming in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of International Business Studies, Decision Sciences Journal, Marketing Letters, the Journal of Business Research, International Marketing Review, the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Pricing Strategy & Practice: An International Journal, Psychology & Marketing, and other publications. He has won several awards for his research (including theDonald Lehman Award) and is on the editorial board of several scholarly journals. He has won outstanding reviewer awards from two journals. Sandra S. Liu (liuss@purdue.edu) is an associate professor in the Department of Consumer Sciences and Retailing at Purdue University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of London, and her current research interest focuses on strategic marketing issues in the context of customer contact, including knowledge management in a corporation in transition and sales management in a knowledge economy. With her extensive industry experience, she has written a number of books and journal articles, which have appeared in theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, the Journal of Business Research, theEuropean Journal of Marketing, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, among others.     

Global sourcing strategy and sustainable competitive advantage

Global sourcing strategy has been one of the most hotly debated management trends in the last 20 years. In its early years, global sourcing was examined mostly from “in-house” development and procurement perspectives; and in the last several years, research focus has shifted to “outsourcing” activities. Along with this shift from internal to external focus on global sourcing, many researchers and business practitioners have applied a core competency argument to justify increased levels of outsourcing activities on a global basis. Although the beneficial aspects of outsourcing are assumed in most cases, no consensus exists in reality as to the effect of outsourcing. Furthermore, the increased instability of the exchange rate environment in the last several years has also led to increased difficulties in managing globally scattered operations that were once fashionable in the 1980s-90s under the rubric of global strategy. In this article, the authors explore potential limitations and negative consequences of outsourcing strategy on a global scale.     

Supplying trees in an era of environmental uncertainty: Identifying challenges faced by the forest nursery sector in Great Britain

In recent years, numerous articles have addressed management strategies aimed at assisting forests to adapt to climate change. However, these seldom take into account the practical and economic implications of implementing these strategies, notably, supply of forest plants and seed. Using semi-structured interviews with practitioners involved in the plant and seed supply chain in Great Britain, we highlight a series of practical and economic bottlenecks commonly encountered in the supply of locally sourced seed and domestically produced planting stock for native woodland and hedging markets. We find that adoption of alternative seed sourcing strategies, designed specifically to account for directional climate warming, is likely to exacerbate existing problems by adding further complexity to decisions nurseries make about tree species and seed origins to produce. The lack of long-term market predictability brought about by the current configuration of forestry grants and regulations and, in particular, the administrative systems for processing grant applications is identified as a major impediment to having a sustainable and competitive supply of home-grown and currently adapted planting stock. Finally, the time and effort it takes to supply healthy plants for native woodland creation projects deserves much wider recognition throughout the industry and will be crucial if planting objectives are to be met sustainably.     

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.     

The effect of controversial global sourcing practices on the ethical judgments and intentions of U.S. consumers

Global sourcing has led to lower cost and more effective supply chains for many companies. However, when the cost-driven practices of many suppliers in these chains come to light there is often considerable debate over the ethics of these practices. This research uses the well-known Hunt–Vitell framework as the theoretical foundation for a structural equation model of the deontological and teleological evaluations used by consumers when making ethical judgments of a firm's controversial cost-driven global sourcing practices. Data from a large-scale U.S. consumer survey show the importance of deontological and teleological evaluations in forming consumers’ ethical judgments of global sourcing practices, and establish a strong relationship between ethical judgment and the intention of consumers to alter consumption of a firm's products. Extensions to the framework and demographic analyses for age, gender, and income provide insights as to how perceptions of these practices affect consumer evaluations of a company involved in global sourcing and how consumers actualize their resultant intentions.     

The role of intermediaries in establishing a sustainable supply chain

In sustainable supply chain management, buyers may use intermediaries to bridge exchanges with suppliers when knowledge of suitable sustainability practices is weak and in need of facilitation. Understanding how supply chain intermediaries perform this role and what happens when intermediation is no longer needed is important in establishing more sustainable supply chains. Two supply chain intermediaries have been investigated with the resulting case study evidence analysed using the Gioia methodology. The findings suggest supply chain intermediaries add value to the buyer-supplier exchange by facilitating sustainability-related information transfer, knowledge development, risk management and improved capabilities. For example, specific practices such as corrective action reports, often managed by the intermediary, underpin the development of a sustainable supply chain. When the intermediary is no longer needed, they become disintermediated from the specific buyer-supplier exchange but may be re-employed in a new triadic relationship in the future with previous parties. This provides positive spill-over effects through intermediation–disintermediation–post-intermediation cycles for both the buyer and supplier populations and for broader society. Overall, the findings highlight the value of the transient position of supply chain intermediaries in establishing sustainable supply chains and the intended consequences of their involvement.     

新经济条件下应对自创商誉进行确认

目前多数国家对外购商誉予以确认,而对自创商誉不予确认,这主要是基于可靠性和稳健性的考虑。随着知识经济的到来,商誉特别是自创商誉在企业资产中的比重越来越大,确认自创商誉无论从促进会计理论发展,还是从提高会计信息质量、提高会计实务水平来看,都是十分重要的。经济的不断发展,使得会计界不得不重新确定一些新的会计确认标准,这为我们解决包括自创商誉的确认问题提供了现实的理论准备。     

全球应用开发外包项目特点及对接包商项目招聘人员的要求

随着精细化分工的发展,由专业人员或机构来从事专门的业务的方式已经渗透到各个行业,服务外包的发展在各个领域内日趋成熟。IT业务外包作为这股潮流中一个非常重要的部分,在全球内发展迅猛。     

Dual sourcing of a newsvendor with exponential utility of profit

Dual sourcing strategies supplement inflexible, low-cost country sourcing with quick response manufacturing. Due to short product life cycles, combined with uncertain demand, dual sourcing strategies are very common in several industries, in particular in the sporting goods or fashion industries.Even though scholars have given some attention to the analysis of dual sourcing strategies, the importance of the decision-maker’s risk preferences has not been covered yet.In this paper we analyse dual sourcing strategies using an extended single-product newsvendor model with two order points. Different risk preferences will be modelled using an exponential utility function. Within realistic parameter ranges, the optimal order quantities can only be numerically computed. The findings of this paper show that dual sourcing strategies are always preferable to an exclusive offshore approach, as long as the onshore ordering costs are smaller than the selling price of the considered product. The more risk-averse the decision-maker, the smaller the offshore order quantity will be.