Suchergebnisse

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose an innovative buyer-supplier performance measurement system (PMS) (called relationship regulator – RelReg), aimed at stimulating collaboration on mutual performance. The RelReg is described all throughout the phases of its lifecycle: first, design features and visual representation of the new measurement framework are reported; second, guidelines on how to implement, use and review the system are provided, highlighting the role of the buyer and the supplier at each step.


Design/methodology/approach
A theory building and testing approach is applied. The RelReg developed features primarily ground on previous scientific contributions matched with empirical evidence collected through case studies, workshops and focus groups. The resulting conceptual model is then validated through a dyadic buyer-supplier case study.


Findings
Two conceptual frameworks are provided: the RelReg dashboard – a multidimensional PMS; and the RelReg lifecycle – set of activities to be performed by both the buyer and the supplier all along the adoption process. Moreover, empirical insights on relevant issues to be considered when adopting the RelReg are reported.


Originality/value
The RelReg represents an innovative and smart tool, allowing buyer-supplier dyads to collaborate on relationship performance.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of natural resource scarcity (NRS) for companies' supply chain strategies.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the resource dependence theory (RDT), a conceptual model is developed and validated through the means of exploratory research. The empirical work includes the assessment of qualitative data collected via 22 interviews representing six large multinational companies from the manufacturing sector.FindingsWhen the resources are scarce and vitally important, companies use buffering strategies. Buffering and bridging strategies are preferred when there are a few alternative suppliers for the specific resource and when there is limited access to scarce natural resources.Research limitations/implicationsThe research focuses on large multinational manufacturing companies so results may not be generalised to other sectors and to small- and medium-sized firms. Future research needs to examine the implications of NRS for organisational performance.Practical implicationsThis research provides direction to manufacturing companies for adopting the best supply chain strategy to cope with NRS.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the body of knowledge by providing new data and empirical insights into the issue of NRS in supply chains. The RDT has not been previously employed in this context. Past studies are mainly conceptual and, thus, the value of this paper comes from using a qualitative approach on gaining in-depth insights into supply chain-related NRS strategies and its antecedents.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute toward a better understanding of the impact of social capital on knowledge exchange within supply chains. An exploratory case study approach is used to identify the effects of social capital across multiple organizational levels and to consider how these effects relate to the mode of supply chain governance.


Design/methodology/approach
A comparative case study investigation was undertaken of two Indonesian automotive component suppliers. Qualitative research methods were used with data collection involving semi-structured interviews with 64 participants at three different levels within each company (senior managers, middle managers and shop floor staff).


Findings
Comparisons between the cases highlight the major consequences that internal differentiation within organizations had in moderating the effect of social capital upon knowledge exchange in supply chains. Social capital had both enabling and inhibiting effects and these were dependent upon how social capital was constituted within and between organizations. Interaction effects between levels and with the mode of governance adopted were also important.


Research limitations/implications
Future research would benefit from a multidimensional analysis of social capital in supply chains which considers potentially disparate and contradictory effects which may be apparent when social capital is examined at different levels of analysis and in relation to different modes of governance.


Originality/value
The paper uses in-depth exploratory case research to complement existing survey-based work and contributes to the further conceptualization of relationships between social capital, knowledge exchange and modes of governance in supply chains.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to adopt the dynamic capability (DC) view as a theoretical framework to empirically investigate the relationships among human resource (HR)-related quality management (QM) practices: new product development (NPD) as a specific DC, learning orientation, knowledge integration, and strategic flexibility. Learning orientation and knowledge integration represent two antecedents of strategic flexibility, and strategic flexibility is the developed ability that facilitates NPD.Design/methodology/approachTo empirically test the relationships, the authors used data from 236 European firms and performed structural equation modeling.FindingsResults indicate that HR-related QM practices contribute to creating a learning-oriented company, integrating knowledge, and supporting successful NPD. Furthermore, knowledge integration is positively related to NPD through strategic flexibility.Practical implicationsThis study is relevant for practitioners because it identifies key points in QM implementation that enable firms to be more strategically flexible and thus better able to regularly develop new products.Originality/valueWhen organizations must sustain their competitive positions by continuously adapting to environmental changes, it is important to study not only how QM implementation is positively related to the firm performance on which a significant portion of the QM literature has focused but also to study whether QM implementation is related to strategic variables and can make a contribution to strategic processes. To fill the void in the HR and QM literature, this study offers an integrated framework with empirical support that identifies the role of HR-related QM practices in learning orientation, knowledge integration, strategic flexibility, and NPD.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how inter-organizational learning (including supply chain learning and imitation prevention) mediates the relationships between supply chain integration (SCI) and two dimensions of focal firm performance (i.e. customer service performance and innovation performance).Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional approach was adopted with primary data collected through a survey in China. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling with partial least-squares estimations.FindingsThe findings verify that inter-organizational learning mediates the relationship between SCI and focal firm performance. The results of sub-group model analysis illustrate that both powerful and weak focal firms benefit from inter-organizational learning, but in different ways.Research limitations/implicationsThe responses were all from young executives who had four years' work experience on average. Top-level executives may provide more comprehensive and accurate input for similar future research.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that successfully integrating the supply chain to create customer value requires both supply chain learning and imitation prevention.Originality/valueThis paper responds to calls for an inter-disciplinary research between supply chain management and inter-organizational learning by taking into account supply chain learning and imitation prevention as links between SCI and both customer service performance for current success and innovation performance for future prosperity.

PurposeHealthcare networks are becoming ubiquitous, yet it is unclear how hospitals with varying quality capabilities would fare by being affiliated with large healthcare networks. The purpose of this paper is to first consider the deductive configuration perspective and distinguish high and low quality hospitals by using clinical and experiential quality as two dimensions of quality capability. Next, it examines the impact of healthcare network size on operating costs of hospitals. Additionally, the paper investigates the interaction effect of hospital demand and healthcare network size on operating costs.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a dataset that was created by combining five separate sources. Cluster analysis technique is used to classify hospitals into four groups – holistic quality leaders (high clinical and experiential quality capability), experiential quality focusers (low clinical quality capability and high experiential quality capability), clinical quality focusers (high clinical capability and low experiential quality capability), and quality laggards (low clinical and experiential quality capability). The authors test the research hypotheses by means of regression analyses after controlling for several contextual characteristics.FindingsThe results show that affiliation with large healthcare networks reduces operating costs for quality laggards, but increases these costs for experiential quality focusers and clinical quality focusers. The hypothesized positive relationship between healthcare network size and costs is not supported for holistic quality leaders. The authors find that clinical quality focusers and holistic quality leaders can complement higher utilization levels in their operations due to increased demand and healthcare network size to reduce their operating costs per day.Originality/valueThere has been increasing evidence suggesting that hospitals must carefully manage both clinical and experiential quality. By focusing on both clinical and experiential quality, unlike experiential quality focusers and clinical quality focusers, holistic quality leaders are not adversely affected by the size of their network. The results suggest that experiential quality focusers and clinical quality focusers should either embrace holistic quality management or restrict the size of their networks to maintain their quality level and to reduce coordination costs.

PurposeThe rising need to innovate and obtain knowledge from more distant knowledge sources calls for new innovation strategies and a better integration of other external actors who lie outside the traditional automotive supply chain. Such an open innovation strategy challenges organizational boundaries both on the firm and supply chain level, yet our understanding of the functioning of such boundaries and how they can be managed to allow for purposive knowledge flows is limited. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachIn a longitudinal case study, the authors trace the development of the first open innovation network in the German automotive industry over a period of five years based on archival data, semi-structured interviews, and field observations.FindingsWhile the automotive industry is advanced in collaborating with suppliers for innovation, routines for assessing and integrating ideas from sources outside the supply chain are still underdeveloped. The authors show which current knowledge boundaries pose obstacles for open innovation initiatives in this industry, and how they could be mediated through the involvement of gatekeepers.Originality/valueThe authors challenge and clarify the notion of the "permeability of organizational boundaries" in the open innovation literature and investigate the role of gatekeepers for open innovation.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify areas and issues for management to consider in balancing specialization and commonalization in large manufacturing corporations with multiple brands from a strategic R&D and manufacturing point of view.


Design/methodology/approach
Three global manufacturing corporations from the automotive sector are used as a strategic sample composing three sequential clinical research projects. The data come from complementary data-gathering methods combining documents and interviews and workshops with top executives, project leaders, platform managers and product brand managers, thus enabling triangulation.


Findings
The study shows that managing manufacturing corporations with multiple brands is not just on a scale between full specialization and full commonalization but instead has its own logic of categorizations and portfolio formations. In order to develop the value of the brand portfolio, management must simultaneously embrace and address a number of highly integrated corporate values and highly differentiated brand company values.


Research limitations/implications
This study contributes primarily by relating economy of scale in relation to the need for differentiation of products and brands that have different values, customers and market positions. A model for balancing commonalization and specialization provides several opportunities for further research and development; however, generalizations are issue and context specific.


Practical implications
The critical issues in balancing how to deal with specialization and commonalization in a company with multiple brands are explored and summarized in a framework for the practitioner to use in analyzing a real situation.


Originality/value
Previous literature focuses on the maximization of synergies within one brand, missing the specific dynamics of large manufacturing corporations with many entities, such as individual products and brands. This paper adds knowledge regarding how to balance synergies from commonalization with important objectives to preserve the specialization and distinctiveness of each product brand.

Purpose
There is a view that strong preventative contracts are essential to control supplier opportunism and delivery during an outsourcing implementation. The purpose of this paper is to test the proposition that contractual project environments, typical of outsourcing engagements, are essentially conflictual and that context and circumstance can act to overwhelm formal contractual and project control and lead to poor outcomes.


Design/methodology/approach
The paper reports on a supply case study focussed on the outsourced delivery of an application development in the defence sector. Data were gathered by a participant observation in situ for a period of three years. A grounded analysis from observations, diaries, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, documentary analysis, and e-mails was carried out with six case organisations within the extended supply chain.


Findings
Collaboration between suppliers and buyers can be blocked by preventative fixed price contracts and as a result when requirements are incomplete or vague this adversely impacts success.


Practical implications
Strong contractual control focussed on compliance may actually impede the potential success of outsourcing contracts especially when collaborative approaches are needed to cope with variability in demand.


Originality/value
The research raises the important practical and conceptual notion that an outsourcing can be a conflictual inter-firm phenomenon especially where multiple actors are involved and business uncertainty is present.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine when and how organizations create agility, adaptability, and alignment as distinct supply chain properties to gain sustainable competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approachThe current study utilizes the resource-based view (RBV) under the moderating effect of top management commitment (TMC). To test the research hypotheses, the authors gathered 351 usable responses using a pre-tested questionnaire.FindingsThe statistical analyses suggest that information sharing and supply chain connectivity resources influence supply chain visibility capability, which, under the moderating effect of TMC, enhance supply chain agility, adaptability, and alignment (SCAAA).Originality/valueThe contribution lies in: providing a holistic study of the antecedents of agility, adaptability, and alignment; investigating the moderating role of TMC on SCAAA; following the RBV and addressing calls for investigating the role of resources in supply chain management, and for empirical studies with implications for supply chain design.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on Lean Six Sigma (LSS) for services, construct a morphological analysis (MA) framework and identify research gaps to point to future research possibilities and priorities.Design/methodology/approachThe MA framework is based on literature review of 175 papers published from 2003 to 2015, across 67 journals recognised by Scopus or ABS Academic Journal Quality Guide 2015. A three-phased methodology is used by the authors, with Phase1 featuring a five-stage systematic review protocol to identify relevant journal papers for review; Phase2 presenting a framework for classifying the reviewed papers in terms of their fundamental, methodological, chronological and sector-wise orientations; and Phase3 constructing an MA framework on the classified papers and identifying the research gaps.FindingsThe MA framework constructed based on six dimensions, namely, organizational context of applications, desired outcomes, implementation systems, LSS tools and techniques, integration with other management philosophies and evaluation methods, involving 40 focused themes, has revealed 355 distinct research gaps as opportunities for future research.Practical implicationsThis paper confirms the existence of substantial scope and points to specific topics for further research in the area of LSS for services. The findings demonstrate the gaps in academic research on the subject. In addition, the study also helps organisational leaders and practitioners to look at LSS from a holistic perspective in the services context.Originality/valueThe MA framework of the existing literature on LSS for services presents a unique, systematic effort to identify research opportunities. In addition, a five-stage systematic review protocol is proposed in this paper. This could be valuable to researchers and practitioners in enabling them to systematically review the literature on research subjects of interest to them.

Purpose
Despite the widespread organisational adoption of e-procurement systems, we continue to witness disappointing performance outcomes from their implementation. This can be explained largely by the failure of many organisations to translate the initial adoption decision, made at an organisational level, into individual-level acceptance of e-procurement by an organisation's employees. The purpose of this paper is to examine the key antecedents of the technology acceptance model (TAM) for employees expected to use e-procurement systems in their day-to-day activities.


Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors apply and extend the TAM to examine the factors that influence the acceptance of e-procurement by individual employees. The authors' focus is on the potential role of user-perceived e-procurement quality dimensions as the antecedents to the TAM's cognitive mechanisms of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The structural equation model uses the survey data collected from 139 e-procurement users at a university in the Netherlands.


Findings
The results confirm the core TAM relationships within an e-procurement context. Extending the TAM model to explore the antecedents, the authors find that the e-procurement quality dimensions of processing, usability, and professionalism impact the levels of individual employee e-procurement acceptance. Interestingly, the system-level dimensions (processing and usability) appear to play a greater role than the support dimensions (professionalism) in these cognitive mechanisms.


Practical implications
The findings indicate that the need for e-procurement training and on-going support may be lessened by initial effective design covering system navigation and system usability and by ensuring that an e-procurement system has expedient information and product flows between the buyer and supplier.


Originality/value
To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to explore the TAM and, more critically, its antecedents within an e-procurement context. It is also the first to empirically validate this extended model. Finally, by shifting the focus from the more typical organisational-level adoption to an individual employee acceptance unit of analysis, the authors provide a better understanding of how organisations can gain the most from investments in e-procurement and other similar e-supply chain management technologies.

Purpose
Research suggests that to structure for servitization, organizations should separate their front- and back-end units by reference to high vs low contact activities. However, these prescriptions are overly simplistic and largely based on anecdotal evidence that fails to account for context. The purpose of this paper is to explore the design decisions taken by organizations in support of servitization.


Design/methodology/approach
A large-scale exploratory case study was conducted, consisting of embedded cases in three divisions of a UK-based, global manufacturing firm.


Findings
Each division provided different combinations of offerings (i.e. product-, use- and result-oriented). The findings suggest that front-end/back-end configurations differ according to the offering and can exist concurrently within the same organization, challenging the assumption that different configurations within an organization are not possible. The findings show that underlying contextual factors, such as the complexity and temporality of the offering, as well as the power of the customer, have implications for the structuring of servitizing organizations.


Research limitations/implications
This is a context-specific, qualitative case study conducted within a large original equipment manufacturer, yet the findings are analytically generalized.


Originality/value
In identifying the relevance of different design decisions in terms of customer contact, decoupling of activities and grouping of employees, the findings challenge the extant view that organizations simply split activities between the front- and back-end functions. The research identifies an additional design configuration – integrated project teams – involving a dominant customer dictating organizational interfaces. This research exposes the need for further investigation into how to organize for servitization in project-based contexts.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose and validate a theoretical model to investigate whether supply chain (SC) innovation positively affects risk management capabilities, such as robustness and resilience in global SC operations, and to examine how these capabilities may improve competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approachA theoretical model was developed from extant studies and assessed through the development of a large-scale questionnaire survey conducted with South Korean manufacturers and logistics intermediaries involved in global SC operations. The data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling to validate the suggested model.FindingsIt was found that innovative SCs have a discernible positive influence on all dimensions of risk management capability, which in turn has a significant impact on enhancing competitive advantage. Therefore, this work provides evidence for the importance of SC innovation and risk management capability in supporting competitive advantage.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to providing an empirical understanding of the strategic retention of SC innovation and risk management capabilities in the SC management discipline. Furthermore, it confirms and expands existing theories about innovation and competitive advantage.Practical implicationsThe finding provides firm grounds for managerial decisions on investment in technology innovation and process innovation.Originality/valueThis research is the first of its kind to empirically validate the relationships between SC innovation, risk management capabilities and competitive advantage.