Lack Of Operation Research Articles

Exploring the relationships between digital transformation, organizational slack and business performance: a configurational approach

PurposeThe survival of companies today hinges on their adaptability and flexibility, with digital transformation (DT) and organizational slack (OS) playing crucial roles. Despite their recognized importance, these factors are often studied separately. This study aims to explore how OS facilitates DT and evaluate their synergies and trade-offs to improve performance.Design/methodology/approachUsing data from the European Manufacturing Survey, structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), we investigate causal relationships and possible combinations between different dimensions of OS and DT that contribute to business performance.FindingsWe confirmed the positive effect of OS and DT on business performance, highlighting the importance of organizational over technological factors. While not definitively establishing OS as a precursor to DT, our findings underscore the need for human and operational slack to improve performance, especially in less technology-intensive contexts.Research limitations/implicationsOur findings evidence that decision-makers should integrate OS with DT initiatives to improve the firm’s competitiveness. However, it is worth noting that while OS seems essential in low-tech shopfloors, its importance is lower in high-tech environments. Furthermore, within the possible combinations, managers should promote operational slack and digitalization, as it seems fundamental to improve business performance.Originality/valueThis article contributes to the management field in three ways. First, it clarifies controversies by providing evidence of the positive roles of DT and OS as drivers of competitiveness for manufacturing firms. Second, we verify that OS is not directly linked to DT, challenging existing assumptions. Third, it investigates the combinations of OS and DT that drive business performance improvement, emphasizing their synergies and trade-offs.

The impact of China certified emission reduction market resumption on manufacturers' stock market valuations: The role of OSCM factors

The research investigates how the resumption of the China certified emission reduction (CCER) market affects Chinese manufacturers' stock market valuations from an operations and supply chain management (OSCM) perspective. The paper draws from a resource-based view to examine the moderating effects of supply chain concentration (SCC), operational slack, and operational efficiency (OE) on the relationship between the CCER market and manufacturers’ stock market valuations. This paper employs the event study method to examine market responses to CCER. The results reveal that the resumption of the CCER market significantly enhances the market valuations of high-pollution manufacturers to a greater extent than those of manufacturers with lower pollution levels. Additionally, the research findings indicate that SCC and operational slack attenuate the positive effect of CCER market resumption while OE amplifies it. This paper contributes to the OSCM literature by urging businesses to focus on the roles of SCC, operational slack, and OE in the CCER framework to harness the advantages of the CCER system better.

Does supplier concentration impede firms’ digital innovation? A resource dependence perspective

The advent of the digital economy has ushered in a new era of digital innovation. Given that dependence on key suppliers significantly affects focal firms' behavior and decision-making, it still remains unclear whether concentrated suppliers impede or facilitate focal firms' digital innovation. Drawing upon resource dependence theory, this study aims to explore how supplier concentration influences focal firms' digital innovation. Furthermore, since internal resources can alter the dependency between focal firms and suppliers, this study introduces the tangible resources represented by slack resource and intangible resources represented by human capital as mechanisms to mitigate firms’ dependence on key suppliers. Using a dataset of 2,347 unique Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2008 to 2020, we empirically reveal a negative impact of supplier concentration on digital innovation. Further, we discover that operational slack, technical experience in top management teams (TMTs), and employee education background mitigate the negative influence of supplier concentration on digital innovation. Surprisingly, the direct moderating role of financial slack is not significant, but the additional analysis indicates that the moderating effect of operational slack is strengthened in firms with high financial slack. Robustness tests reaffirm these findings. This study extends the growing digital innovation literature and provides actionable insights for firms to effectively leverage their resources to pursue digital innovation in situations of high supplier concentration.

Tips and tricks for a correct interpretation of contrast-enhanced ultrasound.

Although contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is a widespread and easily manageable technique, image interpretation errors can occur due to the operator's inexperience and/or lack of knowledge of the frequent pitfalls, which may cause uncertain diagnosis and misdiagnosis. Indeed, knowledge of the basic physical and technical principles of ultrasound is needed both to understand sonographic image findings and to evaluate the potential and limits of the method. Like the B-mode ultrasound, the quality of the CEUS examination is also subject not only to the adequate manual skill of the operator but also to his/her deep knowledge of the technique which improves the quality of the image helping avoid misleading artifacts. In this review, the main parameters influencing a CEUS examination will be described by taking into account the most common errors and pitfalls and their possible solutions.

기업의 여유 운영 자원과 ESG 성과 간의 관계

This study aims to investigate operational management determinants for ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance) management. Market expectations for companies now include not just financial responsibility but also environmental, social, and governance responsibilities, impacting investor and customer preferences. Thus, firms are increasingly investing effort into ESG activities for sustainable management. However, additional performance management regarding ESG activities may burden companies beyond traditional measures like productivity and profit. From this perspective, the study aims to show how firms’ operational slack resources in capacity and supply chain affects ESG performance indicators from 2011 to 2021 using the panel regression method. Based on our results, we can suggest that firms with surplus capacity resources tend to achieve better ESG performance as they can accommodate additional tasks. Conversely, a surplus cash conversion cycle in the supply chain, indicating liquidity for ESG activities, may hinder ESG performance. Overall, companies with capacity slack resources and faster cash conversion cycles generally have the capability to invest in ESG initiatives, highlighting the importance of resource management in sustainable business practices.

Does supply chain concentration improve sustainability performance: the role of operational slack and information transparency

PurposeDespite the increasing interest in the role of supply chain concentration (SCC) in improving performance, its influence on firms' sustainability performance remains unexplored, as do the underlying mechanisms of this relationship. Drawing on resource dependence theory, the authors investigate the relationship between SCC and manufacturing firms' sustainability performance and the moderating roles of operational slack and information transparency.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use secondary data from 3,581 manufacturing firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share stock markets from 2006 to 2020 to conduct an empirical analysis using panel data regression models.FindingsManufacturing firms' SCC is negatively related to sustainability performance until it reaches a certain point, where SCC positively affects sustainability performance, presenting a U-shaped relationship. In addition, operational slack represented by a quick ratio moderates the relationship between SCC and sustainability performance by flattening the curve. Operational slack represented by receivable turnover ratio moderates the relationship between SCC and sustainability performance by steepening the curve and shifting the turning point left. Information transparency strengthens the effect of SCC on the sustainability performance by steepening the curve.Originality/valueThis investigation provides a comprehensive view of the SCC– sustainability performance relationship.

МАТЕМАТИЧНА МОДЕЛЬ ПРОГНОЗУ ЗНАЧЕНЬ ОСНОВНИХ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИК МОРЕХІДНОГО СТАНУ ТАНКЕРА ПІСЛЯ ЗАВАНТАЖЕННЯ

Transportation of oil cargoes by the world tanker fleet takes place in various climatic zones with significant fluctuations in ambient temperature. When the temperature of the oil cargo increases, its volume will increase, which may lead to increasing the risks of the cargo spilling onto the ship's deck. International conventions and codes that regulate the transportation of crude oil and petroleum products allow the use of only 98% of the cargo capacity of the tanker, the remaining 2% is called the safety factor, i.e. the margin of volume for the unforeseen expansion of the cargo when sailing in different climatic zones. From the other hand, the intensity of cargo operations during the transportation of various types of cargo, including oil cargo, has led to an increase in the role of the "human factor" in ship’s energetic system. Reducing the number of ship crews leads to the accumulation of fatigue, distraction of the attention of ship operators (masters) in the process of increasing the intensity of carrying out cargo operations on the ship. A significant share of tanker fleet accidents occurs as a result of loss of control over the volume of bulk cargo that is accepted in each tank of the vessel. The operator's lack of accurate information about the state of each tank’s filling at the current moment of time leads to the risk of overflowing of a separate tank, which, in turn, can cause the spillage of bulk cargo, for example, petroleum products on the ship's deck and on the water surface of the port's water area. The relevance of these problems determines the direction of this research. For constant dynamic monitoring of the tanker parameters’ conformity during loading operations, considering parameters that maximally satisfy the requirements of maritime safety and taking into account all restrictions, such as the maximum permissible volumes of oil cargo in tanks, the current study proposes to use a mathematical model and create a system for automatic control of tanker loading. Keywords: oil cargo, tanker, level gauges, safety factor, loading control, mathematical model.

Combating extreme weather through operations management: Evidence from a natural experiment in China

In recent years, frequent extreme weather events have had serious impacts on firms' operations and supply chain management. More and more firms are taking extreme weather into consideration in their formulation of strategies and are striving to employ a range of measures to mitigate the adversity caused by extreme weather. Many of prior extreme weather-related studies focus on its socioeconomic or financial impacts in developed countries. In the operations management field, while researchers have long investigated various climate change-related issues, limited efforts have been specifically devoted to extreme weather’s operational performance implications, and it remains unclear whether operational resources or strategies employed in the firm-specific endogenous glitches or disruptions can be successfully scaled to such exogenous extreme conditions. Employing the staggered difference-in-differences approach and analyzing a large-scale panel dataset of Chinese listed firms, we find that there is a significant negative relationship between extreme weather and firms' operational performance in terms of labor productivity. Further analysis shows that firms with high levels of operational slack, digital technology deployment, and cash hedging are less significantly affected by extreme weather. Our findings remain consistent across various robustness checks including parallel trend analysis, alternative measures, Mahalanobis distance matching approach, placebo test, and adjustment of estimation window. These findings contribute to the extreme weather and disaster management literature in several ways and have significant practical implications for firms.

How supplier concentration impacts a buyer firm's R&D intensity: testing a mediation and moderation model

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how supplier concentration influences a buyer firm's R&D intensity. This study proposes a mediation and moderation model to test this relationship in the Chinese household appliance industry. Specifically, this study tests the mediation effect of operational slack on the relationship between supplier concentration and R&D intensity and the moderation effect of financial constraints on this relationship.Design/methodology/approachDrawing upon real options theory and resource dependence theory, the proposed relationships are tested with the Chinese household appliance market using financial data from listed companies over a ten-year span from 2012 to 2021. Fixed effects (within-group) panel regression models are used to test the hypotheses. In addition, the authors use the bias-corrected bootstrap method to test the mediation effect.FindingsThe authors find that supplier concentration negatively affects a buyer firm's R&D intensity and that internal operational slack mediates this relationship. Interestingly, financial constraints from the external financing organization weaken the negative relationship between the buyer firm's supplier concentration and R&D intensity.Originality/valueBased on the argument of real options theory and resource dependence theory, this study provides novel insights into the issue of how concentration on several major suppliers may reduce buyer firms' R&D intensity. First, this study introduces operational slack as a form of internal uncertainty that mediates the supplier concentration–R&D intensity relationship. Second, this study suggests that the effect of supplier concentration on R&D intensity is contingent upon firms' financial constraints from external financial organizations, disclosing a synergetic interactive effect of supplier concentration and financial constraints on firms' R&D activities. Third, this study is conducted in the unique institutional context of China, providing meaningful insights into the relationship between supplier concentration and R&D intensity.

Building responsive and resilient supply chains: Lessons from the COVID‐19 disruption

Building responsive and resilient supply chains: Lessons from the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 disruption

Organizational slack, entrepreneurial orientation, and corporate political activity: From the behavioral theory of the firm

As a popular non-market strategy, corporate political activity (CPA) benefits a firm’s risk management and competitive advantage. However, the mechanism of promoting firms to engage in corporate political activity remains obscure. Based on the behavioral theory of the firm, this research develops a mediation model containing organization slack, entrepreneurial orientation, and corporate political activity to investigate the prediction effect of different types of slack, as well as the mediation effect of different dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation. Based on the multiple informant data from 303 firms in China, this research conducted ordinary least-squares estimation with SPSS and post hoc analysis with PROCESS. The results support the main and key hypotheses. First, entrepreneurial orientation plays a mediation effect between slack and corporate political activity. Second, financial slack provides stronger support to develop certain capabilities than operational slack. Third, two sub-dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation play heterogeneous mediation effects according to their different emphasis. Managerial attitude also mediates the effect of entrepreneurial behavior effect toward CPA. This research enriches the antecedent research of CPA, deepens our understanding of the CPA engagement mechanism, and extends the behavioral theory of the firm.

The impact of corporate social responsibility decoupling on financial performance: the role of customer structure and operational slack

PurposeCorporate social responsibility (CSR) decoupling indicates a misalignment between how firms report CSR and what firms actually practice with respect to CSR. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between CSR decoupling and financial performance and the factors affecting this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThis paper collects and combines secondary panel data from multiple sources of Chinese listed firms from 2008 to 2020 to test the direct impact of CSR decoupling on firms’ financial performance and the moderating role of customer structure and operational slack.FindingsThis paper finds that CSR decoupling is negatively associated with firms’ financial performance. These findings further suggest that the negative relationship can be suppressed by customer stability and operational slack, but amplified by customer concentration. These conclusions remain robust to alternate measures of independent and dependent variables and narrower samples.Originality/valueIn the literature, the effect of CSR on firms’ financial performance is inconclusive. This is the first study to examine the impact of CSR decoupling on firms’ financial performance and the factors affecting this relationship. This paper contributes to the CSR decoupling literature from an operations and supply chain management perspective.

A ANALISIS DEFECT PADA PROSES PEMBUATAN KAYU LAPIS DENGAN METODE STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL (SPC) DAN ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS (RCA)

As a society, we need good products, both producers who sell and consumers who buy want their products to be of the expected quality. Conversely, if the quality of the product is not good, it will harm many parties and the bad impact received will not be small. That's why consumer satisfaction is very influential for the company, where consumers can make an assessment and grow confidence in a product that is produced especially plywood products. This study aims to determine the type of defect and its control using the Statistical Process Control (SPC) method. Statistical process control is a decision-making method for monitoring, controlling, analyzing, managing, and improving products and processes using statistical methods with the aid of histograms, Pareto charts, control charts, and fishbone diagrams. Based on the Pareto diagram, the most common product defects are over-sanding defects with a percentage of 46%, followed by under-size defects at 29.6%, and delamination at 24.4%. The main cause of defects in plywood products is the human factor because the operator is new to machine understanding and lacks training, the machine factor is caused by too many targets and a lack of human resources, and the method factor is due to the operator's lack of knowledge about sandpaper

Robust-stable scheduling in dynamic flow shops based on deep reinforcement learning

AbstractThis proof-of-concept study provides a novel method for robust-stable scheduling in dynamic flow shops based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) implemented with OpenAI frameworks. In realistic manufacturing environments, dynamic events endanger baseline schedules, which can require a cost intensive re-scheduling. Extensive research has been done on methods for generating proactive baseline schedules to absorb uncertainties in advance and in balancing the competing metrics of robustness and stability. Recent studies presented exact methods and heuristics based on Monte Carlo experiments (MCE), both of which are very computationally intensive. Furthermore, approaches based on surrogate measures were proposed, which do not explicitly consider uncertainties and robustness metrics. Surprisingly, DRL has not yet been scientifically investigated for generating robust-stable schedules in the proactive stage of production planning. The contribution of this article is a proposal on how DRL can be applied to manipulate operation slack times by stretching or compressing plan durations. The method is demonstrated using different flow shop instances with uncertain processing times, stochastic machine failures and uncertain repair times. Through a computational study, we found that DRL agents achieve about 98% result quality but only take about 2% of the time compared to traditional metaheuristics. This is a promising advantage for the use in real-time environments and supports the idea of improving proactive scheduling methods with machine learning based techniques.

СИСТЕМА АВТОМАТИЗОВАНОГО КОНТРОЛЮ ВАНТАЖНИХ ОПЕРАЦІЙ ТАНКЕРА

Liquid cargo is transported by the tanker fleet in different climatic zones. Significant changes in ambient temperature are observed in these zones. At elevated temperatures, the volume of liquid cargo will increase. Consequently, there is a risk of spillage of the cargo onto the ship's deck. The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL 73/78) and the International Safety Guide for Oil Tankers and Terminals (ISGOTT) regulate the filling of tanks when transporting liquid cargo. It is allowed to use only 98% of the volume of tanks, the remaining 2% is a reserve of tank volume for an unforeseen increase in the volume of the cargo when its temperature rises. The sender of the cargo must provide the tanker captain with complete information about the cargo and its properties. After receiving it, download operations can begin. The intensity of cargo operations when the tanker is loaded with various types of liquid cargo has led to an increase in the role of the "human factor" in ship power systems. Reducing the number of ship crews, in turn, contributes to the accumulation of fatigue, distraction of ship operators (masters) in the process of carrying out cargo operations on the ship. Watch assistants must constantly monitor the filling level of each tank, taking into account the weight, temperature and volume of the cargo. Statistics state that a significant proportion of accidents when loading a tanker occur as a result of loss of control over the volume of liquid cargo that is taken into each tank of the vessel. The operator's lack of accurate information about the filling status of each tank at the current moment in time leads to the risk of its overflow. Such an overflow, in turn, can lead to the spillage of liquid cargo, for example, petroleum products on the ship's deck and the water surface of the port's water area. At present, it is possible to monitor the level of liquid cargo in real-time using various models of liquid cargo level gauges: float, pneumatic, ultrasonic, magnetostrictive, microwave, and others. Creating a system that would allow for constant dynamic control of the volume of liquid cargo in tanks during tanker loading and would take into account all restrictions is a promising direction. Keywords: liquid cargo, tanker, level gauges, safety margin, loading control.

The impact of governmental COVID‐19 measures on manufacturers' stock market valuations: The role of labor intensity and operational slack

This study investigates the impact of the Chinese government's Level I emergency response policy on manufacturers' stock market values. We empirically examine the roles of human resource dependence (labor intensity) and operational slack within the context of supply chain resilience. Through an event study of 1357 Chinese manufacturing companies, we find that the government's emergency response policy triggered statistically significant positive abnormal returns for manufacturers. However, we also find that there exists a negative impact on abnormal returns for manufacturers that are labor‐intensive, giving rise to arguments based in resource dependence theory. In addition, the results indicate the positive role played by operational slack (e.g., financial and inventory slack) in helping manufacturers maintain operations and business continuity, effectively mitigating risks and adding to the manufacturers' resilience. With these findings, we contribute to operations and supply chain management by calling attention to the importance of human resource redundancy while at the same time identifying financial slack and inventory as supply chain resilience strategies that were able to mitigate pandemic‐related risks.

The impact of foreign competition on domestic firms' product quality: Evidence from a quasi‐natural experiment in the United States

AbstractResearchers have investigated various factors that explain the variation in product quality across firms, but little is known about how competition from companies located in other countries may affect domestic firms' product quality. Although such foreign competition has received much attention from news media and the public, especially during the recent United States (US)–China trade war, its impact on product quality is still unclear. Our research answers this important question by conducting a quasi‐natural experiment in the US, in which significant reductions in import tariff rates represent an exogenous increase in foreign competition for US firms. Performing a difference‐in‐differences estimation of the difference in product quality changes between treatment and control firms, our research shows that increased foreign competition has a negative impact on the product quality of the US firms concerned. However, such a negative impact is less significant for firms with high levels of operational slack and R&amp;D intensity. Firms pursuing product differentiation rather than cost leadership strategies are also less affected by foreign competition. Overall, our research demonstrates foreign competition's negative impact on product quality and highlights the crucial role that firms' operational resources and strategies play in mitigating the negative impact.

Penerapan Sistem Manajemen Informasi BAZNAS (SIMBA) Pada Badan Amil Zakat Nasional Kabupaten Tanah Datar

The purpose of this study was to determine the implementation of the Baznas Information Management System (SIMBA) at the National Amil Zakat Agency of Tanah Datar Regency. This study uses a qualitative descriptive analysis method by conducting observations and interviews. The role of Zakat Management Organizations (OPZ) is very important in optimizing the large zakat potential in Indonesia. A system built and developed for data and information storage purposes owned by BAZNAS nationally is the BAZNAS Information Management System (SIMBA). SIMBA is also equipped with a reporting printing feature which includes 88 different types of sub reports which are classified into 33 types of reports in 5 major groups. Being web-based, this system is centralized at the center so that it can be used by all zakat agencies or institutions throughout the archipelago without having to go through a complicated installation process. SIMBA also facilitates the presentation of financial reports of all zakat management activities which are summarized and presented in the Balance Sheet and other activity reports that are transparent and accountable to stakeholders and the government as a form of accountability for BAZNAS which has referred to PSAK 109. The results showed that BAZNAS Tanah District Datar has started implementing PSAK 109 through SIMBA since 2016 and has only been maximal in 2018. In its implementation, the obstacle faced by SIMBA operators is the operator's lack of understanding of zakat accounting.

Operational slack, service disruptions, and service quality: Empirical evidence from the US airline industry

The competitive strategy of U.S. airlines has been characterized as either cost-focused, like Southwest Airlines, or full-service (legacy), such as United Airlines. This study investigates the impact of each strategy on customers’ expectations and their inclination to file a complaint when flights are canceled. It also explores whether slack resources would moderate the number of flight cancellations and thus reduce the number of customer complaints. At the same time, the study examines the degree to which moderation would be different for the two prevailing strategies. By combining the perspectives of multiple research streams from the strategic management and service operations literature, the study argues and empirically shows why airlines with a cost-focused strategy have an inherent advantage in receiving fewer customer complaints when flights are canceled. Confirming the theoretical expectations, the results also support the role of slack resources in mitigating the impact of service failure—in the form of flight cancellations—on passengers’ perceived service quality. Finally, a noteworthy finding is that the moderating role of slack resources in reducing customer complaints when flights are canceled is quadratic in nature, with different inflection points for the two competitive strategies. We also examine the robustness of our result using a machine learning technique.

Surprising supply chain disruptions: Mitigation effects of operational slack and supply redundancy

The growing literature on supply chain disruptions has demonstrated how the detrimental consequences following their occurrence differ based on the scope of their severity. However, much less is known about the effects of disruptions due to the element of surprise experienced by firms. We draw on literature in operations management, systems engineering, and financial risk management to explain the effects of a firm's exposure to surprising disruptions. We present a conceptual framework that combines perspectives from System Reliability Theory and Modern Portfolio Theory to address the performance implications of exposure to sudden-onset (surprising) disruptions and explains the role of operational slack and supply redundancy in mitigating their effects. We test our proposed framework by using data from a cross-section of 195 manufacturing firms. Results suggest that exposure to minor supply chain surprises carries a direct negative effect on performance. More interestingly, operational slack and supply redundancy are found to moderate the relationships between exposure to major supply chain surprises and firm performance in notably different ways. Through customer satisfaction, these effects are related to firm financial performance (ROA and ROE). Our findings provide theoretical and managerial insights on the significance of minor and major surprises and firm investments in redundancy to manage them.