Suppliers In Supply Chain Research Articles

Evaluating barriers and solutions for social sustainability adoption in multi-tier supply chains

ABSTRACT Multi-tier sustainable supply chain management (MT-SSCM) is increasingly attracting a great deal of interest in academia and practice. However, attention to social sustainability has been relatively limited, and the initiatives of implementing social sustainability, especially in low-tier suppliers in supply chains, are facing enormous barriers and obstacles. The central aim of this paper is to investigate the obstacles that hinder the adoption of social sustainability in the multi-tier supply chain (MT-SC) and prioritise the most effective solutions to promote the adoption of this critical concept. Therefore, we based an extensive literature review on identifying the most relevant barriers and solutions to social sustainability adoption in MT-SC. Moreover, we propose a hybrid and multi-context methodology based on hesitant fuzzy sets (HFS), cumulative prospect theory (CPT) along with VIKOR to identify the most prominent barriers and solutions for three supply-chain sectors, i.e. chemical, agri-food, and textile. The results indicate that solutions to social sustainability in MT-SC are sensitive to the supply chain sector. However, there is a general trend toward adopting emerging technologies and openness and transparency-based relationships with the external environment. Managers could use these results to redirect their strategies to promote social sustainability, particularly in low-tier suppliers in under-developed countries.

Optimization of Multi-Criteria Decision Making Analysis for Selection of Suppliers in Supply Chains Using Fuzzy Logic

In today’s business environment, suppliers play key roles in making business strategies successful. Since quality, price, and on-time delivery of the products depend on the supplier’s ability to support the business strategies, choice of the correct providers assumes a key part in any association since it altogether decreases the unit costs and improves corporate value intensity. Supplier selection endures generally a multi-models dynamic issue which incorporates both subjective and quantitative variables. The main objective of this work proposes coordinating the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy set hypothesis to create assessment models to decide the best suppliers. The project reported here has attempted to integrate and Fuzzy set theory to determine best suppliers. The Fuzzy set hypothesis situated to the sanity of exposure because of imprecision or dubiousness. The Fuzzy set uses semantic elements to sort out rules and sub-rules weight, with a pair wise examination with the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The fuzzy AHP choice technique, which decides the loads of emotional judgment for logical assessment structure of the provide determination issue. At long last, a provider choice issue was explained utilizing the suggested model in an industrial cleaning machines manufacturing company.

Joint Innovation Investment and Pricing Decisions in Retail Supply Chains with Customer Value

In the retail industry, customer value has become the key to maintaining competitive advantages. In the era of new retail, customer value is not only affected by the product price, but it is also closely related to innovations, such as value-added services and unique business models. In this paper, we study the joint innovation investment and pricing decisions in a retailer–supplier supply chain based on revenue sharing contracts and customer value. We first find that, in the non-cooperative game, equilibrium only exists in the supplier Stackelberg game. However, revenue sharing contracts cannot coordinate the supply chain in the non-cooperative game. By considering supply chain members’ bargaining power, we find that there exists a unique equilibrium for the Nash bargaining product. In addition, revenue sharing contracts can coordinate the supply chain and achieve the optimal consumer surplus. When the supply chain is coordinated, supply chain profit is allocated to the supply chain members based on their bargaining powers.

An Integrated Methodology for Selecting and Evaluating Sustainable Suppliers in Supply Chains

Business companies have highlighted the significance of greening and sustainability in their supply chain via supplier selection as a result of increasing consumer awareness and ecological demands from markets and different stakeholders. As a result, from the viewpoint of an organizational supply chain, a systematic and sustainability-focused assessment methodology for supplier selection is required. This paper offers a framework for evaluating sustainable supplier selection by combining an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) with Vise Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR), a multi-criteria optimization and compromise solution method. Initially, literature and expert views established 22 sustainable supplier selection criteria and three aspects of criteria (economic, environmental, and social). To illustrate the applicability of the suggested framework, a real-world example of an automotive business in India is presented. The top five sustainable supplier selection factors, according to the results, are “Environmental costs“, “Quality of product“, “Price of product“, “Occupational health and safety systems“, and “Environmental competences“. Furthermore, among the five sustainable supplier options, supplier number three received the highest ranking. The research provided in this article may assist managers and business professionals in not only identifying key supplier selection criteria, but also in evaluating the most efficient supplier for supply chain sustainability and market competitiveness. To evaluate the proposed framework’s resilience, a sensitivity analysis is performed.

A loss-averse retailer–supplier supply chain model under trade credit in a supplier-Stackelberg game

At present, the research on relevant decision-making considering the loss risk/ default risk in trade credit is on the rise This paper presents a supply chain model with a risk-averse retailer and a supplier offering loss sharing and trade credit in a supplier-Stackelberg game where the decision variables are the optimal order quantity and loss sharing ratio. The model is analyzed and compared to a newsvendor model without loss sharing and trade credit. Meanwhile, we provide a numerical example and sensitivity analysis to obtain managerial insights. We determine the trend and sensitivity hierarchies between the parameters and the optimal results. The main novelty and contribution of the paper can be demonstrated in two aspects. First, the risk tolerance largely affects the profit of supply chain members, therefore, we incorporate risk-averse parameter into trade credit policy. Second, we incorporate loss sharing into the supplier-Stackelberg game with trade credit for a loss-averse retailer. The findings highlight that for a risk-averse retailer, the supplier can improve the retailer’s utility and its own profits through trade credit and loss sharing.

Perspektivische Auswirkungen der Corona-Pandemie auf die Wirtschaft und die Art des Arbeitens

The Coronavirus crisis has initiated a structural change: The organisation of work has shifted towards the home offi ce. Online trade has recorded high growth rates. Other sectors of the economy, which can make greater use of digitisation and exploit its potential, have also benefi ted. However, German companies are not world leaders in digitization. It is necessary to create the prerequisites for a nationwide digital transformation of companies - also by improving broadband access, for example by facilitating the expansion of fi ber optics. This will determine whether jobs can be successfully relocated from the metropolitan areas to the entire region. In the mechanical engineering sector, the coronavirus crisis has exposed weaknesses in the global value-added system. It has been shown that concentrating on individual suppliers in supply chains leads to problems.

R\xe4umliche Flexibilisierung durch zunehmende Homeoffice-Nutzung

The Coronavirus crisis has initiated a structural change: The organisation of work has shifted towards the home offi ce. Online trade has recorded high growth rates. Other sectors of the economy, which can make greater use of digitisation and exploit its potential, have also benefi ted. However, German companies are not world leaders in digitization. It is necessary to create the prerequisites for a nationwide digital transformation of companies - also by improving broadband access, for example by facilitating the expansion of fi ber optics. This will determine whether jobs can be successfully relocated from the metropolitan areas to the entire region. In the mechanical engineering sector, the coronavirus crisis has exposed weaknesses in the global value-added system. It has been shown that concentrating on individual suppliers in supply chains leads to problems.

Der Einzelhandel in der Corona-Krise

The Coronavirus crisis has initiated a structural change: The organisation of work has shifted towards the home offi ce. Online trade has recorded high growth rates. Other sectors of the economy, which can make greater use of digitisation and exploit its potential, have also benefi ted. However, German companies are not world leaders in digitization. It is necessary to create the prerequisites for a nationwide digital transformation of companies - also by improving broadband access, for example by facilitating the expansion of fi ber optics. This will determine whether jobs can be successfully relocated from the metropolitan areas to the entire region. In the mechanical engineering sector, the coronavirus crisis has exposed weaknesses in the global value-added system. It has been shown that concentrating on individual suppliers in supply chains leads to problems.

Maschinenbau \u2014 Strategische Herausforderungen prae, propter et post Corona

The Coronavirus crisis has initiated a structural change: The organisation of work has shifted towards the home offi ce. Online trade has recorded high growth rates. Other sectors of the economy, which can make greater use of digitisation and exploit its potential, have also benefi ted. However, German companies are not world leaders in digitization. It is necessary to create the prerequisites for a nationwide digital transformation of companies - also by improving broadband access, for example by facilitating the expansion of fi ber optics. This will determine whether jobs can be successfully relocated from the metropolitan areas to the entire region. In the mechanical engineering sector, the coronavirus crisis has exposed weaknesses in the global value-added system. It has been shown that concentrating on individual suppliers in supply chains leads to problems.

Digitalisierung \u2014 der Corona-Impfstoff f\xfcr die Wirtschaft

The Coronavirus crisis has initiated a structural change: The organisation of work has shifted towards the home offi ce. Online trade has recorded high growth rates. Other sectors of the economy, which can make greater use of digitisation and exploit its potential, have also benefi ted. However, German companies are not world leaders in digitization. It is necessary to create the prerequisites for a nationwide digital transformation of companies - also by improving broadband access, for example by facilitating the expansion of fi ber optics. This will determine whether jobs can be successfully relocated from the metropolitan areas to the entire region. In the mechanical engineering sector, the coronavirus crisis has exposed weaknesses in the global value-added system. It has been shown that concentrating on individual suppliers in supply chains leads to problems.

A Coordination Mechanism of Supply Chain with a Retailer and Two Competitive Suppliers

To deal with coordination problem of a supply chain consisting of two competitive suppliers and a dominant retailer, considering these factors such as cooperation effort degrees and competition on the supply chain members, we establish a two-stage model considering cooperation effort degrees and competition of the suppliers from the perspectives of decentralized decision and centralized decision and exploit it to discuss the optional decisions and explore the impact of cooperation effort degrees on the profits of supply chain members. Then, we use a group negotiation model to establish a coordination mechanism. The results reveal that the decision variables and overall profit of the supply chain of suppliers and retailers under centralized decisions are better than those under the decentralized decisions. Besides, the degree of competition and price sensitivity have positive and negative effects on the efforts of suppliers and retailers, respectively. Meanwhile, the degree of cooperation between suppliers and retailers affects the profits of supply chain members and the whole supply chain in different degrees. Finally, the proposed value-added profit distribution mechanism can effectively deal with conflict problem and guarantee supply chain members and supply chain to maximize their profits and adopt the centralized decision.

The performance implication of corporate social responsibility in matched Chinese small and medium-sized buyers and suppliers

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a popular and important strategy for businesses to improve ethical behaviours in order to achieve economic sustainable development. Indeed, many social or environmental incidents that occur in one supply chain member could bring huge risks or disruptions for the entire supply chain. Yet the existent CSR studies rarely take buyers and suppliers into consideration in the examination. On the other hand, the existent literature of CSR is primarily concerned with larger organizations and pays very limited attention to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Thus, this study, viewed from transaction cost economics theory (TCE) and stakeholder theory, examines how buyers' CSR adoption influences suppliers' CSR adoption (i.e. with or without buyers’ proactive efforts) and whether CSR adoption in matched buyers and suppliers can achieve a win-win outcome for both firms in terms of enhancement in financial performance. The posited hypotheses are tested by 154 matched small and medium-sized buyers and suppliers from the Chinese manufacturing sectors. The majority of the hypotheses are supported by our analysis results. This study fills the gap that there is a lack of exploration in the actual value of CSR for firms in a buyer-supplier relationship. Our findings enrich the literature of CSR and operations management by offering empirical insights from a buyer-supplier and SME perspective, and provide managerial guidelines for enterprises, governments and NGOs to promote CSR and related practices to buyers and suppliers in supply chains.

Evaluation and selection of auto spare parts suppliers in supply chain

In order to reduce the cost of automobile manufacturing, it combines with the improved multi-objective analytic hierarchy process (AHP), establishes a supplier evaluation system to make a choice of suppliers. Taking the procurement status of a specific company as an example, the rationality of the choice of parts suppliers is analyzed.

Recommendations from cold starts in big data

This paper examines the challenging problem of new user cold starts in subset labelled and extremely sparsely labelled big data. We introduce a new Isle of Wight Supply Chain (IWSC) dataset demonstrating these characteristics. We also introduce a new technique addressing these challenges, the Transitive Semantic Relationships (TSR) model, which infers potential relationships from user and item text content and few labelled examples. We perform both implicit and explicit evaluation of TSR as a recommender system and from new user cold starts we achieve a hit-rate@10 of 77% on a collection of 630 items with only 376 supply-chain consumer labels, and 67% with only 142 supply-chain supplier labels, demonstrating a high level of performance even with extremely few labels in challenging cold-start scenarios. TSR is suitable for any dataset featuring few labels and user and item content, where similarity of content indicates similar relationship forming capability. TSR can be used as a standalone recommender system or to complement existing high-performance recommender models that require more labels or do not support cold starts.

SUPPLIER SELECTION UNDER FUZZY ENVIRONMENT

To select the right supplier in supply chain is of great importance in terms of firms. Because, when the supplier is a piece of a well-organized supply chain, this relationship may affect the competition power across the entire supply chain. Supplier selection is so difficult and critical process that it requires to evaluate many factors such as quality, delivery time, cost, technology, payment due, flexibility and corporate reputation. Decision makers must consider these factors to select ideal suppliers. At this point, multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods help decision makers to solve supplier selection problems. In this paper, considering the fuzziness in group decision making process, fuzzy set theory is used to deal with supplier selection problem of a textile manufacturing firm in Denizli. The ratings and weights of the criteria are expressed by linguistic variables. According to the proposed method fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), a closeness coefficient is calculated for obtaining supplier performance rankings.

Features of supplier management and its mechanisms – insights in Hungarian practice: how to enhance the effectiveness of procurement procedures?

Considering the risk how serious consequences could occur in case of supply problems, the increasing importance of suppliers in supply chains is indisputable; therefore, management of relationships and selection and evaluation of suppliers are seen as crucial strategic issues (Araz & Ozkarahan, 2007). The practice/activity – and theory – how to handle the suppliers is the so-called Supplier Management (SM). The article presents the findings of research investigating the actual practice of SM in the inquired procurement organizations. The theoretical contribution of the paper is to compare the practice of these particular organizations with the literature in order to state the coincidences with it or the discrepancies between them, in other words, to reveal the status of purchasing work. The managerial implication – on this basis – is to be a compass for practitioners where to find the deficiencies (if any) and how to strengthen the effectiveness of procurement by a better understanding of the problems; also, the paper formulates suggestions for a more efficient SM practice. The author argue that the procurement processes in terms of SM have deficiencies which can be originated from its component parts: i) supplier evaluation; ii) cooperation; and iii) IT platforms. She applied survey research while the answers of the survey were analyzed applying comparison to the literature and using Cross-table analysis to reveal the connection among the stated SM factors.

Extending social responsibility to small and medium-sized suppliers in supply chains: A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis

Buying firms’ sales and reputation will be greatly damaged by any non-responsible behaviors on the part of suppliers, especially when those suppliers, like small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), have restricted resources and capabilities. To eradicate these risks, a growing number of buying firms have introduced socially responsible supplier development (SRSD). SRSD, including monitoring and evaluating suppliers, can provide them with incentives and assistance. Based on configuration theory and contingency theory, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is adopted in this study to examine how SRSD practices adopted by buying firms, supply chain partnership, and market turbulence affect the corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance of their SME suppliers. We find that, as core factors, supplier monitoring, supplier assistance, and supply chain partnership can work together with peripheral conditions to achieve superior CSR performance. In addition, even at different levels of market turbulence, superior CSR performance can be realized through different causal configurations.

A novel hybrid MCDM approach based on DEMATEL, AHP and TOPSIS to evaluate green suppliers

This study present a new hybrid strategic decision-making framework for multi-criteria assessment for Green Supply Chain supplier selection, which joins numerous green processes with order allocation for vibrant supply chains to deal with market differences. More precisely, the established approach replicates the knowledge attainment and manipulation in a way same to the decision makers who have congregated significant knowledge and expertise in procurement domain. DEMATEL is first applied to find the causal relationship between the criteria and to find out the most affecting criteria. AHP method is used for evaluation of green supplier criteria weights, which are qualitatively expressive. Thereafter, using TOPSIS method, the criteria application is quantitatively assessed for order allocation of suppliers. As a result, the approach produces decision-making knowledge, and thereafter, the established combination of rules for order allocation. To illustrate the applicability of the developed framework, a real-life study Indian electronics industry is developed, and the results are analysed accordingly.

Providing a Model for Ranking Suppliers in the Sustainable Supply Chain Using Cross Efficiency Method in Data Envelopment Analysis

Goals: This research seeks to identify the basic indices of sustainability in three dimensions (economic, social and environmental) in the Iranian automotive industry suppliers by reviewing previous research and ranking the suppliers using a cross efficiency approach. In this paper, the performance and ranking of sustainable supply chain suppliers are evaluated by presenting a secondary objective model in terms of cross efficiency.
 Design / Methodology / Approach: In the first step of this research, a preliminary screening of the identified criteria is carried out. the data on the final criteria is collected using a questionnaire. Finally, the evaluation and ranking of suppliers in sustainable supply chain of the automotive industry in Iran is done by the cross-efficiency model presented in this paper.
 Results: The results showed that, according to the criteria of the triple profit model (including 3 dimensions, 7 criteria), supplier No. 8 was identified as the most efficient decision maker unit (DMU) among 12 suppliers of Iran Khodro Company.
 Limitations of the investigation: The main constraints include the timeliness of information gathering and the lack of cooperation of suppliers in providing information.
 Originality / Value: Using the cross efficiency model in data envelopment analysis technique in the field of evaluating supplier performance is a very practical and unrestricted approach.

Supply chain alignment as process: contracting, learning and pay-for-performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand how buyers and suppliers in supply chains learn to align their performance objectives and incentives through contracting.Design/methodology/approachTwo longitudinal case studies of the process of supply chain alignment were conducted based on 26 semi-structured interviews and 25 key documents including drafts of contracts and service level agreements.FindingsThe dynamic interplay of contracting and learning contributes to supply chain alignment. Exchange-, partner- and contract framing-specific learning that accumulates during the contracting process is used to (re)design pay-for-performance provisions. Such learning also results in improved buyer-supplier relationships that enable alignment, complementing the effect of contractual incentives.Research limitations/implicationsThe study demonstrates that the interplay of contracting and learning is an important means of achieving supply chain alignment. Supply chain alignment is seen as a process, rather than as a state. It does not happen automatically or instantaneously, nor is it unidirectional. Rather, it is a discontinuous process triggered by episodic events that requires interactive work and learning.Practical implicationsDevelopment of performance contracting capabilities entails learning how to refine performance incentives and their framing to trigger positive responses from supply chain counterparts.Originality/valueThe paper addresses supply chain alignment as a process. Accordingly, it stresses some important features of supply chain alignment.