Supply Chain Competence Research Articles

Exploratory Analysis of Factors Influencing Agile New Product Development Adoption in Manufacturing Industries

Purpose: Global competition, individualized customer requirements, and volatile market conditions create an environment conducive to agile new product development (ANPD). This research seeks to identify the key factors that influence ANPD adoption along with the development of a conceptual framework for the identified factors. Design/methodology: Through a literature review, eight factors having 47 sub-factors pertinent to ANPD adoption and its performance improvement were identified. Considering all of these factors, the development of conceptual framework and research hypotheses was carried out. A structured questionnaire was used to collect 118 online responses from both domestic and foreign subject matter experts. The structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used for validation of the conceptual framework along with the research hypotheses testing. Findings: This study supported six hypotheses: “Technology management competencies”, “Product development competencies”, “Organizational management competencies”, “Human resource competencies”, “Software management competencies”, and “Policy management competencies”. These supported hypotheses influence ANPD adoption significantly. However, the analysis did not support the two more positive factors, namely “Integrated system competencies” and “Supply chain competencies”, showcasing the necessity for a better understanding of them among the product development experts. Research limitations: As the proposed methodology relies on qualitative data, it is somewhat complex and time-consuming. While SEM can verify the linear relationship, a hybrid approach involving the SEM-MCDM technique can be employed to comprehend the impact of ANPD adoption and performance improvement. Practical implications: The findings of this study will assist product development experts, manufacturing executives, and managers in developing effective ANPD adoption policies. It will help in improving the new product development success rate and highlighting the causes of poor performance. Originality/value: This is a one-of-a-kind and highly beneficial structural modeling-based decision-making tool. This framework can be effective across multiple domains, and incidents of ANPD adoption failure can be mitigated.

Halal Supply Chain Competencies

The global Halal industry is governed by Islamic ethical principles and dietary laws, which require a specialized workforce equipped with unique competencies (Abderahman et al., 2021). The Halal supply chain's complexity arises from, cultural and religious sensitivities, specific regulatory frameworks, transparency demands, sourcing challenges, logistical intricacies, rigorous certification, consumer preferences, market dynamics, risk management and the need for ongoing innovation. Navigating these multiple complexities is vital for maintaining resilience in the global Halal supply chain whilst meeting consumer expectations.
 This paper presents a formative framework for human capability development with regard to the Halal supply chain, with a special focus on ensuring its resilience. In recognizing the multifaceted challenges faced by individuals operating in the sector, directly and indirectly, the proposed harmonised framework offers a structured approach to Halal supply chain competency development (De Boni & Forleo, 2019). The framework comprises four key dimensions that deal with aspects of (i) Assurance, (ii) Socio-Cultural and Ethical (iii) Technical and Operational, and (iv) Market-Related. Organizations can potentially employ this framework to design training programs, assess their current capabilities and strategically develop their human resources, thereby ensuring the Halal supply chain can build resilience while delivering high-quality assured products to a global consumer base ensuring sustainable growth and prosperity, without compromising Islamic principles (Yaacob et al., 2018).

Frequent supply chain disruptions and firm performance: the moderating role of exploitation, exploration and supply chain ambidexterity

PurposeThe present manuscript assesses how firms should manage frequent supply chain disruption triggers and whether these firms should use existing supply chain competencies, develop new ones or both to mitigate any adverse consequences on financial performance.Design/methodology/approachData for the study come from a survey administered to professionals in India. India was an appropriate base for the study because of its developing economy and businesses often facing SC disruptions in the marketplace.FindingsThe findings show that the negative association between the frequency of supply chain disruption triggers and financial performance is weaker when a firm utilizes supply chain exploitation competencies. Conversely, the negative association between the frequency of supply chain disruption triggers and financial performance becomes stronger when using supply chain exploration competencies. Most significantly, however, the authors show that a strategy of supply chain ambidexterity – one that combines both exploitation and exploration practices – is more beneficial in mitigating the impact of frequent disruption triggers on firm financial performance compared to the other strategies.Originality/valueThese findings contribute to the literature, extending the benefits of ambidexterity beyond domains of innovation, manufacturing flexibility, competitiveness and firm performance to include mitigation of supply chain disruptions.

Unveiling the Dynamics of Organizational Characteristics in Disaster Management: Insights from Kuwait

This study investigates the influence of specific organizational characteristics—type, location, sector, and size—on perceived disaster management competence within the unique context of Kuwait. A cross-sectional survey was conducted online and distributed via various social media platforms, resulting in the participation of 438 individuals from diverse institutions and job positions. These participants offered their perceptions of their respective organizations’ operational and supply chain practices in disaster management. This study encompasses the key phases of the disaster management cycle: mitigation; preparedness; response; and recovery. Inferential analysis, employing chi-square and One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tests, was used to explore the relationship between these organizational characteristics and perceived operational and supply chain competence in disaster management. The findings reveal significant correlations between organizational characteristics and disaster management practices, yielding valuable insights. Notably, organization type, location, and sector significantly impacted preparedness, response, and recovery, while no significant relationships were found for mitigation. These findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge and offer practical guidance for policymakers and organizational leaders in developing disaster management strategies that account for the unique attributes of their organizations. This study emphasizes the importance of tailored disaster management strategies in Kuwait’s distinct context to enhance overall effectiveness and resilience, as perceived by organizations in Kuwait and potentially similar contexts.

Evaluating supply chain resilience using supply chain management competencies in the garment industry: a post COVID analysis

ABSTRACT This study contributes to the complex adaptive system theory by offering a valid hierarchical model to evaluate the theory’s important features related to resilience. The garment industry in Bangladesh encountered disruption in the supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic and the supply chain competencies played a vital role in overcoming the crisis. Limited studies are built on a solid theoretical foundation and considered supply chain competencies in assessing supply chain resilience. This study aims to develop a multi-criteria hierarchical measurement structure by considering the supply chain competencies to evaluate supply chain resilience. Fuzzy Delphi method and Fuzzy importance and performance analysis approach were applied for the study purpose. Findings reveal health and safety management, information management system, business intelligence, innovation capabilities management, technological innovation, and artificial intelligence as critical criteria, and data, information, and computing, technological innovation and adaptation are critical aspects that require improvement.

Patents and Sustainable Medical Treatment in Developing Countries: Lessons from COVID-19 Vaccines

COVID-19 has had devastating effects worldwide, and vaccines have become the most efficient solution to address the current pandemic situation thus far. After COVID-19 vaccines had been developed, discussions of the various countries’ equality of access gained traction, with patents and pricing forming a significant part of this discourse. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of patents and prices on the accessibility of COVID-19 vaccines in the developing world, using semi-structured interviews with subject-matter experts in this area of focus. Our analysis of these interviews highlights the fact that patents and prices are not the major barriers to accessibility for medical treatments, both generally and specifically in terms of COVID-19; rather, these barriers relate to the lack of local production capacity, technology transfer, infrastructure, local regulations, and supply-chain competencies. These results suggest that rather than focusing on patents and prices, governments should invest more time in improving technology transfer and using compulsory licenses as a negotiation tool. Moreover, the results show that the pricing strategies applied by companies could have different impacts on access, as could accessibility programs such as COVAX.

공급사슬역량이 공급사슬위험관리와 공급사슬성과에 미치는 영향

This study is to find ways to manage the supply chain in a crisis situation where the supply chain is cut off or collapsed due to the increase in supply chain complexity and infectious diseases such as COVID-19. To this end, it has been expanded to include supply chain risk management in the existing supply chain competence perspective(three elements). In detail, the supply chain capability (agility and robustness) that can evaluate the level of supply chain risk management was proposed as a lagging factor of supply chain competence, and supply chain capability was proposed as a leading factor in supply chain performance and supply chain risk management performance. As a result of the analysis, supply chain competence had a significant positive effect on supply chain capability, and supply chain capability had a significant positive impact on supply chain performance as well as supply chain risk management performance. This study suggested the need to develop supply chain competence to manage supply chain risks. In addition, it is significant in that it confirmed that supply chain risk management can improve not only performance in crisis situations, but also overall performance of the supply chain.

Enhancing supply chain competences through supply chain digital embeddedness: an institutional view

PurposeThis study aims to test how three types of institutional pressure (normative, coercive, and mimetic) influence supply chain digital embeddedness (SCDE) and how SCDE benefits supply chain (SC) competences.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop and test hypotheses through structural equation modeling (SEM) based on data from 201 European firms. Institutional theory is applied to determine the reasons that lead SCs to embed digitally. SCDE is assessed through three dimensions: technology, infrastructure and culture. The data were analyzed using SEM-partial least squares (PLS-SEM) modeling with SmartPLS software.FindingsThe findings show a positive relationship of normative and coercive pressures to SCDE but no relationship between mimetic pressures and SCDE. Additionally, results confirm a positive relationship between SCDE and SC competences that contribute to SC competitive advantage obtaining.Practical implicationsThe results underscore the importance of analyzing the environment when undertaking digital projects. Key issues include SC culture and infrastructure in these projects and the advisability of anticipating potential influence of digitalization projects on SC competences that support the chain’s competitive advantage.Originality/valueThis study contributes to institutional theory by providing empirical evidence of the individual effect of the three types of institutional pressure, with noteworthy lack of influence from mimetic pressures. The paper also contributes a conceptualization of SCDE composed of three dimensions: digital technologies, digital infrastructure and digital culture. Finally, the study advances the literature on SC competences.

Understanding influence of supply chain competencies when developing Triple-A

Purpose To be successful in the rapidly changing global business environment, supply chains (SCs) must be agile, adaptable and aligned (Lee, 2004), a practice known as Triple-A. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the dimensions of Triple-A SCs and their concurrent impact on all three Triple-A components.Design/methodology/approach The relationship among these factors is analyzed through Smart PLS-structured equation modeling (PLS-SEM) for which data have been collected from 243 SC professionals working in manufacturing organizations.Findings The findings of this study reveal that the relationship between visibility and adaptability are directly significant but that the negative relationship between velocity and alignment is insignificant; however, indirectly these relationships have a positive impact using the mediating effect of agility over visibility and adaptability, velocity and alignment. However, the relationship of flexibility over SC Triple-A is positively significant, visibility over agility and alignment is positively significant and velocity over agility and adaptability is also positively significant, and each impact agility over adaptability and adaptability over alignment which is significant.Originality/value There is a shortage of empirical studies to date that empirically provide evidence of possible relationships among Triple-A and its key dimensions when attempting to obtain Triple-A. This is the first authenticated Triple-A SC conceptual framework that provides direction to better understand the dimension and significance of Triple-A.

Information Management Capacity and Supply Chain Performance: Mediating Effects of Supply Chain Practices, Competencies and Concerns

The present study aims to identify the impact of the information management capacity (IMC) of an organization on its supply chain performance (SCP). Also, this study attempts to understand the mediating role of the various components of supply chain management, namely, practices, competencies and concerns. A survey instrument was used to collect primary data from 250 SMEs which were selected randomly. Structural equation modeling (SEM) technique is used to test the hypotheses using SmartPLS. The final model indicated that information management capacity significantly influences the supply chain performance and supply chain management components, namely supply chain competence, practices and concerns mediate the relationship between information management capacity and supply chain performance. The results of this study provide a significant contribution to the theory of resource-based view. The number of managerial perspectives for improving operational capabilities was explained in this study.

Linking plant roles and operations strategy decision-making autonomy in international manufacturing networks

This paper is concerned with the management of multi-plant manufacturing networks. Two key concepts in this domain are plant roles and plant autonomy in the context of operations strategy decision-making. We investigate the relationship between these two concepts and their impact on plant performance. We use data from 102 manufacturing plants belonging to multi-plant networks. The results suggest a relationship between plant roles and operations strategy decision-making structures. Plants with high levels of decision-making autonomy typically have high levels of production, supply chain, and development competences, while plants with a low level of decision-making autonomy are primarily those with only production site competences. Integrated structures for operations strategy decision-making, which include both the network level and the plant level, exist for all plant types and are thus not restricted to plants with a certain set of site competences. In accounting for both the plant type and decision-making structure, we were unable to detect any significant differences between groups in terms of performance effects. Instead, it seems that the fit between plant type and decision-making structure is important and that choosing the right type of operations strategy decision-making structure moderates the performance of plants with low site competence levels.

Business ecosystem embeddedness to enhance supply chain competence: the key role of external knowledge capacities

Interest in business ecosystems has grown exponentially over the last decade. This article focuses on the operational benefits of business ecosystems by investigating how embeddedness in business ecosystems influences supply chain competence. Specifically, it considers the mediating effect of external knowledge capacities (i.e. absorptive, desorptive and connective capacity). Data from 271 European firms in business ecosystems was collected to test the paper’s hypotheses using regression analysis with bootstrapping. Results indicate that business ecosystem embeddedness does not in itself improve supply chain competence. Rather, the relationship is explained through (i) absorptive and desorptive capacity as direct mediators; and (ii) connective capacity, which enhances supply chain competence indirectly by improving external knowledge retention for absorptive and desorptive capacity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to demonstrate benefits of being embedded in business ecosystems other than in terms of innovation. Newly validated scales for business ecosystem embeddedness and connective capacity are provided.

Supply chain management talent: the role of executives in engagement, recruitment, development and retention

PurposeThis paper aims to fill a void in existing research by focusing on in-company efforts to develop supply chain (SC) talent, with a specific focus on the role that executives can play in this process. This study uses the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and theory of training motivation as theoretical background for the exploration. In addition to that, this paper provides meaningful information for executives aspiring to contribute to the development of supply chain management (SCM) talent including the primary drivers, benefits, barriers and bridges (Fawcett et al., 2008). Using this framework will lead to the development of a conceptual model to facilitate future research efforts.Design/methodology/approachThis paper studies three case companies where there was an active executive engagement in the recruiting, on-boarding and ongoing development of SC talent.FindingsIn all three case companies’ executive engagement was high and the executives acted as champions of the SC talent development program including designing and stewardship of the program. They also got personally involved in recruiting, training and mentoring. In alignment with the RBV of the firm, all three case companies were strongly driven by a need to improve the competitive advantage of their firm through the SC competencies and capabilities. This strategic directive is driven by the executive suite and typically involved a combination of goals including improving functional capability development, internal stakeholder relationships and growth in business value contributions. This leads to the need for attracting new talent, due to talent shortages and developing more future-proof capabilities of the SC talent. Talent that is future-proof can effectively handle the current scope of work and successfully implement changes that the SCM strategy aspires to. Hence, the executive ownership is very much driven by a strategic imperative to improve the knowledge, skills and abilities and critical realization of the importance of talent recruitment and development. This study also finds that there are very specific SCM drivers, benefits, barriers and bridges in play making it important for SCM executives and teams to engage and not rely on generic human resource (HR) processes and frameworks only.Research limitations/implicationsWe found that in the three case companies’ executive engagement in talent development had a positive impact. We also identified specific roles of the executives such as, the benefit of engagement across multiple hierarchical layers of the organization and, the risk of programs being shorter lived when focused on a narrower talent issue. Our research focus contributes to the existing supply chain literature involving talent management. It also suggests actions for supply chain executives, for the educational provision of universities and multiple research opportunities.Originality/valueThere is no evidence of prior research in fields of HR management, talent development or SCM related to the impact of executive engagement in this process. This paper studies three case companies where there was an active executive engagement in the recruiting, on-boarding and ongoing development of SC talent. Findings show the critical impact of personal and extended engagement of senior-level executives and their leadership teams, in SC talent development. This paper offers specific techniques and approaches, generates suggestions for further research, managerial action and university implications.

Business Ecosystem Embeddedness and Supply Chain Competence: The key role of Knowledge Capacities

Business ecosystems have gained an increasing interest over the last decade. This article focuses on its operational benefits by investigating how embeddedness in business ecosystems influences supply chain competence. Specifically, it considers the mediating effect of external knowledge capacities: absorptive, desorptive and connective capacity. Primary data from 271 European firms participating in business ecosystems were collected to to test three hypotheses using regression analysis with bootstrapping. Results indicate that business ecosystems embeddedness does not in itself improve supply chain competence. Rather, the relationship is explained through (i) absorptive and desorptive capacity directly mediating the relationship; and (ii) connective capacity, which increases supply chain competence indirectly by enhancing absorptive and desorptive capacity. These findings suggest external knowledge capacities could be components of dynamic capabilities. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to demonstrate benefits of being embedded in business ecosystems other than in terms of innovation. It is shown that connective capacity boosts absorptive and desorptive capacity by enhancing the linkages upon which they are built, leading to superior supply chain competence. Finally, the paper provides newly validated scales for business ecosystem embeddedness and connective capacity.

Barriers to industry 4.0 adoption and its performance implications: An empirical investigation of emerging economy

The literature has proposed several barriers to Industry 4.0 adoption or digitalisation. The present study assesses how the intrinsic and extrinsic barriers to digitalisation affect Industry 4.0 adoption by the firms. The paper also evaluates how these barriers influence the linkage between digitalisation and the firm’s performance with regards to its supply chain competency as well as operational performance. Sketching the arguments from the resource-based view as well as the contingency approach, a model for Industry 4.0 adoption is developed. Eight hypotheses encompassing the intrinsic and extrinsic barriers to digitalisation, digitalisation practices, and two constructs of firm performance constitute the model, which is tested on 143 manufacturing companies using Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS). The findings suggest that intrinsic and extrinsic barriers are negatively linked with the digitalisation. The analysis also reveals that Industry 4.0 adoption improves operational performance as well as supply chain competency. The paper sheds light on the contingency effects of extrinsic barriers on digitalisation. This research would assist the practitioners and policymakers to comprehend the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic barriers.

Assessment of supply chain segmentation from an interoperability perspective

ABSTRACT Based on an integrative literature review, this study aims to verify the qualifying attributes of supply chain segmentation, that is, the requirements or competencies crucial for companies to maximise effectiveness of supply chain segmentation, and evaluate them from the perspective of interoperability (business, process, service, and data). Based on the definition of segmentation attributes and the perspective of interoperability, the attributes were evaluated by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to set priorities among the target attributes. The applicability of the proposed model is demonstrated through a case study of a company in the consumer goods industry. Generally, this study aims to assist managers and professionals to identify elements of relevance, as well as to support decision-making in terms of managing problems involving segmentation and enterprise interoperability in the supply chain.

The moderating effect of Guanxi on supply chain competencies of logistics firms in China

ABSTRACT This paper aims to explore the causal linkages between information sharing, trust & commitment and relationship-specific investment, and logistics and supply chain (LSC) competencies of logistics service providers (LSPs). The moderating effect of Guanxi on the relationships between the three dimensions and LSC competencies of LSPs was also explored. A conceptual model of LSC competencies was developed based on Social Capital Theory. The hierarchical multiple regression analysis results based on a survey conducted in China reveal that relationship management factors (i.e. information sharing and trust & commitment) are significantly related to LSC competencies while relationship-specific investment has no significant relationship with LSC competencies. The results also reveal that significant negative moderation effects of Guanxi on the relationships between information sharing and positioning competency, between information sharing and distribution support competency. In addition, it was found that significant negative moderation effects of Guanxi exist on the relationships between relationship-specific investment and positioning competency.

An international university-industry collaboration model to develop supply chain competences

PurposeThe increase in the supply chain complexity demands new professionals who are able to deal with the new challenges faced nowadays. The purpose of this work is to propose an international university–industry collaboration model to develop supply chain management competences in students as a tool for the training of future professionals.Design/methodology/approachThis study proposes an international collaboration model to develop supply chain competences. The model consists of three main phases from the genesis of the collaboration to the assessment of the competence development. This study validates the model collaborating with one of the largest retailer companies in Mexico.FindingsResults identify collaboration good practices and point at possible improvements for the next model iteration. This study identifies four key supply chain competences as part of this model. Three didactic approaches (i.e. guidance methods) and two student’s involvement schemes were tested. The results show that professors acting as an advisor (i.e. acting as a guider without telling student directly what to do or how to do it) plus a voluntary student’s involvement in the project promote better competence development.Originality/valueThe first contribution of this research is the definition of an international collaboration model that promotes competence-based education. Also, this study documents good practices for this type of partnership. The second one refers to a large-scale model validation (i.e. 14-week experiment in nine different regions of Mexico involving a retail company, 20 professor-researchers and more than 100 students). The third contribution includes the assessment of different levels of competences development using diverse students’ participation schemes and professor’s guidance methods.

Assessing contract management as a strategic tool for achieving quality of work in Ghanaian construction industry

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the attainment of quality in Government of Ghana’s (GoG) infrastructural projects through effective contract management and especially, relating to qualification, competence and experience of supply chain stakeholders.Design/methodology/approachA survey questionnaire and field observations were used to collect primary data from staff of the education ministry and construction professionals. Documentary analyses of contract documents were also undertaken.FindingsThe results show that executing agencies’ failure to apply appropriate contract management processes was linked to the gap between stakeholders’ knowledge and actual practice. This was confirmed by Spearman’s rho tests of correlation between overall mean ranks given by professionals and non-professionals, which indicated strong agreement between those groups. Factors such as contractors’ engagement of unqualified supervisory staff, lack of proper projects monitoring and evaluation by executing agencies mainly contribute to the poor quality of work.Research limitations/implicationsInvestigations were limited to the Funds and Procurement Management Unit of the Ministry of Education, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and local contractors. Nonetheless, the methodology used could be used in future studies to analyse the socio-economic implications on the quality of education infrastructure.Practical implicationsConstruction is booming in Ghana but the capacity to improve the work quality through effective contract management is limited. However, with the effort of stakeholder and statutory bodies’ support in capacity building initiatives, GoG projects could offer some novel solutions to improve quality of work.Social implicationsConstruction industry professionals and students’ knowledge and perception on construction industry and contract management is significantly improved.Originality/valueThis study provides information on respondents’ knowledge on contract management process, which, if not properly understood, can lead to poor quality of work and loss of money.

Strategic capabilities for managing risks in supply chains: current state and research futurities

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the distinction and relationships between the significant strategic capabilities for managing risks in supply chains. This intersectional review exposes a substantial conceptual contradiction between the perspectives reported by various researchers. Further, the current paper classifies the literature into four categories according to the broad objectives investigated by the research papers.Design/methodology/approachInitially, a bibliometric analysis aligned with the concepts of a systematic literature review is conducted followed by a descriptive review focusing on models and methods. The software called BibExcel is utilized to extract and analyze the bibliographic information in a textual form from the research articles associated with strategic capabilities of the logistics sector. The results are exported to the software known as Gephi to visualize keyword co-occurrence analysis as networks. A well-structured descriptive review is also conducted to identify avenues for future research.FindingsDespite conventional supply chain capabilities like efficiency and effectiveness, eight significant strategic capabilities of supply chains for managing risks are identified from the literature. These capabilities with positive connotations include flexibility, reliability, resilience, robustness, agility, adaptability, alignment and responsiveness. Considering the vast literature on flexibility/reliability along with its numerous dimensions and scope, the authors found that resilience, robustness, agility, adaptability, alignment and effectiveness are achievable through flexibility/reliability. Accordingly, it is appropriate to state reliability and flexibility as supply chain capabilities to achieve the other six supply chain competencies. Furthermore, the entire literature in this domain can be classified into four genres according to the addressed objectives, namely, concept development/validation, capability assessment, network design and performance evaluation.Research limitations/implicationsThe information revealed from the keyword co-occurrence analysis along with the research implications provided in the penultimate section will assist budding researchers in framing novel and promising research objectives. Supply chain administrators and policymakers can utilize the literature classification and the notable references provided in this review for locating potential methods for assessing supply chain strategic capabilities, designing the supply chain and evaluating the performance of the supply chain.Originality/valueAn integrated bibliometric and descriptive literature review procedure is utilized in this paper. Furthermore, this critical review is the first work on comprehensively mapping the research relationships among various strategic capabilities required for mitigating supply chain risks.