Supply Chain Knowledge Management Research Articles

Managing disrupted supply chains in Swedish hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global supply chains and caused widespread shortages of healthcare supplies. This mixed-methods study examined the management of supply shortages in Swedish hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The key findings are that the shortage of supplies was initially severe owing to low regional and national contingency inventory levels, a lack of knowledge of supply chain management, and cost-saving measures. The perceived consequences of the shortage of personal protective equipment persisted in emergency and inpatient departments, in the later waves. Although pharmaceutical shortages later decreased, hospital managers were disappointed that they persisted. This study also highlights the effectiveness of consensus-based hourly supply agreements between service organisations and unit managers, which makes the prioritisation of the limited supply more dynamic. Despite these challenges, hospitals were able to adapt to the supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic; however, the results emphasise the importance of preparedness for future pandemics.

Exploring the Potential of Large Language Models in Supply Chain Management

This study aims to identify emerging topics, themes, and potential areas for applying large language models (LLMs) in supply chain management through data triangulation. This study involved the synthesis of 33 published articles and a total of 3421 social media documents, including tweets, posts, expert opinions, and industry reports on utilizing LLMs in supply chain management. By employing BERT models, four core themes were derived: Supply chain optimization, supply chain risk and security management, supply chain knowledge management, and automated contract intelligence, which provides the present status of LLM in the supply chain. The results of this study will empower managers to identify prospective applications and areas for improvement, affording them a comprehensive understanding of the antecedents, decisions, and outcomes detailed in the framework. The insights garnered from this study are highly valuable to both researchers and managers, equipping them to harness the latest advancements in LLM technology and its role within supply chain management.

Value Ingredients Private Limited: engaging farmers for achieving triple bottom line

Learning outcomes After completion of this case study, students will be able to apply the triple bottom line concept to a spice manufacturing and export company (RBT 3); to examine the options before Value Ingredients Private Limited (VIPL), namely, to cultivate spices in the traditional way versus adopting integrated pest management (IPM) to cater to international markets (RBT 4); to analyse the returns for an IPM farmer vis-à-vis a conventional farmer, and to compare the returns therein (RBT 4); and to evaluate the ways and means of engaging farmers to change their way of cultivation (RBT 5) Case overview/synopsis The COVID-19 pandemic heightened awareness about the benefits of spices and buoyed its demand worldwide, which presented an opportunity to VIPL, a spice manufacturing company based in Chennai, to expand its business. However, the export markets demanded residue-free spices grown with little or no use of pesticides. Traditional farmers supplying spices to VIPL were accustomed to spraying pesticides whenever there was a pest attack. This case study discussed the options that the protagonist Mr Sijil Karim, managing director and CEO of VIPL, had, who wanted to onboard farmers for pesticide-free cultivation. The options before him were either to continue traditional farming or adopt IPM. This case study discussed the merits, demerits and challenges of each of these options. The triple bottom line concept discussed three Ps – people, planet and prosperity – for this case as follows: The farmers and the consumers constituted the people in the spice supply chain. The farmers supplying organic, export-worthy spices under the guidance of VIPL gained 30% more than regular spice farmers, which were accrued through cost savings and better prices. The consumers benefitted from the pesticide-free, organic spices through accrued health gains. The manufacture of organic, pesticide-free spices helped the planet, as the process did not release hazardous chemicals into the atmosphere. VIPL manufactured pesticide-free spice with a focus on prosperity. Complexity academic level The case study can be introduced in a course on sustainability while discussing the triple bottom line concept. This case study showed how a for-profit company grew without losing sight of the planet or its focus on people. This case is best suited for students who have preliminary knowledge of supply chain management, operations and sustainability. Therefore, it is suited for sophomore-year students of MBA. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy.

A participatory framework for bridging the conceptual and talent gaps in supply chain management education

AbstractThis article argues that current Supply Chain Management (SCM) education and training is inadequate to meet the human capital needs of industry. To bridge this gap, we propose the development and deployment of SCM educational programs that provide learning opportunities earlier in students’ educational journeys. We argue that such programs should be based on self‐directed learning of SCM knowledge, business concepts/skills, and their real‐life application with help from industry partners. We present a case study of a four‐way partnership SCM educational program for high schoolers, which utilizes a project‐based learning method. Survey data and focus group discussion revealed positive developmental learning outcomes, the program's uniqueness, and challenges such as lack of awareness, expertise, and industry partners. We evaluate the efficacy of this four‐way partnership among industry, government agencies, universities, and high schools and discuss the importance of “champions” for each partner. Our findings offer a scalable educational model that leverages multi‐stakeholder engagement to address the SCM talent and educational conceptual gap.

A literature survey on healthcare supply chain management

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a practice that has rapidly spread across industries. SCM may boost output while simultaneously satisfying customers. Despite SCM's recognition as a key factor in enhancing healthcare efficiency, widespread adoption remains in its infancy. Hospitals, a crucial element of the healthcare supply chain (HSC), have failed to fulfill the primary goals of lowering costs and providing high-quality treatment due to their inadequate knowledge of supply chain management (SCM). This research was conducted to fill in the blanks in the current HSC literature. Achieving the healthcare supply chain's goal of reducing costs will be greatly aided by the thorough literature study completed for this report. This review of healthcare supply chain management can quantify the benefits of supply chain initiatives and identify opportunities for improvement. Healthcare institutions can make informed decisions on optimizing their supply chains by understanding customer and supplier needs. This includes making strategic decisions on how to improve inventory management, streamline processes and reduce costs. The focus of this study is on the relationship between supply chain practices, the efficiency of supply chain performance, and the financial outcomes for healthcare organizations. By highlighting certain key research issues that are shared by supply chain management and healthcare management, this article contributes to the literature in both areas.

Knowledge management for supply chain resilience in pharmaceutical industry: evidence from the Middle East region

PurposeThis study investigates the role of supply chain knowledge management in enhancing pharmaceutical supply chain resilience.Design/methodology/approachThis study focusses on the Middle East region, where semi-structured online interviews were conducted with 38 professionals from the pharmaceutical supply chain to collect empirical data.FindingsThe study reveals that supply chain knowledge management is a crucial value-adding practice that improves pharmaceutical supply chain resilience. Effective supply chain knowledge management enables organisations to develop agility, change, adaptability, problem-solving, response and innovation capabilities that support supply chain resilience. However, challenges related to supply chain management practices, people, processes and technology hinder the effective promotion of supply chain knowledge.Practical implicationsThis study reminds managers that knowledge management is critical for building resilience in supply chains.Social implicationsThe study highlights the importance of a resilient pharmaceutical supply chain for organisations and society. The study advocates that effective supply chain knowledge management can help ensure a sustained supply of high-quality pharmaceutical products and services during crises.Originality/valueThe study offers novel insights by examining pharmaceutical supply chain resilience from a knowledge management perspective and highlighting the potential of knowledge capabilities to enable supply chains to recover from crises and adapt to the new normal. This study also highlights the key strategic considerations for managing knowledge effectively throughout the supply chain.

A literature survey on healthcare supply chain management

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a practice that has rapidly spread across industries. SCM may boost output while simultaneously satisfying customers. Despite SCM's recognition as a key factor in enhancing healthcare efficiency, widespread adoption remains in its infancy. Hospitals, a crucial element of the healthcare supply chain (HSC), have failed to fulfill the primary goals of lowering costs and providing high-quality treatment due to their inadequate knowledge of supply chain management (SCM). This research was conducted to fill in the blanks in the current HSC literature. Achieving the healthcare supply chain's goal of reducing costs will be greatly aided by the thorough literature study completed for this report. This review of healthcare supply chain management can quantify the benefits of supply chain initiatives and identify opportunities for improvement. Healthcare institutions can make informed decisions on optimizing their supply chains by understanding customer and supplier needs. This includes making strategic decisions on how to improve inventory management, streamline processes and reduce costs. The focus of this study is on the relationship between supply chain practices, the efficiency of supply chain performance, and the financial outcomes for healthcare organizations. By highlighting certain key research issues that are shared by supply chain management and healthcare management, this article contributes to the literature in both areas.

Research on the construction of event logic knowledge graph of supply chain management

Knowledge graph technology plays an important role in knowledge supporting for efficient supply chain management (SCM) of manufacturing enterprises, a SCM knowledge graph can be constructed based on the relevant case corpus. In order to solve the problems of coarse concept granularity of event ontology knowledge in SCM cases, potential words of characters in the existing entity recognition models may not be matched or matched incorrectly, key features of entities with different lengths may interfere with each other in the expression of attention mechanism, and lack of a large number of annotation training samples, a top-down construction method of SCM event logic knowledge graph (ELKG) is proposed. Firstly, SCM event argument classes and class relations are defined, an event logic ontology model is built, and the event argument entities according to event logic ontology are labeled. Then, an active learning event argument entity recognition (EAER) model based on two-stage generative adversarial network (GAN) is proposed. In GAN generator, an EAER model based on binocular attention-based stacked BiLSTM with CNN (BACSBN) is proposed, which combines word-level character feature attention mechanism and n-gram pooling feature attention mechanism to improve the attention to character features of constituent words and highlight entity key information with different lengths, respectively. Two-stage GAN adversarial training and label space attention mechanism are introduced to select the correct predicted label samples for active learning training. The experimental results show that BACSBN can improve the entity recognition accuracy, and the two-stage GAN’s active learning can further improve the recognition effect on the basis of full annotation sample training, and can still maintain a high accuracy in the absence of a large number of manual annotation data. Further, according to the sentence pattern and keyword matching, the matching relations of argument entities are completed, and the SCM ELKG is constructed to provide knowledge support for autonomous SCM.

Building up more sustainable food supply chains: Implications for sustainable development

The global supply chain experienced unprecedented disruption due to the Covid-19 crisis in a dynamic world. Consequently, this situation has resulted in many businesses' discontinuity or closure due to disruptions that seriously affect the possibility of maintaining operations, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in emerging markets. In this scenario, the food value chain is deeply concerned because of its vulnerability and importance to food security. Therefore, this study aims to examine the mechanism that enables businesses in the food value chain to overcome the challenging post-pandemic while rebuilding the foundation for long-term viability and sustainable development. Accordingly, this study examines the relationships between the responsible driving factors (towards the environment, society, and the economy) and the food value chain sustainability (FSCS) of MSMEs by exploiting the mediating role of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) in an emerging market. This study applies a quantitative research approach using primary data from a questionnaire-based survey. 568 valid responses were received from managers at senior and middle levels. In analysis, this study uses a smart PLS 3.3.2 version, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique, to analyze the structural relationships. The novelty of this study contributes beyond the extant body of knowledge of supply chain management (SCM) by providing a comprehensive approach to promoting FSCS by incorporating socially, environmentally, and economically responsible practices into SCM practices. In addition, this study contributes to broadening the concept of corporate social responsibility by broadening the perspective of sustainability by shifting the enterprise-based perspective to the food value chain-based perspective. Above all, this research provides a new approach to the food value chain in an emerging market that is inherently too challenging to afford the sustainability concept of the food value chain. In sum, the value of this study's contribution is significant to bridging the knowledge-practice gap by providing profound knowledge and an empirically proven framework for the mechanism boosting sustainability for MSMEs in the food value chain in emerging economies. Drawn upon the above highlights, the findings of this study may be of high interest to academics, business practitioners, and policy-makers.

Evaluation of Perception towards Capacity Building Programs and Workforce Skills in HIV/AIDS Supply Chain Management in Nigeria

This study on the evaluation of perception towards capacity building programs and workforce skills in HIV/AIDS supply chain management in Nigeria comprised of research objectives and questions. A structured self-completion pre-tested questionnaire (422) was administered to respondents, 396 were completed and returned, with a response rate of (93. 8%). The respondents (mostly managers, supervisors, specialists, advisors, and officers) were drawn from all levels of the HIV/AIDS supply chain sector and work, the majority from national and state levels, with significant experience and workable knowledge of supply chain management. The study revealed that perception towards capacity-building programs and workforce skills in supply chain management reflects reality and entails a good understanding of the HIV/AIDS supply chain management system, mean ± standard deviation score (3.695 ± 0.889 and 3.455±0.643) on a Likert scale of 1-5 (5-point scale) respectively. Reliability analysis was carried out, and Cronbach’s alpha (α) showed the questionnaire reached acceptable reliability, α = 0.886 (perception towards capacity building programs), and less reliable, α = 0.071 (perception towards workforce skills) in HIV/AIDS supply chain management. Inferential analysis revealed that socio-demographic characteristics such as age, years of experience, and job title/rank influence the perception of workforce skills in supply chain management (P<0.05). Federal and State Ministries of Health should ensure proper and effective supervision to prevent the workforce from having a wrong understanding of its capacity-building programs and workforce skills to avoid its harmful effect.

A Short Review of the Concept and Principles of Supply Chain Management in Building Construction Industry

Supply chain management concept has found its way into the construction sector of the economy as a result of the inherent opportunity to improve performance. The concept has continued to attract increasing support among major stakeholders in the execution of construction projects. However, it was observed that the strategy is still at low level of adoption among professionals in the industry. Moreover, the low level of knowledge of the strategy and the inability to effectively put the principles of supply chain management to practice hinders the application. This study therefore advances the knowledge of supply chain management by undertaking an examination of few key areas on the concept with a view to improving the awareness and understanding among professionals and assist in designing a supply chain management strategy suitable for building development process. Relevant studies were identified for review by literature search using key words and concepts related to the topic of the current study. Thematic areas of discussion include the construction industry outlook, building development process, the principles and essentials of construction supply chain management. The understanding of basic principles and essentials of supply chain management is important to adopting, adapting, designing and deployment of the strategy in the construction industry and this constituted the purpose and focus of the study.

Key knowledge domains for maritime shipping executives in the digital era: a knowledge-based view approach

ABSTRACT With the emergence of disruptive technologies and digital acceleration caused by COVID-19, educating the maritime workforce by equipping them with relevant knowledge is crucial to the industry’s success. Drawing from the knowledge-based view and business logistic management framework, the objective of this study was to construct a framework that identifies and ranks existing and upcoming relevant knowledge domains and their sub-domains for maritime shipping executives. After reviewing the literature, five domains – digitalisation, maritime business, sustainability, personnel development, and supply chain management (SCM) – and 23 sub-knowledge domains were developed. Surveys were conducted with shipping company managers in Singapore and their responses were analysed using the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process methodology. The results revealed that digitalisation knowledge was the most important, followed by maritime business, personnel development, sustainability, and SCM knowledge. Overall, this research has updated the knowledge and competency framework for maritime shipping executives, contributed to research on the interface between technology and knowledge management, and informed education strategies.

Supply Chain Management in Indonesia

Supply chain management is very critical for organizations and national economic development. Researchers and practitioners need to assess where nations are in terms of their supply chain management maturity level by identifying gaps in both practices and research. This paper aims to analyze the supply chain body of knowledge in the Indonesian context to contribute to the collection of knowledge of supply chain management in Indonesia. A structured content analysis was used to assess research papers published in English and Indonesian in peer-reviewed and accredited journals. The results proved the lack of research in the Supply chain management area within the Indonesian context. Future research guidelines were also presented as a result of this study.

Knowledge management in international supply chains

: Recently the management of supply chains tends to be oriented at gaining flexibility to changing market conditions, increasing the value delivered to customers or a reduction in operating costs. Internationally supply chain management is supplemented with a large variety of markets and long distances to come which raises new challenges. To deal with it enterpreneurs need to develop new business models based on knowledge. In leading edge supply chains knowledge management has become one of the most important processes. The aim of the article is to analyze the results of research on knowledge management in international supply chains, which was carried out in 2012. The study involved international supply chains at least partially functioning in Poland. The most crucial task was to observe whether and how approaches to knowledge management differ at different stages of supply chain maturity. Therefore, the results were associated with the evaluation of supply chain maturity level according to Poirier’s model. Research results allow to look positively at supply chains at the initial stage of improvement – they already show great awareness and considerable commitment in the field of knowledge management. Knowledge management in supply chains characterized by higher levels of maturity requires development, also in the field of collective knowledge management, which has already become their practice. It is now important to confront these research results with the reality that in recent years has revealed advances in knowledge management methods in supply chains, and to pursue new, inspiring research avenues.

Supply Chain Management in Real Estate Practices: The Estate Surveyor and Valuers’ Perspective

Real estate practice is a strategic and multi-faceted vocation that connects the clients/owners of real estate projects or products with end users in the building industry. Different aspects of real estate practices require collaboration of real estate practitioners who are professional estate surveyors and valuers, with the built environment professionals and other stakeholders at different levels in order to achieve the transaction objectives. This study, therefore, examined the practice with a view to uncovering the preparedness of the estate surveyors and valuers with respect to the knowledge and application of supply chain management in real estate practices. Empirical data were collected with the aide of questionnaires administered to respondents from the 373 estate firms in Lagos State, Nigeria of which 291 were duly completed and returned constituting 78% rate of response. The Readiness Assessment Model was adapted to determine the operational preparedness of the estate surveying and valuation firms to implement supply chain management with regards to management readiness, employee readiness, services/processes readiness and logistic/ICT readiness on a 5-point Likert scale and the corresponding mean score and relative importance was determined. The Kolmogorov Smirnov Test of Normality was performed and showed that the data was normally distributed. Hence, the Pearson Product Moment Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between knowledge and application of supply chain management in real estate businesses. It was observed, among others, that the knowledge of supply chain management is generally low among estate valuers and does not necessarily translate to application in the property market transactions of real estate firms. The study further observed that management and employees of estate surveying and valuation firms do not have adequate knowledge of the principles and practices of supply chain management for productive engagement in property market transactions. This was further identified alongside others such as confidentiality, stiff rivalry and economic instability as critical factors resisting the adoption of supply chain management in the property market. The study therefore suggested capacity building programmes on supply chain management for the estate surveyors and valuers to improve the knowledge of the strategy and harness the benefits.

Antecedents and performance implications of knowledge management in supply chains: a meta-analysis

This research investigates the intersection of knowledge management (KM) and supply chain management (SCM) to provide a better understanding of supply chain knowledge management (SCKM). This research creates a nomological network that encapsulates the antecedents and performance implications of SCKM. Developed based on 58 published empirical studies on SCKM, the nomological network identifies three main functions for KM, 11 antecedents for the functions of KM, and four groups of performance implications for SCKM. The nomological network is tested using a meta-analysis approach. The method reassesses the existing literature and, while justifies the reliability of some of the findings, retracts some prior tested hypotheses. For instance, the meta-analysis shows that the effect sizes of IT infrastructure and trust, which are two antecedents of SCKM, on knowledge creation and acquisition are small and not reliable. Such findings signify the need for further investigation and show the direction for future research.

A study on the success factors for knowledge management in supply chains of electronics industry

This research aimed to 1) study the success factors for knowledge management through electronics industry supply chains, and 2) study guidelines and recommendations regarding the success factors for knowledge management through electronics industry supply chains. The study employed the quantitative research methodology. The statistical devices used included frequency, percentage and Structure Equation Modeling (SEM). The population and sample group comprised executives of the electronics industry in the electronics and electrical appliances sector in Thailand. The results revealed that the factors regarding the information technology system, leadership support and knowledge management had positive effects on the success of the knowledge management through electronics industry supply chains with the statistical significance (β) of 0.519, 0.621 and 0.448, respectively. However, the factors regarding human resource management affected the success of the knowledge management negatively at the statistical significance of 0.323. As for the effects of variables on the success of the knowledge management, it was found that the factors with the most positive indirect effects (IE) and total effects (TE) were those regarding 1) leadership support (IE = 0.278, TE = 0.278), 2) information technology system (IE = 0.233, TE = 0.233), and 3) knowledge management, which had a positive direct effect (DE) at 0.448 and a total effect (TE) at 0.448. However, the factors regarding human resource management had a negative indirect effect (IE) on the success of the knowledge management at -0.145.

Antecedents and performance implications of knowledge management in supply chains: a meta-analysis

Antecedents and performance implications of knowledge management in supply chains: a meta-analysis

Doctoral dissertations in supply chain management: a review of Chinese contributions from 1995 to 2019

PurposeThis study aims to investigate Chinese doctoral dissertations in supply chain management (SCM) by providing an overview of the evolution of this topic over the past 25 years.Design/methodology/approachThis study reviews 1,945 doctoral dissertations in SCM from 39 Project 985 universities in China.FindingsThe annual number of SCM doctoral dissertations in China varied significantly over time, and the top producers are all strong players in the SCM field with long histories of research. The dissertations use multiple methods, of which mathematical, econometric modeling and simulation, and survey are the most frequently used. Most of the frequently used theories are borrowed from other disciplines. Traditional research topics are frequently investigated in Chinese doctoral dissertations in SCM, but the popular research topics differ by period.Originality/valueThis study has examined Chinese doctoral dissertations in SCM through a literature review. This study provides implications for research topics, methodological approaches, and theoretical lenses for future research. It also disseminates Chinese SCM knowledge to the global academic network to stimulate more SCM research.

Termination of personal relationship and their effects on knowledge sharing in supply chains

The existence of strong personal relationships (friendship, etc.) has been the subject of much research in the supply chain knowledge management literature. Many researchers have argued that such relationships have a positive impact on knowledge sharing across the supply chain. However, it is important to acknowledge that the termination of a personal relationship may well adversely affect the knowledge transfer process between the supply chain member firms. This study addresses the impact of the termination of personal relationships within the supply chain. An exploratory study was employed via semi‐structured interviews with 20 senior managers from 10 different companies based in the United Arab Emirates. The findings reveal five distinct factors that adversely affect knowledge transfer between the managers of buying and supplying firms, once their personal relationships are terminated. These factors further result in inferior knowledge transfer between the partnering firms.