Supply Chain Management Literature Research Articles

Industry 4.0 in the Perspective of Supply Chain Management: Evolution and Future Research Agenda

With the rise of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), there has been a shift from traditional to digital ways of running businesses by bringing the real and virtual worlds together. This study examines I4.0 literature in Supply chain management (SCM) over the last five years, finds essential research areas and gaps, and suggests a roadmap of new possibilities and opportunities for further research. First, a performance analysis was undertaken in which the most relevant or productive authors, leading journals, and top countries were examined. Second, a science mapping analysis involving citation, co-citation, and keyword analysis was conducted. Third, a thematic analysis was performed in which numerous themes were discussed in the direction of I4.0 in SCM. The authors examined 260 research publications published during the last five years. The authors used the R package bibliometrix, biblioshiny application, and the Vosviewer to visualize the structure of over 19,000 different references. Finally, the paper suggests a framework for implementing I4.0 in the supply chain (SC). The outcome of this study will help academic scholars, industry practitioners and engineering managers to identify significant themes and areas and implement I4.0 standards in SCM.

Stakeholder pressure and circular supply chain practices: Moderating roles of environmental information exchange capability and circular innovation orientation

AbstractThis study deploys institutional theory and Resource orchestration theory (ROT) to examine the roles supply chain stakeholder pressure, circular innovation orientation (CIO) and environmental information exchange capability (EIEC) play in adopting Circular supply chain (CSC) practices. This study uses a partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS‐SEM) to analyse survey data gathered from 290 managers of manufacturing Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana. This study finds that pressure from supply chain stakeholders substantially drives manufacturing SMEs' CSC practices. This study confirms that EIEC negatively moderates the relationship between supply chain stakeholder pressure and CSC practices. Finally, this study confirms the complementarity between CIO and EIEC through moderating effects between supply chain stakeholder pressure and CSC practices. This study advances circular supply chain management (CSCM) literature by testing a research framework that examines important but rarely studied roles of CIO and EIEC in SMEs' CSC practices adoption under supply chain stakeholder pressure through institutional and resource orchestration perspectives.

Aligning cooperative supply chain relationships with firm strategy: a cross-disciplinary analysis

Purpose This study aims to investigate the conflicting views in supply chain and strategic management literature regarding cooperative supply chain relationships (CSCR) and firm performance. Supply chain literature suggests a universally positive impact of CSCR on performance, irrespective of a firm’s strategy. In contrast, strategic management literature contends that the effectiveness of CSCR depends on their alignment with the firm’s competitive strategy. The research aims to clarify this disparity, offering insights into the strategic use of CSCR for enhancing firm performance. Design/methodology/approach This paper theorizes the integration of perspectives for the impact of CSCR on firm performance by examining the relationships considering the alignment of cost leadership and product differentiation strategies with supplier and customer relationships. Plant-level survey data is analyzed using regression techniques to test four hypotheses. Findings All four main relationships (cost leadership, product differentiation, supplier relationship and customer relationship) on firm performance are statistically significant. However, cost leadership firms are better aligned to their chosen strategy when they have strong relationships with suppliers, whereas similar relationships with customers create misalignment, negatively influencing firm performance. In contrast, product differentiators benefit by investing in relationships with customers rather than with suppliers. Practical implications A firm’s performance does not solely depend on its CSCR efforts but on aligning them with the firm’s overall strategy. Therefore, managers need to be cognizant of the firm’s competitive strategy when investing in CSCR. Failing to do so could negatively impact firm performance and, eventually, its ability to compete in the marketplace. Originality/value Scholars have advocated for the importance of examining competing perspectives of phenomena, both within and across various bodies of literature, as cross-disciplinary analysis often brings enhanced focus and depth, leading to improved understanding. This research is one of the initial efforts to empirically analyze the varying perspectives on CSCR in supply chain and strategic management literature. This cross-disciplinary approach can yield a more integrated perspective.

Industry-4, Big Data, and Blockchain Research Prospects in Supply Chain Domain

Purpose: Utilizing technologies becomes a prerequisite in the operations of supply chain management. Research in digitalized supply chain management (SCM) is now trending as a new arena of research. This study investigates and summarizes the research that has been performed so far in this area, and also explains what the future research scopes in the integration of digitalization and supply chain management are. Method: To execute this study, we carry out a systematic literature review by using numerous software (i.e., BiBexcel, Gephi, and VOSviewer) for clustering existing literature in digitalized SCM from the Web of Science. Result: Our findings suggest that Industry 4.0, Big data, Blockchain, and supply chain resilience are the four key categories in the research on digitalized SCM. Implications: This study explains the reasons behind the research in these four categories. This literature review helps researchers to build a comprehensive knowledge of the research status of digitalized SCM and contributes to the direction of future research in digitalized SCM that helps researchers to explore their further investigations in the combination of SCM and Industry 4.0, Big data, Blockchain, and supply chain resilience.

Food insecurity: addressing a challenging social problem with supply chains and service ecosystems

PurposeExtant literature in supply chain management tends to address a portion of the product flow to make food accessible to clients in need. The authors present a broader view of food insecurity and present nuances relevant to appreciate the complexities of dealing with this social problem.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted an inductive study to reveal the deep meaning of the context as managers of nonprofit organizations (NPO) define and address food insecurity. The focus was on a delimited geographic area for capturing interactions among NPOs which have not been described previously.FindingsThis study describes the role of supply chains collaborating in unexpected ways in the not-for-profit context, leading to interesting insights for the conceptual development of service ecosystems. This is relevant because the solution for the food insecure stems from the orchestration of assistance provided by the many supply chains for social assistance.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors introduce two concepts: customer sharing and customer release. Customer sharing enables these supply chains behave like an ecosystem with no focal organization. Customer release is the opposite to customer retention, when the food insecure stops needing assistance.Social implicationsThe authors describe the use of customer-centric measures of success such improved health measured. The solution to food insecurity for an individual is likely to be the result of the orchestration of assistance provided by several supply chains.Originality/valueThe authors started asking who the client is and how the NPOs define food insecurity, leading to discussing contrasts between food access and utilization, between hunger relief and nourishment, between assistance and solution of the problem, and between supply chains and ecosystems.

Road Infrastructure, Supply Chain Costs Reduction, and Road Safety in Economic Geography Perspective

Purpose: While it is expected that road transport infrastructure may enhance supply chain cost reduction, the mechanisms and conditions under which road transport infrastructure may enhance supply chain cost reduction are less understood. Theoretical framework: Drawing insights from the economic geography perspective, and survey data from 359 senior managers of manufacturing firms in Ghana, we found support for the argument that road transport infrastructure is important in the quest to improve supply chain cost reduction. Methods: The hypothesized model was tested with survey data from beverage manufacturing firms in Ghana. The survey method is usually appropriate for strategic management studies. Results and Conclusion: Our findings also suggest that road safety does not just support supply chain cost reduction but serves as a transformative mechanism to reap superior supply chain cost reduction in a resource-constrained environment. Our findings make a contemporary contribution to the economic geography theory as well as important managerial guidance for managers in the supply chain management space in resource-constrained regions like SSA. Research implications: The outcome of this study offers an important extension to the frontiers of innovative literature in supply chain management. Originality/value: It also provides practical insight to practitioners in the manufacturing setting by emphasizing the need to pay crucial attention to road safety as well as invest in road infrastructure development in the quest to reduce supply chain costs.

Impact of trade credit on innovation performance: the mediating roles of information sharing and collaborative R&D

ABSTRACT Trade credit, vital in operations and supply chain management, has been extensively studied for its financial and operational impact, but a gap exists in its role in innovation performance. Grounded in social exchange theory, our study employs a conceptual framework to explore trade credit’s association with innovation, covering product and process aspects. Leveraging data from the China Enterprise Survey conducted by the World Bank, encompassing 1,643 firms, we employ regression analysis to scrutinise the influence of trade credit on innovation performance. We also delve into the mediating mechanisms of information sharing and collaborative R&D. The findings reveal a positive correlation between trade credit and a firm’s innovation performance. Moreover, trade credit exerts its impact on product innovation through information sharing and collaborative R&D, while it predominantly supports process innovation via information sharing. This research enhances supply chain management literature by detailing the nuanced relationship between trade credit and innovation performance.

More or complex actions? Effects of supply networks on firms' competitive aggressiveness

PurposeThis study investigates the extent to which a firm’s centrality and autonomy in its supply network are associated with the intensity and complexity of its competitive actions.Design/methodology/approachUtilizing social network analysis and dynamic panel data models, this study analyzes a comprehensive panel dataset with 10,802 firm-year observations across various industries between 2011 and 2018 to test the hypotheses.FindingsOur findings show that a firm’s level of centrality in its supply network has an inverted U-shaped relationship with both competitive intensity and competitive complexity. In addition, the turning points of these two inverted U-shaped relationships differ in that firms with a lower level of centrality tend to compete aggressively by launching more actions within fewer categories, while firms with a higher level of centrality tend to compete aggressively by launching fewer actions that cover a larger range of categories. Finally, we find that a firm’s structural autonomy has a positive relationship with competitive complexity.Originality/valueThis study bridges the gap between the supply chain management literature and strategic management literature and investigates how supply networks shape competitive aggressiveness. In particular, this research investigates how a firm’s structural position in its supply network affects its competitive actions, an important intermediate mechanism for competitive advantage that has been overlooked in the supply chain management literature.

Leveraging intellectual capital for building a supply chain circular economy system: A knowledge-based view

Organizations are inevitably pursuing circular economy goals through a supply chain approach. This paper examines the impact of intellectual capital on supply chain circular economy (SCCE) systems made up of a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) and a reverse omnichannel. By employing the knowledge-based view, this paper constructed the relationship between intellectual capital and SCCE systems. We tested the proposed hypotheses by employing structural equation modeling on a dataset collected from 193 Chinese manufacturing firms. Finally, we used a bootstrap method and tested the indirect effect of intellectual capital components on SCCE systems. We found that intellectual capital both directly and indirectly contributed to SCCE systems. Human capital and structural capital, in particular, were positively associated with CLSC, whereas social capital was strongly related to reverse omnichannel. However, human capital and structural capital had no significant relationship with reverse omnichannel, and social capital had no significant impact on CLSC. We also found that structural capital mediated the human capital-CLSC association, and social capital played a mediating role between human capital and reverse omnichannel. Drawing on the knowledge-based view, our study offers insights into the intellectual capital literature, circular economy literature, and supply chain management literature. The findings add to our existing understanding of how existing knowledge of the organization can be leveraged for better operations by CLSC and improved services by reverse omnichannel.

Toward the role of organizational culture in data-driven digital transformation

Data-driven digital transformation is increasingly recognized as a crucial element of unlocking new business value, leveraging data-driven approaches in organizational business strategies and operations. Concurrently, organizational culture emerges as a critical factor in the organizational transformation process and success. However, current literature offers sparse insights into how organizational culture affects data-driven digital transformation. To gain deeper insights, this study leverages two complementary organizational culture frameworks to examine their relationship with data-driven digital transformation. Moreover, we investigate the link between data-driven digital transformation and operational performance in a manufacturing context. Utilizing data from 317 surveys, our findings show that organizational culture significantly affects data-driven digital transformation, which consequently impacts operational performance. This study advances understanding of the critical role of organizational culture in facilitating data-driven digital transformation, addressing a previously underexplored area in Operations and Supply Chain Management literature. By employing a dual-framework approach, it provides a more nuanced comprehension of organizational culture's impact on data-driven digital transformation while clarifying the complex relationship between digital transformation and operational performance within the manufacturing sector. Our study also delivers significant practical contributions, guiding organizations in effectively implementing and benefiting from data-driven digital transformation initiatives.

Blockchain for compliance: an information processing case study of mandatory supply chain transparency in conflict minerals sourcing

Purpose Firms are increasingly pressured to comply with mandatory supply chain transparency (SCT) regulations. Drawing on information processing theory (IPT), this study aims to show how blockchain technology can address information uncertainty and equivocality in assuring regulatory compliance in an interorganizational network (ION). Design/methodology/approach IPT is applied in a single case study of an ION in the mining industry that aimed to implement blockchain to address mandatory SCT regulations. The authors build on a rich proprietary data set consisting of interviews and substantial secondary material from actors along the supply chain. Findings The case shows that blockchain creates equality between actors, enables compliance and enhances efficiency in an ION, reducing information uncertainty and equivocality arising from conflict minerals regulation. The system promotes engagement and data sharing between parties while protecting commercial sensitive information. The lack of central authority prevents larger partners from taking control. The system provides mineral provenance and a regulation-compliant record. System cost analysis shows that the system is efficient as it is inexpensive relative to volumes and values of metals transacted. Issues were identified related to collecting richer human rights data for assurance and compliance with due diligence regulations. Originality/value The authors provide some of the first evidence in the operations and supply chain management literature of the specific architecture, costs and limitations of using blockchain for SCT. Using an IPT lens in an ION setting, the authors demonstrate how blockchain-based systems can address two key IPT challenges: environmental uncertainty and equivocality.

Measuring supply chain finance: a study of scale development and validation in the emerging market context

Purpose Financing remains a serious concern for firms and is considered the main hurdle in the growth and development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Recently, a new stream of financing (SCF; supply chain finance) has emerged to meet the financing issues of SMEs. Therefore, measuring SCF is essential to support SMEs’ operations. This study aims to develop and validate the SCF scale based on extant literature. Design/methodology/approach Using a mixed-method approach, this study recruited different samples of SME entrepreneurs to confirm the internal consistency, assess construct validity and check the item structure of the SCF scale in AMOS. Findings The outcomes of confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated the six factors of SCF (inventory financing, working capital optimization, reverse financing, fixed assets financing, logistics financing and order cycle financing) spread over 21 items. An interitem solid structure of the SCF scale offers invaluable contributions to the supply chain management literature. Practical implications This research supports SME entrepreneurs to obtain secure financing at the best cost, mitigating the risk of default, supporting the buyers’ payment terms, providing early payment to suppliers and strengthening the firm’s value chains. SMEs can obtain financing per their requirements to support their operational business processes. Moreover, SMEs can plan, manage and control finance-related transactional activities by correctly identifying financing solutions. Originality/value The present study contributes to SCM literature by developing and validating the SCF scale. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that redefined SCF and identified its six dimensions.

Neo-institutionalism in supply chain management: from supply chain susceptibility to supply chain resilience

Purpose Neo-institutional theories and their constructs have so far only received limited attention in supply chain management literature. As recent supply chain disruptions and their ripple effects affect actors on a broader institutional level, supply chains are confronted with multiple new and emerging, often conflicting, institutional demands. This study aims to unpack the notion of institutional complexity behind supply chain disruptions and present a novel institutional framework to lower supply chain susceptibility and increase supply chain resilience. Design/methodology/approach The authors identify the patterns of complexity that shape the supply chain susceptibility, namely, distance, diversity and ambiguity, and present three institutional responses to susceptibility to increase supply chain resilience, namely, institutional entrepreneurship, institutional alignment and institutional layering. Findings This paper analyses the current situational relevance to better understand the various and patterned ways how logics influence both supply chain susceptibility and the supply chain resilience. The authors derive six propositions on how complexity can be reduced for supply chain susceptibility and can be increased for supply chain resilience. Originality/value By expanding and extending research on institutional complexity to supply chains, the authors broaden how researchers in supply chain management view supply chain susceptibility, thereby providing managers with theory to think differently about supply chains and its resilience.

A simheuristic approach towards supply chain scheduling: Integrating production, maintenance and distribution

This study attempts to integrate production, maintenance, and delivery operations among supply chain members. Despite numerous studies in the field of supply chain management, researchers have often overlooked crucial aspects, such as uncertainties in demand and production. For instance, the significant impact of maintenance activities on production flow has been underrepresented in supply chain management literature. This study investigates these gaps in the context of a fertilizer producer case study, which is characterized by seasonal demand and the functional silos syndrome due to old-fashioned management approaches. This study proposes a mathematical model and two multi-objective simheuristics for the Integrated Production, Maintenance, and Distribution Scheduling Problem (IPMDSP) considering demand variation for multiple products and product delivery time-windows using a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles. The IPMDSP is solved using the ϵ-constraint method and simheuristics linking the simulation model to customized and tuned versions of Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) and the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II). The optimization objectives include minimizing maintenance duration, distribution costs, and customer dissatisfaction due to delivery tardiness. The results demonstrate the superiority of the simheuristic empowered by NSGA-II over the MOPSO in solving the IPMDSP. The comparison between the performance of deterministic and stochastic approaches in addressing the problem reveals that neglecting uncertainty caused by maintenance activities can lead to an increase in optimization objectives. Furthermore, the proposed simheuristics achieved significant improvements in minimizing objectives in solving the fertilizer producer case study.

The impact of supply chain strategy on supply chain transparency over the firm lifecycle: evidence from China

PurposeIn this study, the authors investigate whether supply chain (SC) strategies (lean or agile) improve or hinder the supply chain transparency (SCT) and what factors affect this relation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors measure the level of SC strategy using natural language processing based on the annual financial reports of listed firms. Secondary data analysis is conducted on various databases encompassing 1,241 listed firms in China from 2011 to 2020. Additional tests are performed to assess the robustness of the results, and alternative explanations are duly considered.FindingsThe authors find that firms with an advanced level of SC strategy perform better on SCT. Furthermore, the authors observe that Agile SC strategy and Lean SC strategy have different effects on SCT over a firm’s life cycle. Agile SC strategy (the ratio of the proportion of Agile SC strategy word frequency divided by the proportion of Lean SC strategy word frequency greater than 1) has a significantly positive effect on SCT in the maturity stage; Lean SC strategy (the ratio less than 1) has a positive effect on SCT in the growth and decline stages. An increase in online media coverage negatively moderates the impact of the SC strategy (frequency of Lean and Agile SC strategy-related keywords) on SCT in the maturity stage. An increase in government environmental subsidies positively moderates the impact of SC strategy on SCT in the maturity and decline stages. Additionally, an increase in industrial competition intensity positively moderates the impact of the SC strategy on SCT in the decline stage.Originality/valueThe authors' study contributes to the Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM) literature by revealing the positive impact of SC strategy on SCT with objective secondary data. Additionally, the authors examine the moderating effects of moderators over the lifecycle of a firm on this relationship in an emerging market context. The authors' findings offer valuable guidance to companies operating in diverse market environments, providing actionable insights to strengthen their SC strategies and enhance SCT.

Pressures for sub‐supplier sustainability compliance: The importance of target markets in textile and garment supply chains

AbstractWe propose that sub‐supplier sustainability compliance in developing economies' textile and garment supply chains can be more effectively realized by understanding sub‐suppliers' target markets. We introduce the concept of sub‐suppliers' customer share of production as the share of production that sub‐suppliers sell to “exporting” direct suppliers that cater to the international market vis‐à‐vis “local” direct suppliers that cater to the domestic market. Through this concept and qualitative evidence, we offer a model outlining that as sub‐suppliers sell more to exporting direct suppliers, they encounter increased coercive, competitive, and collaborative pressures for sustainability compliance. This article contributes to the multi‐tier sustainable supply chain management literature by illustrating how target markets exert pressures for sub‐supplier sustainability compliance, and why some sub‐suppliers are more inclined to invest in sustainability compliance, some decouple from it, and others invest beyond compliance. We conclude with business strategy guidelines for managers in textile and garment supply chains.

The Relationship between Corporate Environmental Performance and Suppliers’ Credit Lending

Green supply chain management has gained traction in contemporary times against many environmental catastrophes and scandals involving prominent companies. Despite the strides made by lawmakers to address such challenges, an increasing number of corporations overlook environmental issues such as global warming, ecological concerns, reverse logistics, and global energy. Notwithstanding the contributions in prior studies, to the best of researchers’ knowledge, no study has sought to link corporate environmental performance with suppliers’ credit lending practices. Yet policymakers seek to develop regulations that incorporate the understanding of the collaboration among the supply chain members. Thus, we seek to establish the short-run and long-run dynamics between corporate environmental performance and suppliers’ credit lending. Targeting companies listed in the FTSE/JSE RII, we draw a sample of 21 companies using a judgemental sampling technique. Furthermore, archival data were collected to compute a short panel data set. The panel data set for statistical analysis comprised 21 cross-sections over six years, totalling 126 observations. The study adopted the first differenced econometric models in data analyses, namely Panel Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and, subsequently, Panel Least Squares (PLS), Wald Test, and Impulse Response Functions (IRF). Findings indicated a statistically significant positive relationship exists in the long run between corporate environmental performance and suppliers’ credit lending. Conversely, the same endogenous variables produced a statistically significant negative relationship in the short run. The study contributes new insights to supply chain management literature and renders novel policy implications for lawmakers.

Exploring sustainable development goals adoption in supply chain management: A typology of coexisting institutional logics

AbstractDespite growing interest in the 17 United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs), companies still struggle with how to implement them as part of their sustainability policies. Hence, we explore how the SDGs are adopted in supply chain management (SCM) using institutional logic as a theoretical lens. Based on a case study, we analyse 10 interviews conducted with managers and suppliers of a multinational cosmetics company recognised for its sustainability engagement. Our findings show that while the strategic level embraces the SDG framework, supply management processes are exclusively evident at the operational level. This becomes even more salient in the analysis of sustainability and commercial coexisting logics. Although sustainability logic concerns compliance with sustainability‐related regulations and external pressures, commercial logic demonstrates the effective engagement of strategic decisions in favor of profitability. Our results reveal nuances in the existing gap between the SDGs and SCM, illustrated through a typology of coexisting logics at the strategic and operational levels, adding value to the SCM literature. This paper questions the feasibility of implementing the UN SDGs along a supply chain, which opens the door for future research and new practical insights relevant to companies' daily operations.

Systemic review of the literature of green supply chain management in the food packaging industry

The awareness of green supply chain management (GSCM) has grown in the past year, particularly in the food packaging industry, due to population growth and its environmental impact. To explore this, we studied global perspectives on and contributions to GSCM, aiming to apply insights to developing countries. Our research revealed three main barriers hindering GSCM adoption in emerging economies: limited knowledge,inadequate technology, and high costs. By examining several authors’ viewpoints, we created a timeline showcasing GSCM’s evolution, enabling targeted improvements within the food packaging industry. Through this analysis, our paper not only reaffirms its initial objectives but also provides a foundation of tools and information for future GSCM research. This work contributes to the understanding of GSCM’s benefits and challenges, facilitating sustainable practices in a vital industry.

Pricing decisions in a two-period closed-loop supply chain game under asymmetric information and uncertainty

AbstractStrategies to increase sustainability are of growing relevance for supply chains and especially for the management of production processes. In this paper, we build on existing literature in closed-loop supply chain management and consider a two-period game-theoretic model in which product returns are reused in the manufacturing process. In all scenarios, we assume that the return rate of used products is random and not known to the players at the beginning of the planning horizon, thus, they have to deal with uncertainty in period 1. In contrast to existing literature, we will also address the circumstance that the players’ level of information in period 2, after the returns have been realized, can be linked to the collection mode in the supply chain. In Scenario A, the retailer is involved in the collection of the used products and transfers them to the manufacturer, so that symmetric information is available. In Scenario B, on the other hand, the used products reach the manufacturer directly from the customer, so that the manufacturer has an information advantage over the retailer. By comparing these scenarios and a vertically integrated supply chain benchmark case, it becomes clear that, depending on the actual return rate, the presence of private information can be either beneficial or detrimental to the manufacturer. The retailer, on the other hand, can compensate for information disadvantages in most cases over the multi-period planning period due to its position as a Stackelberg leader. Regardless of the amount of a transfer payment offered to it by the manufacturer, it prefers the collection of the goods by the manufacturer itself. These findings contribute to literature on symmetric information, where, for example, a retailer-led collection is preferred (Savaskan et al. Manage Sci 50(2):239–252, 2004) or the decision depends on the amount of the transfer payment (Modak et al. J Clean Prod 171:512–528, 2018). However, we show that cooperation between the players leads to the best results not only economically but also from an ecological point of view.