Knowledge that Transforms

AbstractThis study extends the developing body of literature on supply chain integration (SCI), which is the degree to which a manufacturer strategically collaborates with its supply chain partners and collaboratively manages intra‐ and inter‐organizational processes, in order to achieve effective and efficient flows of products and services, information, money and decisions, to provide maximum value to the customer. The previous research is inconsistent in its findings about the relationship between SCI and performance. We attribute this inconsistency to incomplete definitions of SCI, in particular, the tendency to focus on customer and supplier integration only, excluding the important central link of internal integration. We study the relationship between three dimensions of SCI, operational and business performance, from both a contingency and a configuration perspective. In applying the contingency approach, hierarchical regression was used to determine the impact of individual SCI dimensions (customer, supplier and internal integration) and their interactions on performance. In the configuration approach, cluster analysis was used to develop patterns of SCI, which were analyzed in terms of SCI strength and balance. Analysis of variance was used to examine the relationship between SCI pattern and performance. The findings of both the contingency and configuration approach indicated that SCI was related to both operational and business performance. Furthermore, the results indicated that internal and customer integration were more strongly related to improving performance than supplier integration.

AbstractThis study investigates the effects of Chinese companies’ institutional environment on the development of trust and information integration between buyers and suppliers. Three aspects of China's institutional environment are salient: legal protection, government support, and the importance of guanxi (interpersonal relationships). This study uses structural equation modeling to analyze data collected from 398 Chinese manufacturing companies. Government support and importance of guanxi significantly affect trust, which subsequently influences two elements of information integration, namely, information sharing and collaborative planning. Furthermore, the importance of guanxi has a direct, positive impact on information sharing, and government support has a direct, positive effect on both information sharing and collaborative planning.

AbstractIn global business‐to‐business markets, shared resources between buyers and suppliers often result in competitive advantages and enhanced relationships between firms. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of research regarding learning capabilities between business partners in a cross‐border setting. This study takes the approach to integrate customer value literature into interorganizational learning theory and adopts the often‐neglected theoretical perspective of transaction value by contextualizing inter‐firm collaboration in terms of relationship learning and value co‐creation viewed by both the buyers and sellers in one single study. Through the development of a conceptual framework that examines how global environmental and inter‐organizational conditions influence learning capabilities, the study investigates how relationship learning influences relationship value for both supplying and buying firms. Using a survey of 126 cross‐border dyads in the industrial chemical, packaging, consumer durable, and apparel industries, the authors show how relationship learning is valued by both buyers and suppliers, and how it is critical when viewing the “supplier as a customer.” The results indicate the strategic nature of relationship learning in maintaining cross‐border business‐to‐business relationships. Simultaneously, the findings provide evidence that cultural distance is not a significant influence on the firm's propensity to share knowledge with its global partners. It helps advance our understanding of the significance of cultural‐pollination in the era of globalization.

AbstractFirms are building collaborative relationships with their supply chain partners in order to achieve efficiencies, flexibility, and sustainable competitive advantage. However, it is unclear if collaborative relationships provide benefits that compensate for the additional expense associated with such relationships. Further, it is unclear what factors promote successful collaborations. This research examines collaborative relationships in two separate studies using structural equation modeling: one study examines buyers’ perceptions and the second study examines suppliers’ perceptions. The two studies are then compared using invariance testing in order to determine economic and relational factors that drive satisfaction and performance from each party's perspective. Results show that collaborative activities, such as information sharing, joint relationship effort, and dedicated investments lead to trust and commitment. Trust and commitment, in turn, lead to improved satisfaction and performance. Results from the two independent studies exhibit similarities and differences; while the conceptual model is highly similar, certain paths vary in their significance and/or their importance across buyer and supplier firms such that buyers focus more on relationship outcomes while suppliers look to safeguard their transaction specific investments through information sharing and joint relationship effort. Managerial and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

AbstractSuppliers have become an increasingly important source of product and process innovation. While case studies have documented how supplier innovation can benefit a manufacturer, this relationship has not been empirically validated, nor have contingencies been explored. Using organizational learning theory we posit that the link between supplier innovativeness and manufacturer performance is moderated by the “fit” between the learning styles of the manufacturer and supplier. We empirically test our hypotheses using hierarchical linear modeling of survey responses from 148 manufacturers concerning 592 suppliers. Results indicate that supplier innovativeness has positive impacts on multiple dimensions of manufacturer performance. Results show that when the outsourced activity involves low levels of design responsibility by the supplier, it is more beneficial for the two partners to have contrasting learning styles. However, when the outsourced activity is design‐intensive, it is more beneficial to have a supplier with an explorative learning style.

AbstractThe influence of stakeholder pressure on the adoption of environmental practices has been established in the literature. In this paper we posit that these direct effects are further mediated, causally, by the level of training in companies. Theoretically, this relationship is supported by the relationship between institutional theory (stakeholder pressure) and the dimensions of dynamic capabilities in resource‐based theory. We investigate this relationship within the Spanish automotive industry. The theoretical contribution of this paper focuses on further supporting the relationship between stakeholder and resource‐based theory as complementary theoretical frameworks. The practical implications focus on whether or not training should be integrated in order to help in the adoption of particular environmental practices, which in this study are represented by environmentally oriented reverse logistics practices.

AbstractGlobalization forces managers to utilize manufacturing capabilities from countries with different cultures than their own, particularly from Asia. Yet quality problems in China have raised concerns among managers and researchers as to how to assure product quality from Asian facilities. Implementing quality management practices may accomplish this, but such practices assume specific cultural values exist in certain Asian cultures. Using global manufacturing and cultural data, this study examines if cultural values in Asian and non‐Asian countries moderate how effective quality management practices are at improving quality performance. Through the use of multilevel modeling, differences in quality management effectiveness are found among the East Asian cultures of China, South Korea, and Taiwan. Moreover, this study finds that specific cultural dimensions are statistically related to quality management effectiveness. The results of this study will assist managers in devising plans to assure higher quality from East Asian facilities and in predicting where problems may occur in other countries around the world.

AbstractThis study investigates the influence of an ambidextrous supply chain strategy on manufacturers’ combinative competitive capabilities – the ability to excel simultaneously on competitive capabilities of quality, delivery, flexibility, and cost – and, in turn, on business performance. Drawing upon March's (1991) notions of exploration and exploitation, an ambidextrous supply chain strategy is conceptualized as a simultaneous pursuit of both explorative and exploitative supply chain practices. We operationalize this concept as a second‐order latent construct that captures the co‐variation between exploration and exploitation within the context of a manufacturer's supply chain management strategy. Using survey‐based data gathered from 174 U.S. manufacturers, we find that an ambidextrous supply chain strategy coincides with combinative competitive capabilities and business performance. Our empirical finding contradicts conventional wisdom that argues for tradeoffs between exploration and exploitation. Instead, our empirical results are in line with an emerging complementarity view advocating that supply chain managers build practices to gain operational efficiency while simultaneously searching for opportunities to gain operational advantages. In addition, we provide insights regarding the role of combinative capabilities in mediating the relationship between an ambidextrous supply chain strategy and business performance.

AbstractThis study reports evidence that concentrated 3‐firm supply chains achieve superior financial performance, and that supply chains’ financial performance varies systematically with measures of chain concentration and chain duration. Results from firm‐level analyses suggest that the profitability benefits of supply chain relationships are captured predominantly by downstream chain members, whereas cash cycle benefits are realized throughout the supply chain. Firm‐level tests also reveal that chain members’ financial performance varies systematically with measures of downstream bargaining power, downstream relationship duration, and degree of supply consolidation. The study's chain‐ and firm‐level analyses employ data extracted from sample firms’ publicly available financial reports, including their major customer disclosures under Statement of Financial Accounting Standards Nos. 131 (1997) and 14 (1976).

AbstractDrawing upon organizational culture and institutional theory, this study investigates how institutional pressures motivate the firm to adopt Internet‐enabled Supply Chain Management systems (eSCM) and how such effects are moderated by organizational culture. The results of a survey of 131 firms suggest that the dimensions of institutional pressures (i.e., normative, mimetic, and coercive pressures) have differential effects on eSCM adoption intention. While mimetic pressures are not related to eSCM adoption intention, normative and coercive pressures are positively associated with eSCM adoption intention. In addition, organizational culture (i.e., flexibility orientation and control orientation) plays different roles in the relationships between these three dimensions of institutional pressures and eSCM adoption intention. While flexibility orientation negatively moderates the effects of coercive pressures and positively moderates the effects of mimetic pressures, control orientation positively moderates the effects of coercive and normative pressures and negatively moderates the effects of mimetic pressures. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided.