AbstractThis paper revisits Frohlich and Westbrook's arcs of integration concept [Arcs of integration: an international study of supply chain strategies. Journal of Operations Management 2001, 19 (2) pp. 185–200]. Using survey responses from 403 supply chain professionals, we compare the arcs of integration group memberships generated with our sample to the original study, rationalize the classification scheme, and assess the impact of supply chain integration strategies on quality, delivery, flexibility and cost performance. In doing so we cross‐validate Frohlich and Westbrook's framework with a more recent and broader sample of data utilizing multi‐dimensional performance measures collected from supply chain managers. We ground these relationships in the relational and resource‐based views of the firm. We also extend Frohlich and Westbrook's study by investigating the moderating role of internal integration on the relationships between arcs of integration and performance. In accordance with information processing theory, the results indicate that internal integration strengthens the positive impacts of external integration on both delivery and flexibility performance. However, the theory is not supported for either quality or cost performance. Overall, our study confirms and extends the work of Frohlich and Westbrook, augments theories used to describe supply chain integration efforts, and provides practical implications for managers.

AbstractService triads, in which a buyer contracts with a supplier to deliver services directly to the buyer's customer, represent an emerging business model. This special issue is dedicated to this theme. To set the context, in this lead article, we first define service triads, both as a phenomenon and a research topic. We then provide a review of different strands of existing research and various theoretical frameworks that can inform our study of service triads. This culminates in an outline of a research agenda that can guide future study. As such, this paper not only introduces the articles in the special issue, but is also intended as a point of reference and motivation for further work on service triads, and on triads in general.

Models and understanding of line design depend on accurate assessments of the effects of design parameters on human actions. Although equity theory predicts that workers will react to the speed of people around them, experimental work has failed to find this effect in an industrial setting with parallel workstations or a change in coworkers. With the current research we contribute to the understanding of line design by using archival data from a manufacturing line. We show that workers do react to the speed of their coworkers, but that individual reactions vary widely. Because workers are different both in speed and reaction, managerial implications are not straightforward. We model an optimal and a heuristic rearrangement of workers and suggest a modified heuristic that performs well for increasing throughput. Our methodology combines empirical approaches, analytical modeling, and Monte Carlo simulation.

AbstractThis study investigates the impact of the Chinese government's Level I emergency response policy on manufacturers' stock market values. We empirically examine the roles of human resource dependence (labor intensity) and operational slack within the context of supply chain resilience. Through an event study of 1357 Chinese manufacturing companies, we find that the government's emergency response policy triggered statistically significant positive abnormal returns for manufacturers. However, we also find that there exists a negative impact on abnormal returns for manufacturers that are labor‐intensive, giving rise to arguments based in resource dependence theory. In addition, the results indicate the positive role played by operational slack (e.g., financial and inventory slack) in helping manufacturers maintain operations and business continuity, effectively mitigating risks and adding to the manufacturers' resilience. With these findings, we contribute to operations and supply chain management by calling attention to the importance of human resource redundancy while at the same time identifying financial slack and inventory as supply chain resilience strategies that were able to mitigate pandemic‐related risks.