A global meaning of supply chain social sustainability

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to help reduce tensions in supply chain social sustainability (SCSS) decisions by providing a common global, contextual definition of social sustainability. This exploratory study utilised an inductive structured interview method to capture SCSS concept meanings. Those interviewed are from, have lived, and worked in developed economies, emerging economies and the base of the pyramid (BOP) economies. The results present a new global baseline definition of SCSS to inform theory and practice by finding that SCSS meanings differ not only between the different levels of economic development, but also within the levels as well. Culture, community and whether basic human needs are met all weigh into perspectives of what this concept is and should entail; a broad, contingent definition is most appropriate moving forward for sustainability planning and execution. Further research with stakeholders in more countries and communities is needed to validate our proposal.     

Sustainable supply chain management and the transition towards a circular economy: Evidence and some applications

In the last decades, green and sustainable supply chain management practices have been developed, trying to integrate environmental concerns into organisations by reducing unintended negative consequences on the environment of production and consumption processes. In parallel to this, the circular economy discourse has been propagated in the industrial ecology literature and practice. Circular economy pushes the frontiers of environmental sustainability by emphasising the idea of transforming products in such a way that there are workable relationships between ecological systems and economic growth. Therefore, circular economy is not just concerned with the reduction of the use of the environment as a sink for residuals but rather with the creation of self-sustaining production systems in which materials are used over and over again.Through two case studies from different process industries (chemical and food), this paper compares the performances of traditional and circular production systems across a range of indicators. Direct, indirect and total lifecycle emissions, waste recovered, virgin resources use, as well as carbon maps (which provide a holistic visibility of the entire supply chain) are presented. The paper asserts that an integration of circular economy principles within sustainable supply chain management can provide clear advantages from an environmental point view. Emerging supply chain management challenges and market dynamics are also highlighted and discussed.     

Scrutinising the interplay between governance and resilience in supply chain management: A systems thinking framework

Supply chain disruptions recurrently challenge end-to-end operations owing to the ambiguous understanding of the role of governance in impacting supply network resilience. This paper scrutinises the relevant literature to understand the plethora of interpretations in supply chain governance and resilience while further providing a new perspective on the representation of the interplay between governance and resilience in supply chains. In this regard, the Systems Thinking lens is adopted to pull together the typologies and constructs of supply chain governance and resilience from the literature. Methodologically, System Dynamics modelling principles are leveraged to capture the underpinning structural interdependencies in a causal loop diagram. The study reveals that endogenous and exogenous supply chain governance processes and mechanisms support the intrinsic and extrinsic resilience in networks. Overall, this research contributes to the supply chain risk management domain by synthesising the interplay between governance and resilience, identifying pertinent typologies, and articulating research propositions that can inform decision-making at policy and management levels.     

Linking global value chains and supply chain management: evidence from the electric motors industry

The global value chain (GVC) framework and its central concept of governance are increasingly advocated as powerful tools for interpreting managerial issues with particular reference to global supply chain (SC) management. However, a gap still exists about how the GVC concepts, which have been developed at the industry level, can be applied at the company level. The aim of this work is therefore to investigate how the concepts of GVC structure and governance are related to the way the SC is managed. Several research propositions drawn from the literature are investigated by means of seven case studies in the electric motors industry. The results show that the GVC can be a useful framework for understanding and deploying SC management at the company level. Moreover, the analysis of the governance modes provides an effective tool to explain the existing degree of technological and operational collaboration in the SC. Finally, we show the importance of considering such contextual factors as company size and the competitive priorities of the company to move seamlessly between the GVC, at the industry level, and SC management, at the company level.     

An action research methodology for manufacturing technology selection: a supply chain perspective

This paper presents an empirical research approach to developing and implementing a manufacturing technology-selection framework. In this paper, the selection of action research as an empirical research methodology is preferred because it provides the researcher with the necessary flexibility to actively participate in the research activity and to analyse the situation in detail by being part of the research system under investigation. The main objective of this paper is to use action research as an empirical research tool in order to provide a methodology for technology selection in the context of extended supply chains considering intra- and inter-organisational (supply chain) perspective while promoting active collaboration between industry and academia.     

Far from Silicon Valley: How emerging economies are re-shaping our understanding of global entrepreneurship

In this paper we describe three distinct but interrelated processes — spillover and catch up, brokering and bottom up — that link globalization to entrepreneurship in emerging economies. We then outline an ambitious research agenda concerning entrepreneurship in the emerging economy context. Is most of such entrepreneurship Kirznerian or Schumpeterian? How do brokering processes work in this context? What informal and formal institutions will emerge to govern entrepreneurship? Does entrepreneurship at the base of the pyramid represent just another MNE-inspired spillover, or will the severe constraints lead to truly revolutionary innovations in business models, governance arrangements and social relations? Most fundamentally, will the entrepreneurial processes in emerging economies conform to or transform the organization of entrepreneurship as we know it?     

A knowledge chain management framework to support integrated decisions in global supply chains

Knowledge management has been identified as a key enabler to achieve organisation’s value chain competitiveness. It, however, has been facing fresh challenges in a global supply chain setting. This paper proposes a global knowledge chain management (GKCM) framework that identifies and prioritises critical knowledge that a global supply chain can focus on to support integrated decisions. The framework explores three types of global context knowledge, namely global market knowledge, global capacity knowledge and global supply network configuration knowledge. Empirical study has been undertaken within the manufacturing industry to evaluate the GKCM framework. Analytic network process has been explored as a key method to assess the importance of the global knowledge constructs from supply chain managers’ perspectives. A key contribution of the paper is that it advances existing knowledge chain management approaches within one organisation and its local supply chain to include the global context knowledge applicable to global manufacturing settings, and highlights how the GKCM framework can support global supply chain integrated decisions.     

基于聚类挖掘的供应链绩效评价的标杆选择法

标杆法作为供应链绩效评价的一种方法具有重要的应用价值,而如何针对既定目标选 择合适的标杆并提供可信的依据是这类方法的瓶颈. 针对这个问题,提出利用基于密度的聚类 挖掘技术采集分析供应链的特征,为使用标杆法比较和改善供应链的绩效提供决策依据. 首先 对已知供应链的绩效指标值数据进行标准化处理,然后采用基于密度的聚类挖掘技术(改进的 K - 均值聚类方法) 进行分类,通过分析各类供应链的特点和差异解决了标杆选择的问题,最 后设计了一个算例说明方法的应用.     

Overcoming blind spots in global sourcing research: Exploiting the cross-sections between supply chain management and international business

This article reviews existing work on global sourcing and suggests a number of new theoretical directions for research in this area. We discuss how international business (IB) and supply chain management (SCM) research can benefit from increased cross-fertilization of themes and perspectives. We begin by introducing a taxonomy of global sourcing research, building on relevant insights from SCM research. We then generate recommendations for potential future research on global sourcing, particularly highlighting antecedents, processes, performance and contextual variables. SCM research employs the entire supply chain as the primary unit of analysis (rather than the individual firm), while IB research focuses primarily on international aspects, adapting to institutional contexts in a globalized world. Building on this complementarity, several specific empirical directions are proposed for future research directions.     

The relationship between supply chain manager capabilities and performance: empirical evidence

This study seeks to answer the question how supply chain managers’ capabilities impact individual and firm performance. Organisations have begun to recognise the importance of their supply chain and the necessity for qualified supply chain managers. Therefore, there is a need for further research on the impact of these capabilities on individual and firm performance. Sustained performance of a firm depends on dynamic capabilities and it allows firms to align and adapt strategies according to the volatile external environment. Using dynamic capabilities theory, the supply chain manager capabilities model was developed as a way for supply chain managers to effectively use their skills and past experiences to improve their own and firm’s performance. Primary data was collected through a survey distributed to supply chain management professionals. The results strongly support the relationship between technology and soft skills with supply chain manager capabilities. Interestingly, our study identifies sequential relationship amongst the three constructs such as capabilities, individual and firm performance. Capabilities are related with individual performance whereas individual performance is related with the firm performance. However, our findings revealed that there is no direct relationship between supply chain manager capabilities and firm performance.     

Mean-risk analysis of radio frequency identification technology in supply chain with inventory misplacement: Risk-sharing and coordination

This paper investigates the application of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to eliminate the misplacement problems in the supply chain, which consists of a risk-neutral manufacturer and a risk-averse retailer. By considering both fixed cost and tag cost of RFID implementation, we study the agents' incentives to adopt RFID in both uncoordinated and coordinated cases. We focus on analyzing the impact of risk attitudes on the agents’ incentives and on the supply chain coordination. The central semi-deviation is adopted to measure the retailer's risk attitude. In the uncoordinated case, we find that, in order to induce the retailer to adopt RFID, the manufacturer must assume more fixed cost if the retailer is more risk-averse. In the coordinated case, we first show that the standard revenue sharing contract does not always coordinate the channel. If the channel is coordinated, we observe that the agents’ incentives will be perfectly aligned and independent of the risk attitudes, if the revenue sharing ratio equals the fixed cost sharing ratio. Then we propose a risk-sharing contract that offers the risk protection to the retailer, to achieve the channel coordination. An interesting finding is that the manufacturer's incentive will not decrease with the tag cost, if she takes much risk from the retailer. The corresponding impacts of RFID adoption on the two contracts are also analyzed in this paper. Finally, a case study in a tobacco industry is presented to show the real RFID cost in practice.     

Global supply chain management: The selection of globally competent managers

The ability of organizations to effectively compete in the global marketplace is contingent on identifying and selecting an adequate number of qualified global managers. Nowhere is the shortage of managerial talent more evident than in the management of global supply chains. The complex and vexing set of problems facing global supply chain managers makes the task of selecting an adequate supply of managers much more daunting. Given the historic perspective of manning supply chain positions (i.e., managers with a operation and functional orientation), human resource managers are modifying and updating the profile of the global supply chain manager's position to encompass political, cultural/social, network, and an awareness of the significant differences to be found in global markets. In an effort to develop a criteria for the selection of global supply chain managers, a competency-based theoretical perspective is used and eight intelligences are examined that can be used in the selection of global supply chain managers.     

In-house capability and supply chain decisions

This study considers an internal production option for a contractor and analyzes its effect on the supply chain decisions when the contractor has innovated and the subcontractor has an incentive for opportunistic behavior. In contrast to the single disclosure threshold in the benchmark scenario where the contractor lacks in-house capability, we find two thresholds in the referred scenario. When information misappropriation is possible and the contractor has in-house capability, the contractor will organize a coordinated supply chain only when innovations fall between the two thresholds. Compared to the benchmark scenario, in-house capability has a positive effect on the contractor's incentive to innovate and an ambiguous effect on the subcontractor's incentive to invest in the production process. When the contractor needs to incur an extra cost to build in-house capability, the contractor keeps the same levels of investment compared to the case of no additional in-house capability cost, whereas the subcontractor increases the levels of investment. Furthermore, we find that in the presence of potential misappropriation on the part of the subcontractor, the higher the level of in-house capability, the less likely the contractor will be to outsource innovative products that generate higher profitability. This study can explain why firms strategically outsource low-end products and produce high-end products themselves. This study provides new results on the effects of in-house capability on the strategic interactions of parties in supply chains and, hence, on supply chain efficiency.     

Information leakage and supply chain contracts

This paper investigates information leakage under different contract configurations in a supply chain. We consider two competing retailers, one of whom (incumbent) has private information about market demand while the other (entrant) has no access to acquire any market demand information. We assume that the supplier is the leader who may choose a wholesale price contract (WPC) or a revenue-sharing contract (RSC) with each retailer independently. We explore the effect of the supplier's and incumbent's incentives on non-leakage equilibrium and find out that there exists a non-leakage equilibrium only when the incumbent signs an RSC with the supplier under an appropriately given revenue-sharing rate in situations of high demand variation.     

Sharing inventory risk in supply chain: The implication of financial constraint

A supply chain may operate under either preorder mode, consignment mode or the combination of these two modes. Under preorder, the retailer procures before the sale and takes full inventory risk during the sale, while under consignment, the retailer sells the product for the supplier with the supplier taking the inventory risk. The combination mode shares the risk in the supply chain. The existing research has examined the supply chain modes from various operational aspects. However, the impact of financial constraint is neglected. This paper examines the impact of financial constraint and investigates the supply chain efficiency under each mode. Based on a Stackelberg game with the supplier being the leader, we show that without financial constraint the supplier always prefers the consignment mode, taking full inventory risk. Whereas, in the presence of financial constraint, the supplier will sell part of the inventory to the retailer through preorder, which shares the inventory risk in the supply chain. We show that with financial constraint, the combination mode is the most efficient mode even if the retailer earns zero internal capital.     

Environmental supply chain management: using life cycle assessment to structure supply chains

In recent years increasing attention has been given to environmental supply chain management (ESCM). One of the supporting instruments of ESCM is life cycle assessment (LCA). The idea of integrating LCA into supply chains is gaining more support among research institutes and companies. However, we conclude that there are no guidelines for this integration. In this paper we argue that in-line with a differentiation between environmental care chain strategies and environmental chain performances, a differentiation between types of LCAs should be made; i.e., between compliance-, process- and market-oriented LCAs. To execute these different types of LCAs, the chain structure should be attuned to meet the specific requirements of these types. By discussing case studies, we show that the integration of the different types of LCAs in a chain bring about different chain structures.     

Penalty and financial assistance in a supply chain with supply disruption

In a supply chain, when the supply is hit by an unexpected disruption, the supplier may face certain financial difficulty to resume normal production, causing a supply shortage as well as a loss to the manufacturer and the entire supply chain. Combining a penalty term in writing contracts with the provision of financial assistance is the “carrot and stick” approach used by a manufacturer to deal with supply disruption. This article investigates how the manufacturer, in a better financial situation, may use ex-ante penalty terms and ex-post financial assistance to compel the supplier to recover its production capability as much as possible. We find that, the MS (integration of financial assistance and the non-delivery penalty) is the best strategy for the manufacturer in most situations, but it is not a win–win strategy. An interesting result contrary to the conventional wisdom, is that the optimal delivery quantity for the supply chain under the centralized decision-making is less than that under the decentralized decision-making.     

Comparing mining and manufacturing supply chain processes: challenges and requirements

The mineral raw materials industry is essential for manufacturing by providing the basic materials for their value adding processes. In the last decade, the integration of operations of the industry within global manufacturing supply chains has progressed greatly. The processes of the different stakeholders have been extensively analysed and modelled according to standardised frameworks such as the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model. However, as of today, not all stakeholders are integrated to the same extent. Especially, in the early part of the supply chain, deep integration of the mineral raw materials industry is still an exception. This industry and its processes differ greatly from the average manufacturing company’s processes. Not being directly comparable results in the absence of applications of standardised modelling tools for supply chains like the above-mentioned SCOR model. These circumstances hinder the integration, understanding and exchange between industries that rely significantly on each other. In a first attempt to create a basis for further research, this study analyses, elaborates and compares the challenges and requirements of supply chain processes, with a special focus on sourcing processes, in manufacturing and mining. Based on these findings, an adaption of the SCOR model towards applicability in mining and mining supply processes is presented, followed by a critical discussion of the results and implications, later concluded by a short outlook on further research.