A School Feeding Supply Chain Framework: Critical Factors for Sustainable Program Design

School feeding is an established development aid intervention with multiple objectives including education, nutrition, and value transfer. Traditionally run by international organizations in low‐income settings, school feeding programs have had a substantial impact in many less‐developed countries. However, recent rethinking by the World Bank and the World Food Programme has prompted a shift toward long‐term, sustainable solutions that rely more upon local resources, local capacity, and community participation. Supply chain management, which is critical to program delivery, is vital to developing a sustainable approach to school feeding. We propose a theoretical framework that identifies the internal and external factors that shape the supply chain and connects them to the objectives and performance measures of sustainable programs. Drawing upon supply chain management theory, current school feeding practices, and expert feedback, this article contributes to development aid logistics and program transitioning with a focus on sustainable program design. It aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to school feeding and relevant supply chain issues, a framework to identify sustainability problems in school feeding supply chains, and a starting point for further research on program design.     

Designing Efficient Infrastructural Investment and Asset Transfer Mechanisms in Humanitarian Supply Chains

We analyze the efficacy of different asset transfer mechanisms and provide policy recommendations for the design of humanitarian supply chains. As a part of their preparedness effort, humanitarian organizations often make decisions on resource investments ex ante because doing so allows for rapid response if an adverse event occurs. However, programs typically operate under funding constraints and donor earmarks with autonomous decision‐making authority resting with the local entities, which makes the design of efficient humanitarian supply chains a challenging problem. We formulate this problem in an agency setting with two independent aid programs, where different asset transfer mechanisms are considered and where investments in resources are of two types: primary resources that are needed for providing the aid and infrastructural investments that improve the operation of the aid program in using the primary resources. The primary resources are acquired from earmarked donations. We show that allowing aid programs the flexibility of transferring primary resources improves the efficiency of the system by yielding greater social welfare than when this flexibility does not exist. More importantly, we show that a central entity that can acquire primary resources from one program and sell them to the other program can further improve system efficiency by providing a mechanism that facilitates the transfer of primary resources and eliminates losses from gaming. This outcome is achieved without depriving the individual aid programs of their decision‐making autonomy while maintaining the constraints under which they operate. We find that outcomes with centralized resource transfer but decentralized infrastructural investments by the aid programs are the same as with a completely centralized system (where both resource transfer and infrastructural investments are centralized).     

Supply Chains in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Decision Support System for Small‐Scale Seed Entrepreneurs*

It is necessary to infuse a consistent supply of improved seed varieties into local sub‐Saharan African crop production to improve low crop yields. The best distribution channel for the improved seed varieties may be small‐scale commercial seed companies, but local entrepreneurs struggle to determine whether such businesses are viable. Using a multi‐echelon supply chain approach, a decision support system (DSS) was designed to help African seed entrepreneurs make informed decisions about small‐scale seed chain businesses. Specifically, entrepreneurs make decisions about where to locate seed enterprises, with which farmers to contract, and where to store seed. Optimization and simulation modeling are used to evaluate infrastructure variables such as distance, transportation cost, and storage loss and cost in three development level areas. Currently, the decision tool is used in Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya, and Tanzania. The model has supported the start‐up of at least 17 small seed companies that are now introducing improved seed varieties into villages and farms. The DSS applies decision science research in a humanitarian application and offers important managerial implications about supply chain infrastructure to nongovernmental organizations and humanitarian groups. Such applications are vital as groups such as USAID, the Gates Foundation, and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi‐Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) continue to move toward micro‐enterprise, value chain, and market‐oriented development programs.     

Supporting collaboration in humanitarian supply chains – insights from a design science project

Abstract

The growing number of large-scale relief operations and humanitarian aid initiatives is stretching the resources – financial, material and human – of humanitarian actors to their limits. Challenges to collaborate both within international humanitarian organizations, and among their direct and indirect supply chain partners often contribute to the inefficient use of resources, or ineffective operations. In this research, we discuss collaboration in humanitarian supply chains, and analyze causes of their dysfunctional operations. Furthermore, we develop an experiential learning approach that can sensitize humanitarian supply chain actors to causes of information distortion. The simulation approach was implemented in the field and instructional design cycles yielded insights into how staff apply their learnings under the specific conditions of humanitarian relief work.     

Innovations in humanitarian supply chains: the case of cash transfer programmes

Abstract

Cash transfer programmes (CTPs) are revolutionizing humanitarian supply chains (HSCs), yet just how CTPs are to be understood as innovation, and how they impact on HSCs, remains unclear. Innovation in the humanitarian context more often than not stems from outside humanitarian organizations – that is innovation occurs in their supply chain. The aim of this study is to further the understanding of supply chain innovation (SCI) in the humanitarian context. Based on empirical evidence this article suggests a supply chain innovation model (SCIM). This SCIM is useful because it allows different processes to be understood and compared, by providing guidance on how innovations progress. The contribution of this research is threefold: First, the research presents a SCIM for the humanitarian context. Second, this is the first application of a SCIM to the humanitarian environment. Finally, the research is field based and grounded in empirical observations thus adding to the literature and offering insights to practice.     

Longitudinal Analysis of Inhibitors of Manufacturer Delivery Performance

This article examines demand, manufacturing, and supply factors proposed to inhibit manufacturer delivery execution. Extant research proposes many factors expected to harm delivery performance. Prior cross‐sectional empirical research examines such factors at the plant level, generally finding factors arising from dynamic complexity to be significant, but factors arising from detail complexity to be insignificant. Little empirical research examines the factors using product‐level operating data, which arguably makes more sense for analyzing how supply chain complexity factors inhibit delivery. For purposes of research triangulation, we use longitudinal product‐level data from MRP systems to examine whether the factors inhibit internal manufacturing on time job rates and three customer‐oriented measures of delivery performance: product line item fill rates, average delivery lead times, and average tardiness. Our econometric models pool product line item data across division plants and within distinct product families, using a proprietary monthly dataset on over 100 product line items from the environmental controls manufacturing division of a Fortune 100 conglomerate. The data summarize customer ordering events of over 900 customers and supply chain activities of over 80 suppliers. The study contributes academically by finding significant detail complexity inhibitors of delivery that prior studies found insignificant. The findings demonstrate the need for empirical research using data disaggregated below the plant‐level unit of analysis, as they illustrate how some factors previously found insignificant indeed are significant when considered at the product‐level unit of analysis. Managers can use the findings to understand better which drivers and inhibitors of delivery performance are important.     

The Impact of Competitive Strategy and Supply Chain Strategy on Business Performance: The Role of Environmental Uncertainty*

This article investigates the relationships among competitive strategy, supply chain strategy, and business performance while examining the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty. A total of 604 questionnaires were collected from three cities in China, and the statistical results show significant moderating effects of external environment on the relationships among competitive strategy, supply chain strategy, and business performance. Firms that primarily focus on a differentiation strategy emphasize an agile supply chain strategy. Cost leaders are inclined to implement both lean and agile supply chain strategies, but their emphasis on agile strategy is significantly greater in a volatile environment than in a stable environment. The choice of supply chain strategy does not appear to be an “either‐or” decision and firms could adopt either a lean or an agile strategy, or both, depending on the environment. This article provides significant managerial implications for supply chain practitioners to co‐align supply chain strategy and competitive strategy with the environment to improve performance.     

All You Need Is Trust? An Examination of Inter‐organizational Supply Chain Projects

This study examines the antecedents of supply chain project success. We first propose and test a model that describes the role of relationship‐level factors (trust and asymmetric dependence) and project‐level factors (between‐firm communication and within‐firm commitment) in determining supply chain project success. We find that project‐level factors completely mediate the effect of trust on project success. We conclude that trust, despite being a stronger predictor compared to asymmetric dependence, is necessary but not sufficient for supply chain project success. We then proceed to further explore the role of these factors by introducing a categorical scheme that differentiates supply chain projects based on the decision rights configuration of each project. This categorization enables us to explore how relationship‐level and project‐level factors can have different impact on performance based on the characteristics of a supply chain project. The findings offer insights into how to effectively manage supply chain projects and inter‐firm alliances.     

Quality‐related Action Programs: Their Impact on Quality Performance and Firm Performance

From analyses of the direct effects of 10 quality action programs on six firm performance outcomes, as well as their indirect effects through eight quality performance dimensions, two routes from action programs through quality performance to firm performance in the automotive supply industry are identified. The first is the product quality route, whose landmarks are superior quality performance on Conformance and Design Quality dimensions; the second is the relationship quality route, with superior Customer Responsiveness and Service. Both the product quality and the relationship quality routes lead to superior ROI; the former also leads to enhanced ROA, and the latter to enhanced market share performance. Associated key action programs are Committed Leadership, Cross‐Functional Quality Teams, Employee Empowerment, Supplier Development, and Closer Customer Relationships. The first three are internally focused, while the latter two are boundary‐spanning supply chain programs.     

Assessing End‐Of‐Supply Risk of Spare Parts Using the Proportional Hazard Model

Operators of long field‐life systems like airplanes are faced with hazards in the supply of spare parts. If the original manufacturers or suppliers of parts end their supply, this may have large impacts on operating costs of firms needing these parts. Existing end‐of‐supply evaluation methods are focused mostly on the downstream supply chain, which is of interest mainly to spare part manufacturers. Firms that purchase spare parts have limited information on parts sales, and indicators of end‐of‐supply risk can also be found in the upstream supply chain. This article proposes a methodology for firms purchasing spare parts to manage end‐of‐supply risk by utilizing proportional hazard models in terms of supply chain conditions of the parts. The considered risk indicators fall into four main categories, of which two are related to supply (price and lead time) and two others are related to demand (cycle time and throughput). The methodology is demonstrated using data on about 2,000 spare parts collected from a maintenance repair organization in the aviation industry. Cross‐validation results and out‐of‐sample risk assessments show good performance of the method to identify spare parts with high end‐of‐supply risk. Further validation is provided by survey results obtained from the maintenance repair organization, which show strong agreement between the firm's and the model's identification of high‐risk spare parts.     

Supply Chain Learning and Spillovers in Vendor Managed Inventory

Despite extensive literature on the value of supply chain collaboration programs, little research has examined the issue from the perspective of organizational learning. Using a unique, operational level dataset, we empirically examine the learning curves through which performance improvements are realized under vendor managed inventory (VMI). Performance is measured at the downstream distributor locations by examining inventory levels after controlling for customer service performance (stockouts). We identify and assess three sources of learning: a supply chain dyad's self‐learning, learning spillovers from electronic data interchange (EDI), and learning spillovers from other supply chain dyads. We find that self‐learning, learning spillovers from EDI, and learning spillovers from other supply chain dyads, all have positive and significant impacts on a distributor's inventory performance. In addition, we find that self‐learning may exhibit a U‐shaped learning curve (i.e., performance first improves and then plateaus or declines). These findings suggest that the various learning experiences with VMI and EDI can lead to improved performance over time, but the path to improvement may be complex.     

Channel Coordination for a Supply Chain with a Risk‐Neutral Manufacturer and a Loss‐Averse Retailer*

This articles considers a decentralized supply chain in which a single manufacturer is selling a perishable product to a single retailer facing uncertain demand. It differs from traditional supply chain contract models in two ways. First, while traditional supply chain models are based on risk neutrality, this article takes the viewpoint of behavioral principal–agency theory and assumes the manufacturer is risk neutral and the retailer is loss averse. Second, while gain/loss (GL) sharing is common in practice, there is a lack of analysis of GL‐sharing contracts in the supply chain contract literature. This article investigates the role of a GL‐sharing provision for mitigating the loss‐aversion effect, which drives down the retailer order quantity and total supply chain profit. We analyze contracts that include GL‐sharing‐and‐buyback (GLB) credit provisions as well as the special cases of GL contracts and buyback contracts. Our analytical and numerical results lend insight into how a manufacturer can design a contract to improve total supply chain, manufacturer, and retailer performance. In particular, we show that there exists a special class of distribution‐free GLB contracts that can coordinate the supply chain and arbitrarily allocate the expected supply chain profit between the manufacturer and retailer; in contrast with other contracts, the parameter values for contracts in this class do not depend on the probability distribution of market demand. This feature is meaningful in practice because (i) the probability distribution of demand faced by a retailer is typically unknown by the manufacturer and (ii) a manufacturer can offer the same contract to multiple noncompeting retailers that differ by demand distribution and still coordinate the supply chains.     

Overcoming institutional voids as a pathway to becoming ambidextrous: The case of China's Sichuan Telecom

The paper examines how firms develop supply chain financing model to help overcome institutional voids (IVs) and become ambidextrous. This study presents a case analysis of a novel supply chain financing model instigated and implemented by China's Sichuan Telecom (ST) to help supply chain partners overcome IVs in their environments. We identified three unique stages in the evolution of the supply chain ambidextrous financing model: drivers for change (including identifying suppliers' problems and constraints), designing and implementing the supply chain ambidextrous financing model, and the tripartite performance effects. The analysis demonstrated how ST utilized its market power, resources and network ties to harness expertise and competences of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to overcome IVs and become ambidextrous. Sichuan Telecom aided the SMEs in solving the financing problem through order-based supply chain financing. Based on the analysis, we outline implications of this case for theory and policy.     

Health Care Supply Chain Design: Toward Linking the Development and Delivery of Care Globally*

This article is motivated by the gap between the growing demand and available supply of high‐quality, cost‐effective, and timely health care, a problem faced not only by developing and underdeveloped countries but also by developed countries. The significance of this problem is heightened when the economy is in recession. In an attempt to address the problem, in this article, first, we conceptualize care as a bundle of goods, services, and experiences—including diet and exercise, drugs, devices, invasive procedures, new biologics, travel and lodging, and payment and reimbursement. We then adopt a macro, end‐to‐end, supply chain–centric view of the health care sector to link the development of care with the delivery of care. This macro, supply chain–centric view sheds light on the interdependencies between key industries from the upstream to the downstream of the health care supply chain. We propose a framework, the 3A‐framework, that is founded on three constructs—affordability, access, and awareness—to inform the design of supply chain for the health care sector. We present an illustrative example of the framework toward designing the supply chain for implantable device–based care for cardiovascular diseases in developing countries. Specifically, the framework provides a lens for identifying an integrated system of continuous improvement and innovation initiatives relevant to bridging the gap between the demand and supply for high‐quality, cost‐effective, and timely care. Finally, we delineate directions of future research that are anchored in and follow from the developments documented in the article.     

The Roles of Supply Chain Intelligence and Adaptability in New Product Launch Success

Many new product introductions continue to be unsuccessful, and while researchers have studied product development processes, relatively few studies directly address new product launch. We do so in the present research and posit that supply chain intelligence, defined as technological and competitive knowledge sourced and integrated from suppliers, customers, and competitors, plays an important role in explaining new product launch success. We further employ the knowledge‐based view to theorize that both supply chain adaptability and product innovation capability act as important mediators of the effects of supply chain intelligence on new product launch success and firm financial performance. While the former capability refers to a firm's ability to quickly adjust its supply chain to react to market and product design changes, the latter refers to the firm's proficiency in developing innovative new products. We test hypothesized relationships among these factors utilizing data collected in a survey of 229 U.S. manufacturing firms. Results point to the central role of supply chain adaptability in capturing the benefits of supplier technological intelligence for enhanced product innovation capability, new product launch success, and firm financial performance. In contrast, product innovation capability serves as the generative means by which customer and competitor intelligence is translated into more successful new product launches, which, in turn, produce superior firm financial performance. Overall, these findings contribute to a better understanding of factors that can explain why certain product launches are more successful than others, and offer practical insights for appropriate investments in the development of related knowledge resources.     

Stages of Supply Chain Disruption Response: Direct,Constraining, and Mediating Factors for Impact Mitigation

It is well established that supply chain disruptions can have a severe negative impact on firms and general wisdom suggests that this impact can be mitigated by quick responses. Aside from a few anecdotes, however, little is known about the decision‐making process that leads to speedy responses and about its impeding and supporting antecedents. Using the organizational information‐processing perspective, this empirical study unravels the disruption management process along a sequence of four stages—disruption recognition, disruption diagnosis, response development, and response implementation—and hypothesizes constraining and mediating effects of these stages. The findings contribute to an improved understanding of the role that the decision stages play in mitigating supply chain disruptions, and confirm the prediction that the speed with which information is processed and the stages are worked through positively affects supply chain performance. In addition, the findings suggest that one of the stages, diagnosis, acts as a constraining factor to the other stages. The stages also play a mediating role between the impact that the disruption has and a firm's readiness (prior to a disruption), dependence on a key supplier, and supply chain complexity. This provides guidance to decision makers in the application of resources both prior to a negative event and during a disruption recovery.     

Assessing Trade‐offs among Multiple Objectives for Humanitarian Aid Delivery Using Expert Preferences

Humanitarian aid agencies deliver emergency supplies and services to people affected by disasters. Scholars and practitioners have developed modeling approaches to support aid delivery planning, but they have used objective functions with little validation as to the trade‐offs among the multiple goals of aid delivery. We develop a method to value the performance of aid delivery plans based on expert preferences over five key attributes: the amount of cargo delivered, the prioritization of aid by commodity type, the prioritization of aid by delivery location, the speed of delivery, and the operational cost. Through a conjoint analysis survey, we measure the preferences of 18 experienced humanitarian logisticians. The survey results quantify the importance of each attribute and enable the development of a piecewise linear utility function that can be used as an objective function in optimization models. The results show that the amount of cargo delivered is the most valued objective and cost the least important. In addition, experts prioritize more vulnerable communities and more critical commodities, but not to the exclusion of others. With these insights and the experts’ utility functions, better humanitarian objective functions can be developed to enable better aid delivery in emergency response.     

战略性转移定价承诺策略下的供应商选择柔性研究

在上游供应商的战略性转移定价承诺策略与下游制造商投资创新决策之间存在着交互作用,笔者将静态环境下的这种交互作用与不同柔性层次下的动态供应网络架构相结合,以供应链路径柔性为切入点,基于承诺的交货提前期、投资创新、产量与供应链收益等供应链绩效维度来探讨战略性转移定价承诺策略下的供应链合作模式相关话题。考虑到AM_j在不同CS_#em/em#之间进行选择的柔性化特征,笔者至少得到如下三个方面的结论:首先,供应网络架构柔性是供应链整体及其各节点企业获取绩效改善的重要途径,与没有柔性相比,完全柔性和部分柔性情形下的供应链绩效均能得到明显改善,而其中又以完全柔性优势最为突出;其次,虽然部分柔性是供应网络架构中较为可行的柔性层次选择,但是,其与完全柔性一样,容易产生供应网络资源的供给与需求失衡现象;第三,不确定性情境下的一体化决策与确定性情境下的转移定价承诺决策对供应链利润绩效所产生的影响取决于供应网络柔性层次以及供应网络节点企业各自的能力特点,进而对供应链整体及其各节点的合作模式和行为取向起着主导作用。     

Keep Your Friends Close? Supply Chain Design and Disruption Risk

In this article, we evaluate the relationship between supply chain design decisions and supply chain disruption risk. We explore two supply chain design strategies: (i) the dispersion of supply chain partners to reduce supply chain disruption risk versus (ii) the co‐location of supply chain partners to reduce supply chain disruption risk. In addition, we assess supply chain disruption risk from three perspectives: the inbound material flow from the supplier (supply side), the internal production processes (internal), and the outbound material flow to the customer (customer side) as a disruption can occur at any of these locations. We measure disruption risk in terms of stoppages in flows, reductions in flow, close calls (disruptions that were prevented at the last minute), disruption duration (time until normal operation flow was restored), and the spread of disruptions all the way through the supply chain. We use seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) to analyze our data, finding that lead times, especially supply side lead times, are significantly associated with higher levels of supply chain disruption risk. We find co‐location with suppliers appears to have beneficial effects to the reduction of disruption duration, and, overall supply side factors have a higher impact when it comes to supply chain disruption risk than comparable customer side factors.