A Transaction‐Efficiency Analysis of an Internet Retailing Supply Chain in the Music CD Industry*

The emergence of the Internet may have fundamentally altered the mechanisms underlying information exchanges between sellers and end consumers. However, little attention has been given to the impact these mechanisms have on the efficiency of supply chain operations. This paper begins to address this deficiency in the literature by evaluating supply chain transaction efficiency effects from Internet purchases by consumers. It develops and empirically tests a theoretical framework examining the role Internet purchases have in establishing transaction‐efficiency levels in product exchanges involving sellers, placed at different supply chain echelons, and consumers. The theoretical framework integrates the transaction‐cost and internet economics, inter‐organizational information systems, and supply chain management literatures. Empirical testing, via structural equation modeling, is based on archival data in the Internet music CD market. The results show that Internet‐mediated purchases by consumers allow for greater transaction efficiencies when inventory ownership is postponed farther upstream in the supply chain and supply chain echelons are disintermediated. The results also indicate that channel structure configuration, defined by the supply chains' Internet retailing echelon, moderates these transaction efficiency effects.     

Interorganizational Determinants of Environmental Purchasing: Initial Evidence from the Consumer Products Industries*

Environmental purchasing consists of the purchasing function's involvement in activities that include reduction, recycling, reuse, and substitution of materials. Despite the potentially important role that the purchasing function can play in a firm's environmental activities, little research has been performed to date that examines the factors that impact environmental purchasing. The authors develop and empirically test a theoretical model that examines how interorganizational factors both drive and constrain purchasing's involvement in environmental activities. The empirical findings suggest that environmental purchasing activities will be facilitated through increased coordination with suppliers as well as downstream members of the supply chain, including retailers. The results also suggest the need for increased coordination within the firm, particularly between the purchasing function on the inbound side and marketing and distribution functions on the outbound side.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Contribution of Strategic Sourcing to Manufacturing Flexibilities and Performance*

Empirical studies for achieving manufacturing flexibility goals have centered around the uses and advantages of advanced technology. Few studies have examined alternative ways of attaining flexibility objectives. Strategic sourcing finds mention in the literature as a potential route to manufacturing flexibility. However, little empirical evidence exists to validate this view. Literature also describes manufacturing flexibility as a multidimensional concept but fails to adequately examine the synergies among the different dimensions. This research investigates the influence of strategic sourcing and advanced manufacturing technologies on specific manufacturing flexibilities, and examines relationships among different flexibilities. The results are tied to manufacturing cost reduction. The findings suggest that strategic sourcing can assist in the achievement of modification flexibilities. Volume and modification flexibility are found to influence new product flexibility. Modification flexibility is found to influence manufacturing cost reduction. The results show that strategic sourcing can be used to target specific manufacturing flexibilities and that interflexibility synergies need to be considered while formulating flexibility-based manufacturing strategies.     

On Extending Russell and Krajewski's Algorithm for Economic Purchase Order Quantities*

Russell and Krajewski presented an optimal purchase order quantity algorithm that considered the effect of the transportation rate structure for less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments. The authors applied the Russell and Krajewski algorithm to a variety of freight classes and lengths-of-haul. Anomalous cases were found in which the freight rate schedule, when used with the suggested algorithm, resulted in incorrect order size decisions. In this comment, the authors consider the impact of these anomalies on the optimal order quantity and associated total costs. A procedure is presented to adjust the Russell and Krajewski algorithm to arrive at the optimal purchase order quantity and the lowest total annual cost.     

Assessing Antecedents of Socially Responsible Supplier Selection in Three Global Supply Chain Contexts

A number of highly publicized, controversial lapses in social responsibility within global supply chains have forced managers and scholars to reexamine long‐held perspectives on supplier selection. Extending Carter and Jennings’ department‐level study of purchasing social responsibility, our research assesses the role of supply managers’ ethical intentions and three key antecedents that drive socially responsible supplier selection. Comparing evidence from firms operating in China, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates, we identify three key drivers of supply managers’ ethical intentions and examine both their direct and indirect impacts on socially responsible supplier selection. We find differential support for the predictor relationships on supply manager ethical intentions across national contexts and mediated versus nonmediated models. These observations bear important implications for firms conducting global supply management.     

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.     

The Impact of E‐Replenishment Strategy on Make‐to‐Order Supply Chain Performance

This research investigates the impact of electronic replenishment strategy on the operational activities and performance of a two‐stage make‐to‐order supply chain. We develop simulation‐based rolling schedule procedures that link the replenishment processes of the channel members and apply them in an experimental analysis to study manual, semi‐automated, and fully automated e‐replenishment strategies in decentralized and coordinated decision‐making supply chain structures. The average operational cost reductions for moving from a manual‐based system to a fully automated system are 19.6, 29.5, and 12.5%, respectively, for traditional decentralized, decentralized with information sharing, and coordinated supply chain structures. The savings are neither equally distributed among participants, nor consistent across supply chain structures. As expected, for the fully coordinated system, total costs monotonically decrease with higher levels of automation. However, for the two decentralized structures, under which most firms operate today, counter‐intuitive findings reveal that the unilateral application of e‐procurement technology by the buyer may lower his purchasing costs, but increase the seller's and system's costs. The exact nature of the relationship is determined by the channel's operational flexibility. Broader results indicate that while the potential economic benefit of e‐replenishment in a decentralized system is substantial, greater operational improvements maybe possible through supply chain coordination.     

A Framework for Facilitating Sourcing and Allocation Decisions for Make‐to‐Order Items

This paper provides a fundamental building block to facilitate sourcing and allocation decisions for make‐to‐order items. We specifically address the buyer's vendor selection problem for make‐to‐order items where the goal is to minimize sourcing and purchasing costs in the presence of fixed costs, shared capacity constraints, and volume‐based discounts for bundles of items. The potential suppliers for make‐to‐order items provide quotes in the form of single sealed bids or participate in a dynamic auction involving open bids. A solution to our problem can be used to determine winning bids amongst the single sealed bids or winners at each stage of a dynamic auction. Due to the computational complexity of this problem, we develop a heuristic procedure based on Lagrangian relaxation technique to solve the problem. The computational results show that the procedure is effective under a variety of scenarios. The average gap across 2,250 problem instances is 4.65%.     

Drivers and Performance Outcomes of Supplier Innovation Generation in Customer–Supplier Relationships: The Role of Power‐Dependence

While innovations generated by supply channel relationships, as opposed to individual partners, play an increasingly important role in the success of all supply chain partners, there has been a dearth of research in the literature on how supply chain relationships cultivate the process of such innovation generation. We explore supplier market knowledge acquisition, relationship learning, systems collaboration, and technological uncertainty as antecedents of supplier innovation generation, which is in turn hypothesized to positively affect the relationship performance of the supplier. Furthermore, supplier dependence on the buyer is investigated as a moderator of the effects of such antecedents on supplier innovation generation. Empirical tests, which used a sample of 236 Taiwanese executives, supported most of the hypotheses, and some implications of the results are discussed.     

敏捷供应链背景下企业合作关系对企业绩效的影响

现有理论文献认为,良好的企业合作关系能够提高企业绩效,但对于其作用效果和作用路径仍缺乏实证研究的支持.本文以重庆市的242家企业为研究样本,通过因子分析和结构方程模型研究了企业合作关系、敏捷供应链和企业绩效三者之间的关系,验证了企业合作关系对敏捷供应链效益、企业绩效水平具有显著的正向影响,而敏捷供应链效益可以很好地提高企业的绩效水平.     

The Effect of Lead Time Uncertainty on Safety Stocks

The pressure to reduce inventory investments in supply chains has increased as competition expands and product variety grows. Managers are looking for areas they can improve to reduce inventories without hurting the level of service provided. Two areas that managers focus on are the reduction of the replenishment lead time from suppliers and the variability of this lead time. The normal approximation of lead time demand distribution indicates that both actions reduce inventories for cycle service levels above 50%. The normal approximation also indicates that reducing lead time variability tends to have a greater impact than reducing lead times, especially when lead time variability is large. We build on the work of Eppen and Martin (1988) to show that the conclusions from the normal approximation are flawed, especially in the range of service levels where most companies operate. We show the existence of a service‐level threshold greater than 50% below which reorder points increase with a decrease in lead time variability. Thus, for a firm operating just below this threshold, reducing lead times decreases reorder points, whereas reducing lead time variability increases reorder points. For firms operating at these service levels, decreasing lead time is the right lever if they want to cut inventories, not reducing lead time variability.     

基于结构方程建模法的CRM成熟应用评价模型

在对客户关系管理(CRM)文献与实际调研的基础上,设计出CRM成熟应用的评价体系与模型,并运用AMOS统计分析方法,对"战略与组织"、"流程"、"人员"、"技术"、"客户"与"绩效"之间的关系进行了结构方程建模分析,建立了CRM成熟应用的结构方程模型.     

The Value of Supplier Information to Improve Management of a Retailer's Inventory

The distribution of lead time demand is essential for determining reorder points in inventory systems. Usually, the distribution of lead time demand is approximated directly. However, in some cases it may be worthwhile to take the demand per unit time and lead time into account, particularly when specific information is available. This paper deals with the situation where a supplier, who produces on order in fixed production cycles, provides information on the status of the coming production run. The retailer can use this information to gain insight into the lead-time process. A fixed order (s_vQ) strategy is presented, with a set of reorder points s_v depending on the time t until the first possible delivery, which is determined by the information of the supplier. A Markov model that analyzes a given (s_vQ) strategy is used to quantify the value of the information provided by the supplier. Some numerical examples show that the approach may lead to considerable cost savings compared to the traditional approach that uses only one single reorder point, based on a two-moments approximation. Using this numerical insight, the pros and cons of a more frequent exchange of information between retailers and suppliers can be balanced.     

Information Technology Acceptance by Individual Professionals: A Model Comparison Approach*

The proliferation of innovative and exciting information technology applications that target individual “professionals” has made the examination or re‐examination of existing technology acceptance theories and models in a “professional” setting increasingly important. The current research represents a conceptual replication of several previous model comparison studies. The particular models under investigation are the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and a decomposed TPB model, potentially adequate in the targeted healthcare professional setting. These models are empirically examined and compared, using the responses to a survey on telemedicine technology acceptance collected from more than 400 physicians practicing in public tertiary hospitals in Hong Kong. Results of the study highlight several plausible limitations of TAM and TPB in explaining or predicting technology acceptance by individual professionals. In addition, findings from the study also suggest that instruments that have been developed and repeatedly tested in previous studies involving end users and business managers in ordinary business settings may not be equally valid in a professional setting. Several implications for technology acceptance/adoption research and technology management practices are discussed.     

Designing Distribution Systems to Support Vendor Strategies in Supply Chain Management*

The interactions among a firm's distribution strategy, market share, and distribution costs are an important consideration in the design of supply chain networks. However, these interactions are largely ignored by existing distribution system design methodologies, which assume demand is constant regardless of the firm's distribution strategy. This paper describes a multidisciplinary framework that considers these interactions in the design of “profit maximizing” distribution networks. The framework employs two major decision support methodologies: (1) binary logit models for estimating market share considering various demand-influencing parameters such as product price and distribution service, and (2) a mixed-integer programming (MIP) model for finding optimal distribution network designs. We applied the framework to an actual design problem facing a national distributor of industrial chemical products. The test results verify the framework's large-scale capability and the potential benefit of the integrated solution methodology.     

The Severity of Supply Chain Disruptions: Design Characteristics and Mitigation Capabilities

Supply chain disruptions and the associated operational and financial risks represent the most pressing concern facing firms that compete in today's global marketplace. Extant research has not only confirmed the costly nature of supply chain disruptions but has also contributed relevant insights on such related issues as supply chain risks, vulnerability, resilience, and continuity. In this conceptual note, we focus on a relatively unexplored issue, asking and answering the question of how and why one supply chain disruption would be more severe than another. In doing so, we argue, de facto, that supply chain disruptions are unavoidable and, as a consequence, that all supply chains are inherently risky. Employing a multiple‐method, multiple‐source empirical research design, we derive novel insights, presented as six propositions that relate the severity of supply chain disruptions (i) to the three supply chain design characteristics of density, complexity, and node criticality and (ii) to the two supply chain mitigation capabilities of recovery and warning. These findings not only augment existing knowledge related to supply chain risk, vulnerability, resilience, and business continuity planning but also call into question the wisdom of pursuing such practices as supply base reduction, global sourcing, and sourcing from supply clusters.     

Risk Mitigation Benefit from Backup Suppliers in the Presence of the Horizontal Fairness Concern

The backup supply strategy is demonstrated as an effective approach to mitigating supply risk. We study a supply chain in which a leader manufacturer designs a contract to a potential backup supplier to mitigate the yield uncertainty of the primary supplier. In this context, the backup supplier may compare with the primary supplier and have horizontal fairness concerns. We model the contract design problem using a Stackelberg game and characterize the optimal decisions for the manufacturer and backup supplier, in both fairness and off‐fairness settings. The theoretical results show that the leader manufacturer must sacrifice his own payoff to balance the payoffs of both suppliers. As a result, using a self‐interested backup supplier is the dominating strategy, whereas using a fair‐minded backup supplier is only suggested when the reliability of the primary supplier is low and the fairness concern of the backup supplier is not strong. Additionally, the backup supplier only benefits from fairness concerns when the level is not exceeding a threshold value. With regard to high fairness levels beyond this threshold, fairness concern has negative effects on the monetary payoff and even might lead to loss of the business. By conducting laboratory experiments, we provide evidence of the horizontal fairness concern from the backup supplier. Further, we show that if the primary supplier also has horizontal fairness concerns, the leader manufacturer can conditionally benefit from a promoted yield reliability due to an extra effort from the primary supplier.     

e‐Integration in the Supply Chain: Barriers and Performance*

Current opinion holds that Internet‐based supply chain integration with upstream suppliers and downstream customers (called “e‐integration” in this paper) is superior to traditional ways of doing business. This proposition remains untested, however, and similarly we know little about what are the upstream, internal, and downstream barriers to implementing e‐integration. This paper empirically addressed these questions using data from a large single nation study, and found (1) a positive link between e‐integration and performance, and (2) that internal barriers impeded e‐integration more than either upstream supplier barriers or downstream customer barriers. Findings from this study contribute to our theoretical understanding of implementing change in contemporary supply chains, and have important implications for manufacturers interested in improving their supply chain's performance using the Internet.     

Supply Chain Knowledge and Performance: A Meta‐Analysis

Many firms make significant investments into developing and managing knowledge within their supply chains. Such investments are often prudent because studies indicate that supply chain knowledge (SCK) has a positive influence on performance. Key questions still surround the SCK–performance relationship, however. First, what is the overall relationship between SCK and performance? Second, under what conditions is the relationship stronger or weaker? To address these questions, we applied meta‐analysis to 35 studies of the SCK–performance relationship that collectively include more than 8,400 firms. Our conservative estimate is that the effect size of the overall relationship is  = .39. We also find that the SCK–performance relationship is stronger when (i) examining operational performance, (ii) gathering data from more than one supply chain node, (iii) gathering data from multiple countries, (iv) examining service industries, and (v) among more recently published studies. We also found that studies that embraced a single theory base (as opposed to using multiple ones) had a stronger SCK–performance relationship. Looking to the future, our meta‐analysis highlights the need for studies to (i) include lags between the measurement of SCK and performance, (ii) gather upstream data when examining innovation, (iii) examine SCK within emerging countries, and (iv) provide much more information relative to the nuances of the SCK examined.