Conflict minerals traceability – a fuzzy set analysis

Celebrating IJPDLM's 50th anniversary: a reflection on its contributions and future directions

Purpose

This article celebrates the 50th anniversary of IJPDLM, reflects on the contribution of IJPDLM to the field of logistics and supply chain management (LSCM) and discusses future directions for the journal.

Design/methodology/approach

Descriptive analysis of manuscripts received and accepted by IJPDLM during 2015–2019 is used to provide an overview of the journal. Content analysis of selected articles is used to highlight important contributions of the journal. Changes made since 2020 are highlighted to inform future directions of IJPDLM. Invited articles are discussed and used to clarify future directions.

Findings

IJPDLM has made tremendous progress in informing and shaping the field of LSCM. Key issues addressed include sustainability and reverse logistics, omni-channel, e-commerce, retail logistics, risk, resilience, volatility, and complexity and digital technology innovation. The journal has expanded the use of methods beyond the typical qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the use of design science, experiment, conjoint analysis, qualitative comparative analysis, narrative analysis. The invited articles provide (1) a historical reflection of the purpose of the journal when it was launched, (2) new guidance on how to develop theories using literature review and grounded theories and (3) understanding of startups and supply chain ecosystems.

Practical implications

Some exemplar articles are highlighted to explain how IJPDLM informs LSCM managers, companies and policy makers.

Originality/value

This article explains the recent development and sets future directions for the LSCM field.

The triple-a supply chain and strategic resources: developing competitive advantage

Purpose

Scholars have recently begun to empirically evaluate the triple-A supply chain, which emphasizes concurrent capabilities in agility, adaptability and alignment across the supply chain to develop sustainable competitive advantage. Complexity theory suggests however that other combinations of triple-A capabilities may be equally effective, especially given a firm's strategic orientation relative to its market and its supply chain. Our research objective was to examine what combinations of these capabilities lead to the same outcome (i.e. high firm performance).

Design/methodology/approach

We collected 182 survey responses from a global sample of supply chain managers. Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) was employed to assess effective recipes of agility, adaptability, alignment, supply chain orientation, and market orientation.

Findings

Our results revealed four distinct “recipes” (i.e. combinations of agility, adaptability, alignment, supply chain orientation and market orientation) that lead to high levels of firm performance.

Originality/value

Our results indicate that firms currently do not necessarily have to concomitantly develop capabilities across all triple-A components. Considering the costs associated with developing each of these capabilities, the findings allow us to derive several theoretical and managerial insights.

The impact of multinational corporations’ socially responsible supplier development practices on their corporate reputation and financial performance

Purpose

In the literature on sustainable supply chain management, the social pillar of sustainability has received relatively little attention, especially in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to test empirically the impacts of supplier development practices on suppliers’ social performance. Furthermore, the impact of suppliers’ social performance on MNCs’ social performance was investigated and corporate reputation was proposed as a potential explanation for the relationship between MNCs’ social and financial performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were obtained from a survey of 141 multinational companies (MNCs) in Malaysia which were listed in the Federation of Malaysia Manufacturers’ directory 2017. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results show that among the four proposed practices, supplier development and supplier collaboration have significant effects on suppliers’ social performance and consequently on the multi-national companies’ social performance. According to these results, multi-national companies’ corporate reputation mediates the relationship between their social and financial performance.

Practical implications

These results will be useful in helping managers of MNCs to realize that simply monitoring suppliers and giving them incentives are not effective ways of enhancing social responsibility among suppliers; instead, supplier development and collaboration such as technical support and training are needed.

Originality/value

The results extend the literature on socially responsible supplier development practices by testing empirically the impacts of four popular practices in the literature and showing that supplier monitoring and incentives have no effect.

Social sustainability in supply chains: a review

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to review the development of the socially sustainable supply chain management field.

Design/methodology/approach

The 112 most cited papers in the field until 2017 are analysed using a state-of-the-art structured literature review model borrowed from the accounting field.

Findings

This study highlights the increasing number of publications across the years, the diversity of journals and the type of authors addressing the topic. It reveals that qualitative studies focused on large companies in the garment, food and electronics sectors and on private regulations capture most of the attention, with Asia, Europe and North America being the most scrutinised locations. Drivers and barriers for socially sustainable supply chain management are summarised, clustered and confronted. This study also evaluates how the sustainability and corporate social responsibility concepts are used in the above field and analyses the existing definitions of social sustainability.

Research limitations/implications

This study incites researchers to broaden their studies to diverse sectors and locations, addressing different levels of supply chains with quantitative techniques and clearer conceptual foundations.

Practical implications

This study incites practitioners to further contribute to this scholars-dominated research field, offering their practical insights and perspectives.

Originality/value

This study offers original insights and critiques of the literature, highlighting its gaps and proposing new research avenues for the future.

A roadmap for applying qualitative comparative analysis in supply chain research

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to the field of supply chain management and provide a detailed roadmap that supply chain researchers can utilize when applying this methodology.

Design/methodology/approach

Data collection focused on the evaluation of product returns management practices as perceived by business customers who operate in a supplier–customer context. In order to analyze the data using the QCA approach, a multi-step analysis was developed.

Findings

The results indicate five solutions that lead to high levels of customer satisfaction. The existence of multiple sufficient configurations for customer satisfaction indicates equifinality because multiple alternative solutions can lead to the same outcome.

Research limitations/implications

The authors make a methodological contribution by applying the QCA method to the field of supply chain management and providing a detailed roadmap that supply chain researchers can utilize.

Practical implications

The authors provide managers five different and novel combinations of antecedents that lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Originality/value

This study offers supply chain researchers a better understanding of when it is appropriate to use QCA and how to apply this methodology. From a theoretical perspective, past studies focused exclusively on the “net effects” of these antecedents, thus, did not capture the complexity of the relationships between these various antecedents and customer satisfaction. This is a noteworthy contribution as it highlights the complexity of the amalgam of relationships and factors that impact customer satisfaction within the context of reverse supply chain.

Resource commitment and sustainability: a reverse logistics performance process model

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to extend existing and motivate future sustainable supply chain management (SCM) and logistics research by examining a structure-conduct-performance framework linking resource commitment to sustainable SCM, reverse logistics, and operational performance. A sustainable reverse logistics capability is investigated as mediating the performance benefits associated with resource commitments to sustainable SCM.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey methods and structural equation modeling were used to collect and analyze data from 180 supply chain professionals.

Findings

The results of a mediated model suggest that resource commitments may be used to develop a sustainable reverse logistics capability, reducing the environmental impact of reverse logistics activities. A strong sustainable reverse logistics capability results from resources committed specifically to sustainable reverse logistics and a commitment to the sustainability of the supply chain.

Research limitations/implications

This study applied a purposefully general sampling procedure. Specific industries may have additional constraints (e.g. risk, transparency, governance factors) that directly impact reverse logistics. These constraints are limitations of the study as well as opportunities for future research. Resource commitment is critical to the success of an overall firm strategy to build a sustainable supply chain, especially when considering reverse logistics.

Practical implications

As managers examine the benefits of sustainable SCM, they must consider the resources required. For firms engaging in sustainable SCM, developing a sustainable reverse logistics capability is a key success factor for improved performance.

Originality/value

Given the growing acceptance and importance of sustainable SCM, this research provides insights to managers and academics regarding the key mediating role of a sustainable reverse logistics capability when integrated into existing and future supply chain research frameworks and processes.