On the relationship between purchasing integration and purchasing decision-making speed

Financial performance of firms with supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic: the roles of dynamic capability and supply chain resilience

Purpose

This study proposes an integrated model to explore the relationships between dynamic capability and supply chain resilience (SCRE) and the relationships' impacts on firms' financial performance with supply chains (FPwSC) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on resource-based theory and knowledge-based theory, the dynamic capability is classified into resource-based dynamic capability (RBDC) and knowledge-based dynamic capability (KBDC). The study collects 158 useable survey samples from manufacturers in Taiwan and analyzes the samples with the structural equation model.

Findings

The results show that knowledge is power; KBDC is crucial for FPwSC, SCRE and RBDC. In addition, SCRE mediates the relationship between KBDC and FPwSC. Finally, RBDC significantly suppresses FPwSC.

Research limitations/implications

Future researchers could replicate this study in other industries and expand this to other countries to generalize the results.

Practical implications

A firm with KBDC can adopt and implement strategies that exploit its internal strengths to respond to environmental opportunities, overcome internal weaknesses and mitigate external threats. Furthermore, a firm should fully utilize SCRE with proactive and reactive strategies. Exercising a firm's KBDC could facilitate SC collective intelligence to handle the risk of SC disruption and vice versa.

Originality/value

The study is the first to combine KBDC, RBDC and SCRE into an integrated model for FPwSC. Moreover, this study reveals that resilience relies on knowledge, not resources, as evidenced by SCRE being affected significantly by KBDC but not RBDC.

An integrated model of supply chain resilience and its impact on supply chain performance under disruption

Purpose

This study aims to explore the relationships among the five components of supply chain (SC) resilience (SCRES): visibility, velocity, flexibility, robustness and collaboration and their impacts on the SC performance under disruption (SCPUD).

Design/methodology/approach

Five SCRES components are identified from the literature review and data are collected using an web survey from 113 manufacturing companies in Taiwan. The data are analyzed by structured equation modeling with the partial least square solution. Two-stage least-squares (2SLS) regression was used to test the potential endogeneity of SC collaboration (SCC).

Findings

The results reveal that SCC is an exogenous driver of SCRES; it directly affects visibility, velocity, flexibility, robustness and SCPUD. Furthermore, SC flexibility is the only component of SC agility that directly affects SCPUD; it is influenced directly by SC velocity and indirectly by SC visibility through SC velocity. SC visibility is a vital agility component that positively influences SC velocity and SC robustness.

Research limitations/implications

The data in this study are cross-sectional and the sample size of 113 is relatively small. The relationship between SC robustness and SCPUD needs a longer observation period to reveal. The logistic issue in the shortage of carriers caused by the pandemic has been overlooked.

Practical implications

A firm should enhance its collaboration and flexibility in the SC as they both are the critical antecedents of SC performance (SCP) during the disruption period.

Originality/value

This study integrates visibility, velocity, flexibility, robustness and collaboration into a complete framework of SCRES. The dependent variable, SCPUD, measures SC performance (SCP) under the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the first study to investigate the associations of the six constructs in a research model.

Conflict minerals traceability – a fuzzy set analysis

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate legal effects on social sustainability practices at buying firms. The US Dodd-Frank Act has forced listed companies to determine the degree to which their products contain conflict minerals (CM). The research question this study seeks to answer is the following: which factors influence a company’s ability to determine the provenance of its inputs?

Design/methodology/approach

The study examines secondary data in the form of CM reports of 50 US listed firms for two consecutive years using a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) approach.

Findings

This study identifies different configurations of stakeholder salience and firm resources that lead individual companies to achieve high levels of traceability. Findings show that firms’ CM governance mechanisms are a key determinant in the firms’ capacity to meet regulatory traceability requirements. Further, the authors find that both the presence and absence of specific stakeholder pressures and firm resources can lead to traceability. Findings also suggest that firms can achieve traceability without any pressure from stakeholders.

Research limitations/implications

The study investigates the practices of individual firms that are subject to the Dodd-Frank Act, rather than adopting a supply chain-wide perspective. Further, proxies had to be used to measure several constructs because of reliance on firms’ reporting, which implies that the study did not account for certain behavioral factors that influence traceability.

Practical implications

This study provides managers of both resource-rich and less resource-rich firms with possible pathways for achieving CM traceability.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the field of sustainability by providing exploratory insights into the antecedents of traceability and deriving theoretical propositions to guide further research. The authors apply fsQCA to investigate secondary data over multiple years, thus using a novel configurational methodology.

How internal integration, information sharing, and training affect supply chain risk management capabilities

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine if internal integration, information sharing, and training constitute direct antecedents to organizations’ warning and recovery capabilities. Assuming that organizations periodically face various supply chain risks, the authors intend to show that managers can develop these antecedent competencies in ways that bolster their supply chain risk management (SCRM) capabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

To understand the relationships between the antecedents and SCRM capabilities, the authors used Q-sorts and confirmatory factor analysis to develop new warning and recovery measures. The authors then collected survey data from 231 hospital supply managers and analyzed these records using structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results indicate that internal integration and training positively affect organizations’ warning and recovery capabilities, in both a direct and indirect manner. The authors also illustrate how managers can leverage their SCRM capabilities to affect operational performance.

Research limitations/implications

These results suggest that by developing antecedent competencies like internal integration and training, firms may bolster their warning and recovery capabilities, and ultimately operational performance of the organization.

Originality/value

The findings provide hospital supply organizations and other inventory management teams with a novel approach to managing an evolving array of supply chain risks. Rather than investing in costly risk management techniques, like inventory stocks, organizations can use internal integration and training to improve their SCRM capabilities.