Multiproduct, Multicriteria Model for Supplier Selection with Product Life-Cycle Considerations

The role of strategic collaborations and relational capital in enhancing product performance – a moderated-mediated model

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to test the moderated-mediated model using a dataset drawn from 204 manufacturing firms in Australia, and Hayes' PROCESS macro software was used for analyzing the research model.

Design/methodology/approach

This study examines how firms can leverage the strategic value of their key supplier for improving their product performance by developing strategic collaborations with the key supplier as a mediating factor. Furthermore, it also seeks to understand the role that commitment plays in strategic relationships by testing how the mediating role of strategic collaboration is moderated by the level of buyer-suppliers relational capital.

Findings

The findings show that strategic collaborations mediate the relationship between the strategic value of key supplier and buyer's product performance, and the mediating effect is moderated by the relational capital between the buyer and the key supplier in such a way that the stronger the relational capital the stronger the indirect effect of strategic value of key supplier on buyer's product performance.

Practical implications

The findings show that firms could derive significant benefits from the strategic value of their key supplier in improving their product performance. However, the benefits can only be realized if firms can build successful strategic collaborations in the first place. At the same time, this study also demonstrates the importance of relational capital in terms of commitment and trust with the key supplier that influences the effectiveness of strategic collaborations in realizing the outcome of the collaborations.

Originality/value

This study addresses the gap in the literature by disentangling the complex relationship between a key supplier's strategic value and a buyer's product performance and the role that both collaboration and relational capital play in this relationship. By integrating strategic collaborations and relational capital of buyer-supplier relationships, this study not only confirms the links by testing key supplier's strategic value, strategic collaboration and product performance, but also extends the previous studies by incorporating the moderating role of relational capital as a contingent factor.

Identification and analysis of enablers of SCM by using MCDM approach

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to differentiate the empowering influences of critical enablers of supply chain management (SCM) along with their interrelationships. These empowering enablers are significant, as they encourage productive execution to improve organizational performance and stakeholder's satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach

From the literature review, incidence of a number of SCM enablers were found and they were subjected to critical scrutiny by a considerable number of experts engaged in SCM research and application to identify significant and applicable empowering enablers by grounded interactions. By using Impact Matrix Cross-Reference Multiplication Applied to a Classification analysis, the driving and dependence power were analyzed and the empowering enablers were ordered. This was pursued by building up a structural model of the empowering enablers using interpretive structure modeling, followed with measuring cause–effect relationship using decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL).

Findings

Among these identified enablers of SCM, operational performance, green SCM, employee empowerment and motivation and strategic association came out to be strategic enablers.

Research limitations/implications

The findings may help the practicing professionals to develop clarity in understanding of these essential enablers and their contextual as well as cause–effect relationship in SCM. The practicing professionals need to focus on all these enablers during implementation of SCM for enhancing the organizational performance and stake holders' satisfaction.

Originality/value

This study is of practical utility in real-life implementation of SCM. The algorithm used in applying the multi-criteria decision-making approach is very user-friendly, and the application of DEMATEL is an innovation compared to previous research. Further, the findings can be used as a benchmark for improving the performance of SCM by considering the cause–effect relationship.

Understanding the impact of supply-side decisions and practices on supply risk management

Purpose

In the era of market turbulence, sourcing specialists consistently face challenges to keep the availability of the material efficiently and effectively without any disruption. Sourcing strategies and planning have a huge impact on procurement performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships among different sourcing strategies and supply risk management and performance and additionally, the role of procurement practices in different strategic settings.

Design/methodology/approach

This is empirical research that collected data gathered from 223 procurement specialists working in various manufacturing firms through a structured questionnaire. Valid data is then analyzed through the structure equation modeling technique for hypotheses testing.

Findings

The findings of this study reveal that supplier development is a partial complementary mediator between multiple supplier strategy and supply-side risk management. While in a volatile business environment, strategic supplier strategy has a significant negative impact on supply-side risk management, and in this case supplier development acts as a competing partial mediator between the two. Contract management has resulted in an important mechanism to be deployed in a strategic sourcing strategy. It is also shown that supplier risk management is also associated with improved supply management performance.

Practical implications

This paper establishes an explanation of theoretical and practical understanding of sourcing strategies and empirically shows that supplier development is the appropriate mechanism to deal with supply-side risk management, which in turn positively impacts on supplier management performance.

Originality/value

This study contributes to supply chain risk management literature, especially in the context of strategic risk management and explains how a strategic decision can impact supply risk management. This provides a piece of empirical evidence regarding the use of well-established procurement practices to improve supply performance.

A Reputation-Enhanced Hybrid Approach for Supplier Selection with Intuitionistic Fuzzy Evaluation Information

Selecting optimal suppliers in fuzzy environments has become a major challenge for enterprises. Reputation plays an important role in the process of supplier selection because of its fuzziness, dynamicity, and transitivity. In this study, we first present a novel intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFS)-hyperlink-induced topic search (HITS) method that combines the intuitionistic fuzzy set with the hyperlink-induced topic search (HITS) algorithm to extend the ability of processing fuzzy information in order to obtain post-propagated reputation values of suppliers. Then, we employ the dynamic intuitionistic fuzzy weighted average operator to gain dynamic reputation values and other evaluation attribute values. After that, intuitionistic fuzzy entropy weight method is adopted to acquire more accurate weights for each evaluation attribute. Finally, we employ the Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje method to acquire comprehensive evaluation values of candidate supplier to select optimal suppliers. Two groups of experiments for supplier selection are given to explain feasibility and practicality of the proposed method.

Impact of TQM/Six Sigma practices on company’s performance: Tunisian context

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the link between TQM/Six Sigma practices and their impact on performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the literature review of research that investigated the TQM and Six Sigma best practices and performance, the TQM/Six Sigma practices are classified into three key categories: top management commitment and support (TMCS), infrastructure and core practices. This paper proposes a path model linking these practices and performance. The empirical data were obtained from a survey of 91 Tunisian companies in different sectors. The research model was tested using partial least squares (PLS) technique based on SmartPLS software.

Findings

The result shows that the implementation of Six Sigma practices is based majorly on the TQM practices. Also, it reveals the positive impact of TQM/Six Sigma practices on performance. Furthermore, the analysis of path model reveals the relative interdependence and significant link between TMCS, infrastructure, core practices and performance.

Research limitations/implications

The path model tested in this study combines the TQM/Six Sigma practices and reveals their link with performance, which enhance the research theory of both two approaches. Moreover, it will be a useful support for the quality expert on the effective integration of TQM and Six Sigma methods.

Originality/value

This study is the first one which studies the link between TQM/Six Sigma practices and company’s performance in the Tunisian context based on PLS technique.

Developing SCM framework associated with IT-enabled SC network capabilities

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize how information technology (IT) enables supply chain (SC) network capabilities, which is to capitalize on SC’s existing set of resources and, at the same time, manage new combinations of SC resources to meet future market needs. The paper also develops SCM framework associated with IT-enabled SC network capabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a case study of a leading Taiwanese petrochemical corporation, qualitative data were gathered on the IT-related SC management practices, in terms of network resource mobilizing and adaptive co-management arrangements to enable SC network capability. This research is based primarily on the interviews of the case company, supplemented by archived documents, published books, and in-depth observations.

Findings

Based on the evidence from the case, this study inductively develops a model that includes the operating processes with IT-enabled activities to achieve ambidextrous SC network capability, and the relevant framework functions in network resources and co-management activities include information co-governance, information interoperability, community engagement strategy, cyber-physical dexterity, and control enactment, which lead the SC alliances improvements for dynamic environmental changes.

Practical implications

Practitioners may derive strategies and tactics from the current findings to help them implement innovative information technologies and setup SC framework, during SC network capability development, to achieve SC’s sustainable competence in a dynamic market.

Originality/value

Researchers and practitioners may obtain a more complete view of IT-enabled SC network capability development. The proposed model reveals that developing IT-enabled SC network capabilities is a dynamic process whereby an organization’s major SC managerial activities are divided into specific network resource mobilizing and adaptive co-management arrangements.

An Integrated AHP-Entropy Approach for Spare Parts Supplier Evaluation and Order Quantity Allocation

This paper employs a two-stage method to the spare parts supplier evaluation problem and the order quantity allocation problem. In the first stage, we integrated approaches of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and information entropy to evaluate the suppliers. In the second stage, the alternative suppliers’ weight scores obtained in the first stage are used as coefficients of the objective functions in a linear programming model. The model is developed to determine the optimal order quantity from the suppliers with consideration of the suppliers’ capacities and the buyer’s quality requirements of the products and service. A numerical example about the typical spare parts - ingot mold purchasing in an iron & steel company is presented to illustrate the approach proposed finally