PurposeThe persistence of remote and hybrid work has resulted in socially isolated supply chain workers working in functional groups to perform sometimes repetitive and unengaging tasks, under the auspices of performance dashboards. This study examines perseverance, a personality trait that may be a potential factor in stimulating helping behavior and improving workgroup performance. In addition, we also explore common logistics and supply chain management task structures, including goal-setting and task complexity as moderating influences.Design/methodology/approachThis paper utilizes an online scenario-based vignette experiment designed in collaboration with a senior supply chain management executive to explore personality and situational factors that influence helping behavior among remote workers performing an unengaging supply chain task.FindingsWe find that, while a worker's perseverance is positively related to their likelihood of helping coworkers, this direct relationship is under competitive mediation through normative ability, in which we also find that perseverant workers tend to focus more on their own performance, even though assessing their normative ability is positively tied to helping behavior. Further, both of these dynamics are respectively amplified by participative goal-setting and, unexpectedly, task complexity.Practical implicationsAs firms continue to struggle with return-to-office mandates, our results offer insights into how supply chain managers can improve workgroup performance among remote workers, particularly those tasked with unengaging and unrewarding tasks that remain commonplace in the logistics and supply chain management domain.Originality/valueTo our best knowledge, this is the first study to examine remote supply chain worker performance. Even as technology continues to advance, there are certain repetitive and unengaging tasks that cannot be simply automated. Our study offers a potential path for supply chain managers to improve remote worker engagement and workgroup performance on these tasks.

PurposeThis study investigates how a focal firm's supply chain reputation and product launch speed influences consumer and managerial responses to focal firms' product preannouncements, emphasizing how supply chain capabilities and competitive dynamics shape market interactions.Design/methodology/approachUsing a behavioral supply chain approach, we conduct two vignette-based experiments simulating consumer and managerial decision-making within competitive smartphone market scenarios.FindingsThe results highlight that perceptions about a focal firm's supply chain reputation and competitive aggressiveness in the form of product launch speed encourage consumer willingness to wait for a preannounced product. Additionally, these factors prompt rival firms' managers to leverage their supply chain capabilities for competitive actions.Originality/valueThis research provides a novel integration of behavioral perspectives within supply chain management, expanding insights into how consumers and rival firms' managers respond to product preannouncements.

The purpose of this research is to better understand how and why consumers pay attention to a firm's environmentally irresponsible sourcing practices. Using signaling theory, this research develops and tests a model that examines how a firm's intentionality and motive behind irresponsible environmental sourcing practices can signal a product's environmental characteristics to consumers. The findings suggest that consumers tend to view products as more environmentally harmful when they learn that a firm intentionally sources from irresponsible suppliers. Likewise, consumers are more likely to react unfavorably to a firm's products when a firm prioritizes profit motives over responsible sourcing practices. This research also offers insight into how a firm's corrective response strategy (e.g., mandatory vs. voluntary environmental supplier actions) could mitigate the adverse impact of the firm's environmentally irresponsible sourcing practices on consumer perceptions of environmental risk. The findings indicate that a firm's mandatory corrective actions targeted to its suppliers are more likely to be effective, whereas voluntary actions were found to be ineffective. Two experiments were conducted to test the study's hypotheses. Managerial and societal implications are also discussed.

Purpose Despite the important role that suppliers have in enhancing the environmental performance of a buyer firm, previous research has not investigated the individual-level motivations of supplier employees (representatives) in supplier-to-supplier environmental knowledge sharing. Thus, we use insights from the coopetition literature to examine how buyer firms can encourage supplier-to-supplier environmental knowledge sharing with the aim of improving the buyer’s environmental performance. Design/methodology/approach We empirically test our model using an online vignette-based experiment administered to supply chain managers. We contextualized our results using insights from interviews with senior managers representing firms operating in a broad array of industries. Findings We find that a supplier representative’s personal environmental values influence their commitment to an environmental consortium with a rival firm, and they are subsequently willing to share proprietary environmental knowledge. In turn, these relationships are moderated by situational factors including competitive intensity and buyer power. Originality/value The study of coopetition is an emerging stream of research in operations management. Our findings improve the understanding on how a focal actor within a buyer–supplier coopetitive network can promote environmental knowledge sharing behavior.

This research examines how national cultural differences between the acquirer and target firms affect post-acquisition performance in cross-border acquisitions. We focus on two dimensions of national culture-individualism/collectivism (IDV) and power distance (PDI)-for their close relevance to structural changes that occur during post-acquisition integration. We find that while differences in PDI are negatively associated with post-acquisition performance, differences in IDV positively affect such performance. We also find that the acquirer's cultural learning from supply chain partners helps mitigate the negative impact of PDI differences on post-acquisition performance, especially when the partner has a similar national culture in PDI to the target. Our theoretical development and empirical findings contribute to the operations and supply chain management research by illuminating the differential effects of national cultural differences on post-acquisition integration outcomes. Also, our study sheds new light on the possibility that working with supply chain partners may provide an opportunity for cultural learning that can be utilized in a post-acquisition integration setting.

Dual Pathways of Value Creation from Digital Strategic Posture: Contingent Effects of Competitive Actions and Environmental Uncertainty IN STOCK SKU 48.1.15 Publication History Received: October 9, 2019 Revised: December 20, 2020; February 23, 2022; November 7, 2022; June 7, 2023 Accepted: August 3, 2023 Published Online in Issue: March 1, 2024 https://doi.org/ Downloadable File Article PDF $15.00 Add to Cart Abstract Digital strategic posture (DSP) is defined as a firm’s overall strategic stance toward investing in information technology (IT) initiatives relative to that of rival firms. This study examines how a firm’s DSP affects firm performance. Drawing on the competitive dynamics perspective and contingency view, we demonstrate that DSP influences competitive actions through dual pathways. First, DSP enables firms to take competitive actions that are more appropriate given the level of environmental uncertainty (captured by industry dynamism). In particular, our findings suggest that a proactive DSP enables relatively more innovation-oriented actions in dynamic industries while enabling relatively more operations-oriented actions in less dynamic industries. Second, DSP plays a facilitating role in firms’ execution of competitive actions such that a firm’s value from its proactive DSP is enhanced when there is a fit between the type of the firm’s competitive actions and its level of environmental uncertainty. Specifically, we find that firms with a more proactive DSP achieve superior firm performance from innovation-oriented actions in dynamic industries and from operations-oriented actions in less dynamic industries. Taken together, our findings suggest that a proactive DSP not only allows firms to take appropriate competitive actions that fit their environmental conditions but also contributes to firms’ performance by facilitating the execution of these appropriate actions, thus enhancing their efficacy. Additional Details Author , , , and Year 2024 Volume 48 Issue 1 Keywords Digital strategic posture, competitive actions, innovation-oriented actions, operations-oriented actions, competitive dynamics, contingency view, business value of IT, IT strategy, industry dynamism Page Numbers 409-426

Purpose - The purpose of our study is to investigate how a manufacturing plant's internal operations along with its network of connections (upstream and downstream) can have an impact on its recovery time from a disruption. The authors also examine the inverse-U impact of complexity. Finally, the authors test the moderating role that business continuity management plans (BCP) at the plant level have on recovery time.Design/methodology/approach- To test our hypotheses, the authors partnered with Resilinc Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based provider of supply chain risk management solutions to identify focal firms' suppliers, customers and plant-level data including information on parts, manufacturing activities, bill of materials, alternate sites and formal business continuity plans. The authors employed censored data regression technique (Tobit).Findings - Several important findings reveal that the plant's internal operations and network connections impact recovery time. Specifically, the number of parts manufactured at the plant as well as the number of internal plant processes significantly increase disruption recovery time. In addition, the number of supply chains (upstream and downstream) involving the plant as well as the echelon distance of the plant from its original equipment manufacturer significantly increase recovery time. The authors also find that there exists an inverted-U relationship between complexity and recovery time. Finally, the authors find partial support that BCP will have a negative moderating effect between complexity and recovery time.Originality/value - This research highlights gaps in the literature related to supply chain disruption and recovery. There is a need for more accurate methods to measure recovery time, more research on recovery at the supply chain site level and further analysis of the impact of supply chain complexity on recovery time.

ABSTRACTThis study investigates how supply chain characteristics influence a rival firm's response to a focal firm's product preannouncements from a competitive dynamics perspective. Indeed, many firms recognize that it is critical to leverage their supply chains to gain a competitive advantage. We propose that common suppliers enhance a rival firm's awareness of the focal firm's credibility, reducing competitive responses. In addition, a rival firm's strong supplier inventory performance will motivate rivals to respond more aggressively, while the rival's supply–chain partnerships enhance its capability to react to the focal firm. Using panel data from S&P 1500 firms between 2007 and 2015, our findings provide support for our hypotheses, illustrating that supply chain characteristics can significantly influence a rival firm's responses to the focal firm's preannouncements. This research contributes to the competitive dynamics and supply chain management literature by highlighting the strategic role of supply chain characteristics in interfirm competition, offering practical insights for managers on leveraging supply chain resources to effectively navigate competitive threats.

Prior research has demonstrated that a horizontal reputation commons is shared across the breadth of an industry. However, less is known about the existence of a vertical reputation commons among supply chain members. The purpose of this consumer-centric study is to examine the spillover effect of an upstream incident in the supply chain on consumer perceptions of a retailer's reputation and consumer repatronage intention. Specifically, this study explores two factors that may impact consumer perceptions: location of the incident within the retailer's supply chain and the severity of the incident. Study 1 tests the spillover effect on the retailer's reputation and repatronage intention using a two-tier supply chain and two relative extremes of severity. Study 2 examines how a retailer through messaging could dampen the spillover effect following an upstream incident. Our findings provide insight regarding when and how consumer perceptions regarding a retailer's reputation may change following an incident in the retailer's supply chain and how those perceptions can be influenced by effective messaging. Collectively, our results offer initial theoretical insights into the concept of a supply chain (vertical) reputation commons.

There is mixed evidence on the effectiveness of voluntary environmental programs. We evaluate a voluntary program aimed at reducing transportation emissions, that is, the U.S. EPA SmartWay Program. We construct a novel database of the physical assets used by firms before and after they joined SmartWay and compare changes in the age of their assets with that of firms that did not join SmartWay. Our results show that firms that participated in SmartWay operate substantially newer (i.e., cleaner) trucks compared with non-SmartWay participants, indicating that SmartWay participation is a credible signal of a firm's reduced emissions footprint emanating from truck operations. After the start of SmartWay, firms that joined invested in newer trucks relative to firms that did not, with about a year reduction in average truck age several years after the program began. SmartWay had a larger effect on firms that own their trucks compared with firms that outsource ownership, and sustained participation increased the program's effectiveness. We estimate that the SmartWay Program has reduced commercial transportation emissions from operations by 25.2 million metric tons of CO2 by increasing the incentive to invest in newer, cleaner trucks. Our study provides insight into factors that make voluntary environmental programs effective.

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to examine how a change in team dynamics impacts an individual's motivation to engage in helping behavior and operational performance.Design/methodology/approachAn online vignette experiment and a hybrid discrete event and agent-based simulation model are used.FindingsStudy findings demonstrate how a non-core worker's perception of team dynamics influence engagement in helping behavior and system performance.Originality/valueThis study provides a further understanding on how team members react to changes in team processes. This study theorizes on how an individual team member responds to fairness concerns. This study also advances our understanding of the critical importance of helping behavior in a retail logistics setting. This research illustrates how the theory of strategic core and procedural justice literature can be adopted to explain team dynamics in supply chain management.

While greater competitive activity is generally associated with competitive advantage, certain competitive actions by a supplier may have spillover effects that adversely impact buying firms, leading them to reduce future purchases from the supplier. We study the effects of competitive actions in the context of vertical buyer-supplier relationships. Specifically, leveraging insights from screening theory, we examine how a supplier firm's value-diminishing competitive actions-moves that may negatively impact buyer firms-lead to subsequent reductions in the buyer's procurement allocations and how contextual factors moderate such adverse effects. We test the associated hypotheses using a panel dataset comprising 12,690 dyadic buyer-supplier observations. A series of econometric analyses provide consistent evidence that a supplier's value-diminishing actions are associated with decreases in the buyer's purchases from the supplier, thus highlighting the "dark side" of competitive actions. Furthermore, we find that the supplier's downstream vertical relatedness and the degree to which rival suppliers pursue value-diminishing actions moderate this effect. Our findings, thus, add to our understanding of factors that shape the success and continuity of supply chain relationships and help supplier firms evaluate the economic viability of their competitive actions.

Purpose This study aims to examine the extent to which a buying firm can leverage the firm's supplier's innovations to boost the firm's own innovation performance and key moderators to this relationship. Grounded in social embeddedness theory, the authors explore the role of dyadic embeddedness between a buyer and supplier as a facilitator of buyer innovation. Design/methodology/approach Negative binomial regression was used to empirically analyze a large sample of dyadic observations from the USA manufacturing industry. Measures were developed from data acquired from Compustat, LexisNexis and Bloomberg. Findings The findings indicate that supplier innovation has a positive impact on a buyer firm's innovation output, particularly when the firms are technically similar and when there is a higher degree of financial interdependence in the buyer–supplier dyad. Originality/value This study provides important insights into how supplier firms can facilitate buyer innovation as and how relational factors suggested by social embeddedness theory act to strengthen this effect. Through a theoretical-based empirical examination of supply chain dyads, the findings highlight the importance of financial interdependence and technical similarity when buyers seek to benefit from supplier innovation capabilities.

This editorial encourages supply chain management researchers to conduct and submit replication research for publication consideration to the Journal of Supply Chain Management . The Journal is particularly interested in efforts to replicate both recently published papers that have the potential to change the direction of the discipline and highly influential or “seminal” papers in the supply chain management discipline, regardless of where they were initially published. The Journal will be using the registered report process for these submissions to create strong incentives for researchers to conduct replication studies.

The Journal of Supply Chain Management's 2022 emerging discourse incubator looks to encourage scholars from different disciplines to develop and test new theories to advance our understanding about why and how firms should manage supply network resources for deploying competitive actions and gaining competitive advantage. To start that discourse, this issue offers three invited papers. In "Broadening our understanding of interfirm rivalry: A call for research on how supply networks shape competitive behavior and performance," Christian Hofer, Jordan Barker, Laura d'Oria, and Jon Johnson discuss the criticality of the supply network to a focal firm's capability in engaging competitive behaviors and the effectiveness of their rivalrous activities, which together affect the firm's competitive advantage. Michael Howe and Yao Jin explore the relational multiplexity theoretical framework in "It's Nothing Personal, or is it? Exploring How Relational Multiplexity in the Supply Chain Can Enhance Competitive Behavior." In "A theoretical model on how firms can leverage their supply chain strategy through political actions," Abhay Grover and Martin Dresner use the structure-conduct-performance and competitive dynamics perspectives to theorize about the relationship between political strategies, supply chain risk management strategy, and firm competitive advantage. These invited papers provide a solid foundation to further a discourse that explains how and why changes in supply chain networks can enable firms to rapidly introduce competitive actions such as new product innovations to remain competitive in their respective industries.

Focal firms are struggling to improve their environmental performance for several reasons, including a scarcity of internal and external environmental resources. This study suggests that coopetition provides a boost to a focal firm's environmental performance. In particular, this research theorizes that a coopetitor firm's environmental performance has a spillover effect on a focal firm's environmental performance. This study also investigates the moderating role of a focal firm's financial slack, financial leverage, and inventory leanness on this relationship. The empirical analysis indicates that coopetitor firms' environmental performance significantly influences a focal firm's environmental performance. This relationship is weaker for firms with higher financial slack, and stronger for firms that have lower financial leverage and higher leanness. Collectively, these findings provide important managerial and research implications regarding the consequences of coopetition on a focal firm's environmental performance.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced supply chain management researchers and practitioners to question many of our firmly held assumptions about the discipline. Perhaps the most interesting question is, where does supply chain management go from here? This issue of the Journal of Supply Chain Management begins to answer that question via a combination of invited essays and a regular submission. We consider this issue as only a starting point, and we hope to see its impact on future research on mega-disruptions in supply chains.

Stakeholders expect focal firms to improve their environmental performance. While firms may be able to accumulate the environmental expertise needed to achieve this goal internally, doing so may require significant time and resource commitments. Alternatively, buyer firms can leverage their suppliers’ existing environmental expertise and gain access to such expertise when they purchase products and services from these suppliers. The purpose of this study was to develop and test theory regarding under what conditions suppliers’ environmental expertise influences a buying firms’ procurement spend with these suppliers. We ground our study in transaction cost economics and agency theories and empirically test our hypotheses using a unique buyer–supplier dyadic data set. We find that buyer firms are willing to increase their overall business spend with suppliers that have strong environmental expertise, particularly when the buyer firms are more profitable and have higher levels of absorptive capacity. However, we find the opposite effect when the buyer firm’s executive compensation is linked to the firm’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Likewise, we also find that the buyer firm’s environmental concern ratings negatively moderate the relationship between the supplier’s environmental expertise and the buyer’s procurement spend with the supplier.

This study analyzes the impact of a supplier's environmental management concerns (SEMC) on a buyer's environmental reputation. Data is drawn from Newsweek US 500 Green Rankings, Bloomberg's Supply Chain Analysis (SPLC) database, and the Kinder, Lydenberg, and Domini (KLD) dataset. A significant negative impact on a buyer's reputation from higher levels of SEMC is found. Greater relationship criticality with a supplier enhances this impact, while the impact is reduced for firms with greater size. In sum, the study contributes to the transportation and logistics literature regarding the key managerial issue of green supply chain.

Criminal justice involvement is a multifaceted construct encompassing various forms of contact with the criminal justice system. It is a sensitive topic to ask about in surveys and also a sensitive topic for respondents to answer. This article provides guidance for writing survey questions on criminal justice involvement, starting with a review of potential causes for reporting error and nonresponse error associated with survey questions on criminal justice involvement. Questions about criminal justice involvement are subject to errors that are common to any survey (eg, misunderstanding questions, recall bias, telescoping). Reponses to these questions are also subject to underreporting because of social desirability concerns. We also address strategies to reduce error for questions pertaining to criminal justice involvement (eg, self-administered data collection, wording of forgiving questions, indirect methods). We then discuss common design decisions associated with writing survey questions on criminal justice involvement (eg, type and frequency of criminal justice involvement, reference period,) and provide examples of questions from current surveys.