This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
The Papers in This Book
In all, 15 papers are included in this book. Based on the focus of research, these papers are divided into four parts: Part 1 , “Supply Chain Strategy,” Part 2 , “Global Distribution of Production and Sourcing,” Part 3 , “Supply Chain Integration,” and Part 4 , “Sustainability.”
Supply Chain Strategy
Five papers are included in this section. The first paper is written by Graham Heaslip, Gyöngyi Kovács, and Ira Haavisto and is titled “Supply Chain Innovation: Lessons from Humanitarian Supply Chains.” The paper argues that supply chain innovation (SCI) is an under-researched and elusive concept, especially when it comes to innovation practices in the supply chain. The innovation in focus is the move from delivering materials in aid toward cash transfers, and how this innovation impacts the supply chain. Based on these insights, the paper contributes a refined SCI model and subsequently outlines avenues for further research within supply chain innovation.
The second paper is written by Marco Antonio Viana Borges and Luciana Marques Vieira and bears the title “Global Supply Chain Capabilities: A Framework Proposal.” Based on extant literature, this paper presents a conceptual framework showing the capabilities required by companies to move up in a global supply chain. The paper presents a framework that proposes it is important to develop productive, innovative, and interactive capabilities. Eight supply chain processes are presented as the means to achieve these capabilities.
The third paper is authored by Yavuz Acar, Sukran N. Atadeniz, and Faiza Zalila and has the title “An Empirical Study of Volume and Storage Flexibility in a Global Supply Chain.” The purpose of this empirical paper is to investigate the combined effect of volume and storage flexibility on the operational performance of a global specialty chemicals company. The supply chain is modeled using both optimization and simulation techniques. The paper provides valuable insights for the company management by displaying the degree of flexibility that would be most beneficial and be achieved with the least amount of investment.
The fourth paper is written by Roberto Garcia-Castro and Claude Francoeur and is titled “When More Is Not Better: Complementarities, Costs, and Contingencies in Stakeholder Management.” In this empirical paper, the authors rely on set-theoretic methods and a large international dataset of 1,060 multinational companies to theoretically and empirically explore some of the complementarities, costs, and contingencies likely to arise in stakeholder management. The results show that stakeholder investments are more effective when done simultaneously across all the relevant stakeholder groups and when there are no disproportionally high investments.
The fifth paper, written by Thomas Poulsen, is titled “Changing Strategies in Global Wind Energy Shipping, Logistics, and Supply Chain Management.” Based on extensive case studies, this paper reviews different wind energy markets globally. Within the global wind energy market, a number of derived industries—such as shipping, logistics, and supply chain management—support the continued expansion of the ever larger onshore and offshore wind farms. Subsequently, a number of supply chain setups serviced by the shipping, logistics, and supply chain management industry are reviewed, and the winning business models and strategies of current and emerging supply chain constituencies are discussed.
Global Distribution of Production and Sourcing
Five papers are included in this section. The first paper is written by Luciano Fratocchi, Alessandro Ancarani, Paolo Barbieri, Carmela Di Mauro, Alessio Troiano, Matteo Vignoli, and Andrea Zanoni. Their paper is titled “Manufacturing Back- and Near-Reshoring: A Comparison of European and North American Evidence.” The paper explores the recent back-reshoring and near-reshoring trends in global manufacturing. Further, it summarizes as well as discusses empirical evidence emerging from a wide range of countries. Drawing on a database of secondary data, the paper contrasts the motivation for reshoring in the United States and Europe. The research findings suggest that the reduction in labor and logistics cost differentials between offshore and home locations is one of the main reasons for relocating production both in Europe and the United States.
The second paper is authored by Dmitrij Slepniov and Brian Vejrum Wæhrens and is titled “Getting the Most from Offshoring: Home Base Capability Upgrading and Erosion.” Tapping into global resources is supposed to improve performance and contribute to a firm’s competitive advantage. However, a high offshoring quota may lead to erosion of a firm’s capabilities and have wider negative implications. This paper conceptualizes this scenario and proposes how it can be addressed. On the basis of a series of workshops with Danish companies, the need for sourcing and assimilating operations inputs at the home base as a means for sustained innovation and network orchestration is discussed.
The third paper is produced by Mário Gomes Augusto, João Veríssimo Lisboa, and Mahmoud M. Yasin and has the title “The Nature of the Relationship Between Continuous Improvement Techniques and Business Performance in the Portuguese Manufacturing Environment.” Using a sample of 122 Portuguese manufacturing organizations, this paper utilizes a structural equation modelling procedure to assess the impact of continuous improvement techniques on business performance in the Portuguese manufacturing cultural context. The results point to a direct effect of lean production techniques on operational performance and an indirect effect on organizational financial performance.
The fourth contribution in this subsection is delivered by Christopher Rajkumar with a paper titled “Sourcing Innovation: A Systematic Literature Review.” Sourcing innovation has become a prevalent topic in recent years, and various descriptions have been offered as it has gained distinction. The main contribution of this conceptual paper is to develop a definition for sourcing innovation within the supply chain management context through a systematic literature review. Further, this paper presents the various Research in the Decision Sciences for Global Supply Chain Network Innovations descriptions of sourcing innovation as well as the various factors that could underpin the notion of sourcing innovation.
The final paper in this subsection is written by Lone Kavin and is titled “How to Design an Appropriate Supply Network Structure to Reduce the Cost of Energy in the Danish Offshore Wind Power Industry.” The importance of supply network structure has been discussed since the birth of SCM and is still a major challenge for firms. Through a systematic review of the literature on supply network structures, this conceptual paper identifies different supply network classifications, typologies, and taxonomies. Additionally, it also explicates how these classifications, typologies, and taxonomies can be used to empirically describe and design an appropriate supply network structure for the Danish offshore wind energy sector.
Supply Chain Integration
This third subsection contains three papers. The first paper in this section is a contribution from Ivan Martinez Neri, Ole Stegmann Mikkelsen, and Jan Stentoft titled “Supply Chain Integration in Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Projects: An Explorative Study in the Offshore Wind Power Industry.” The paper explores the supply chain integration (SCI) of industries in which recurrent engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) projects are set to play an important role in the long term. This empirical paper is based on interviews with key players in the offshore wind industry. The findings show that information sharing and the level of collaboration are important dimensions to be studied in further stages of research regarding SCI in EPC projects.
The second paper is written by Christian Zuber, Hans-Christian Pfohl, and Ulrich Berbner and titled “Integrating Domains in Supply Chains: Development of Requirements for Interdisciplinary Decision Support Based on an Integrative Framework of Production, Logistics, and Traffic.” The paper is concerned with decision making within value-added networks as they are not only becoming increasingly complex, but also often counterproductively interfere with each other. The paper contributes with the integrative framework of production, logistics, and traffic. To enable interdisciplinary decision making, a multimethod approach including experts from the domains of production, logistics, and traffic is used. The analysis has been executed by methods and instruments of (social) network analysis.
The third paper is coauthored by Nachiappan Subramanian and Ding Jing Tao and is titled “China’s E-commerce: Winning Factors and E-loyalty.” The paper discusses the impact of three factors—competitiveness, attracting new customers, and retaining customers— on customer e-loyalty in the business-to-customer e-commerce context in China. The authors propose a customer-centered e-loyalty model according to expectation-confirmation theory, and they validate it using a large-scale survey data. The paper contributes by highlighting the importance of improving e-loyalty in not only attracting new customers, but also retaining existing ones.
Sustainability
The last subsection consists of two papers. The first paper is written by Rick Edgeman and Zhaohui Wu and is titled “Anthropocene Age Wicked Challenges: Yin, Yang, and Sustainable Enterprise Excellence.” This conceptual paper addresses grand global challenges, including wicked human caused or influenced ones key to sustainability, that characterize the Anthropocene Age. Wicked challenges are discussed in relation to enterprise excellence, sustainability, resilience, and robustness (SEER2) where these are in part enabled by supply chain proficiency. The paper discusses the Springboard to SEER2 Model and assessment of SEER2 and specific enablers and outcomes of SEER2.
The last paper is written by Yuan-Sheng Lee, Hsu-Shih Shih, and David L. Olson and is titled “Sustainability MCDM Model Comparisons.” This paper contends that sustainability is a key societal factor that inherently involves multiple and conflicting objectives. This paper applies basic MCDM models (weighting methods and PROMETHEE) to a published sustainability model and compares results with newer TODIM and TOPSIS methods. The results demonstrate how these models can be used to support sustainability decisions. With a high level of similar outcome, the results imply that a variety of good MCDM approaches can be applied to sustainability problems.