Abstract

Quality management has received increasing attention in supply chain management. The concept of supply chain quality integration (SCQI) is used to explain how a focal manufacturer integrates with its upstream suppliers and downstream customers for quality improvement. Although the contingent effects of SCQI on quality-related performance have been studied, SCQI patterns and their relationships with performance remain unknown. Using data collected from 317 manufacturers across 10 countries, this study adopts a configuration approach to identify SCQI patterns and their relationships with quality-related performance. Five SCQI patterns composed of different levels of supplier, internal, and customer quality integration are identified. We describe these SCQI patterns in terms of the strength and balance of manufacturers’ quality integration. The ANOVA results show that quality-related performance varies according to different SCQI patterns. Interestingly, product quality is not distinguishable across SCQI patterns. Delivery performance is improved in patterns with a high level of balance of quality integration. The cost of quality is lower in patterns with a high level of customer quality integration. Flexibility is achieved in patterns with high balance and strength of quality integration. This study contributes to the supply chain management and quality management literature, and provides suggestions for managers to adopt different SCQI configurations to improve different types of quality-related performance.

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High performance manufacturing ;  Quality performance ;  Supply chain quality integration ;  Taxonomy

Abstract

Contradictory findings on the relationship between proactive environmental strategy and performance are reported in the existing literature. The way that proactive environmental strategy is defined, the omission of crucial mediating variables and the misfit between strategy and business structures may help explain these conflicting findings. Drawing upon the logic of strategy-action-performance, this study tests the effects of two implementation variables of proactive environmental strategy-green human resource management (GHRM) and environmental legitimacy (EL)-on environmental performance as well as the mediating roles played by the implementation of green operational practices (GOP). Further, based on contingency theory, this study proposes that the impacts of GHRM and EL on the implementation of GOP might be moderated by operational barriers (OR) and managerial barriers (MB). The proposed hypotheses are empirically tested using a dataset of 260 sample plants in 11 countries/regions (Finland, Sweden, Germany, Taiwan, Israel, Mainland China, Spain, Brazil, Italy, South Korea and Japan). The results show that the effect of GHRM on environmental performance is fully mediated by the implementation of GOP (the path coefficient b for the direct link between GHRM and environmental performance changes from 0.436, p < 0.001 to 0.180, p > 0.1). EL has no statistically significant direct or indirect effects on environmental performance (direct effect: b = -0.08, p > 0.1, indirect effect: b = 0.083, p > 0.1) but has a marginally significant effect on the implementation of GOP (b = 0.218, p < 0.1). The results also indicate that OB reduce the effectiveness of EL in facilitating the implementation of GOP (b = -0.103, p < 0.1), and MB reduce the effectiveness of GHRM in supporting the implementation of GOP (b = -0.11, p < 0.1). (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Barriers ;  Environmental legitimacy ;  Environmental performance ;  Green human resource management ;  Green operational practices ;  Proactive environmental strategy

Abstract

Purpose Chinese investments abroad are being scrutinized more stringently because host governments fear that Chinese companies would steal domestically grown technology and know-how or be duped into a debt trap. The purpose of this paper is to provide a narrative of Chinese investments in a region that is neither developed nor underdeveloped – Central and Eastern Europe. The authors aim to provide an alternative view of Chinese investments abroad. Design/methodology/approach The authors base their narrative on face-to-face semi-structured interviews with eight Chinese firms that carried out mergers and acquisition activities in the region. Findings The respondents claim that they saved companies and jobs in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Access to the China market and elsewhere has increased as a result of these investments. Transfer of technology has gone both ways depending on which partner had superior technology. Research limitations/implications It is important that Chinese investors emphasize the positive spillover effects from their investments, such as jobs saved, potential technology transfer and increased exports, when applying for FDI approval from host governments. Host governments, on the other hand, should evaluate each Chinese investment on its individual merits. Originality/value There is little that has been researched on the contributions of FDI from developing countries to host economies. This paper is an early attempt in this direction.

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Purpose-Following resource-based view, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of three intra-organizational structural elements on supply chain integration (SCI). Design/methodology/approach-Based on data collected from ten countries, this study employs the structural equation modeling method to test the proposed model. Findings-The results demonstrate that teamwork culture is positively related to three dimensions of SCI. Organizational commitment has positive effects on internal and customer integration (CI), whereas it has no significant effect on supplier integration (SI). Human goodness is only positively related to internal integration, but has no significant effect on SI or CI. Originality/value-This study contributes to both structural elements literature and SCI enabler literature by operationalizing three human-related components of structural elements and empirically investigating relationships between intra-organizational structural elements and SCI.

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Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects that customer structured and unstructured information sharing (IS) can have on customer operational and strategic coordination and on supply chain performance (SCP). In addition, the study examines how customer IS influences customer coordination under various levels of demand uncertainty (DU). Design/methodology/approach-The conceptual model for this study is designed on the basis of information-processing theory (IPT). Using data collected from 622 manufacturers in mainland China and Taiwan, the theoretical model is tested using the structural equation modeling method. Findings-The authors find that both customer structured IS and unstructured IS are positively associated with customer strategic coordination. Customer structured IS increases customer operational coordination, but customer unstructured IS does not. DU positively moderates the relations between customer unstructured IS and strategic coordination, and between customer structured IS and operational coordination. Also, DU negatively moderates the relationship between customer structured IS and strategic coordination. Customer strategic coordination is positively related to SCP and to operational coordination. Customer operational coordination has no significant impact on SCP. Originality/value-This study deepens our understanding of customer IS by distinguishing between customer structured and unstructured IS. The study also provides a greater understanding of customer coordination by making a distinction between the customer strategic and the operational coordination. The findings extend the empirical application of IPT. In addition, this study's findings direct SC managers to apply varied customer IS practices that can enhance specific kinds of customer coordination activities, thereby enabling improved SCP.

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Supply chain performance ;  Demand uncertainty ;  Customer coordination ;  Customer information sharing

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MANAGEMENT RESEARCH ;  CONTEXT ;  EDITORS ;  CONSTRUCTION ;  ORGANIZATION ;  TRANSLATION

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We contribute to the understanding of the relationship between organisational identification and work-related stress by examining the role that expanded forms of organisational identification play in explaining the nature of this relationship. The current study explores the extent to which organisational identification and other expanded forms of identification predict employee strain. We hypothesise that ambivalent identification, neutral identification, and disidentification will moderate the negative relationship between organisational identification and exhaustion and ego depletion, such that the link between identification and strain will be stronger when the other dimensions are low. We tested these predictions in a survey among 228 employees of care homes for the elderly (72% social-sanitary operators, 27% nurses). Results largely supported the hypotheses and show reliable interactions for ambivalent, neutral identification, and disidentification on both exhaustion and ego depletion. Results showed a significant moderation by ambivalent identification for exhaustion but not for ego depletion. We discuss limitations and future implications for research and practice of the expanded model of organisational identification in organisational interventions that deal with work-related stress.

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rganisational identification ;  exhaustion ;  ego depletion ;  disidentification ;  ambivalent identification ;  neutral identification

Abstract

This study attempts to identify the variations in the transaction-specific investments made in logistics outsourcing relationships and explore how such variations are related to outsourcing cooperation. Based on the assumption that the vendor and the client always make some level of investment in outsourcing relationships, we develop a cluster model that illustrates four situations that indicate varying levels of vendor-specific investment and client-specific investment. We use data from client firms in logistics outsourcing relationships from China to test the theorised configurations through cluster analysis. The results validate our proposed matrix of specific investments and confirm that systematic configurations of the investment taxonomy and corresponding cooperation behaviours of information sharing, joint action, opportunism and conflict exist in each situation.

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Transaction-specific investment ;  information sharing ;  joint action ;  opportunism ;  conflict ;  logistics outsourcing relationships ;  Research paper

Abstract

最近我看到很频繁使用的一个词,就是2019年充满了不确定性.在我看来,2019年没有什么不确定的.巨大的灰犀牛就蹲在那里,时刻都有可能冲过来,所以今天我想跟大家分享的并不是去预测不确定性,2019年已经不用再预测了,起码在我看来是蹲着非常确定的几头灰犀牛.那我们现在需要研究的是什么?需要关注的是什么?是如何去抗击这几头灰犀牛.我们以为19年政策层面上再出一些利好,以为经济下行了一段时间,19年就会很快好转了,我觉得这都是一厢情愿.人们为什么老是一厢情愿?因为我们改革开放40年,说老实话我们的企业,我们的政府没有经历过经济下行,基本上一帆风顺,借着改革的东风,一路发展壮大.回忆一下40年我们走过的路程。第一次经济的下行,应该在93年到94年宏观紧缩的时候,一大批房地产商倒掉,全国到处看到罢工,为了控制通货膨胀,紧缩银根。但是很快,当货币当通货膨胀控制住之后,经济重新步入快速发展;第二次是1997年亚洲金融危机,中国当时外向型的经济刚刚开放,受到了很大的冲击,但随着国内扩张性财政政策推出,我们也很快缓过来,没有受到太大影响。再下一次是2008年的国际金融危机,我们都知道政府空前动用资源,推出了4万亿的刺激计划。实际上4万亿只是一个符号,我们投入的资源应该是以10万亿人民币计的。这么大力度的政策性刺激,使我们度过了2008年的危机。所以严格来讲,中国经济在40年的过程中,没有经历过一次完整的经济衰退的考验。在座的各位企业家也不知道在衰退的环境下,如何来改变企业的经营策略。这是我们现在感到有一些茫然和焦虑的原因。我们所面临的调整,应该说是中国经济几十年发展到今天,结构性的矛盾积累下来的一个必然结果。

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零售业的逻辑正在从“场一货一人”向"人一场一货”演变,制胜之道将从流量为王变为谁能拥有更智能化的、更符合消费者需求的推荐算法,这其中,数据主权至关重要。

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