Amydee M. Fawcett

Awareness is Not Enough: Commitment, Adoption, and Performance Implications of Supply Chain Integration

Purpose: Given the tension between the rationale for and resistance to supply chain integration (SCI), our purpose is to provide an update on the rhetoric and reality of SCI and to test and extend theory related to adoption and efficacy of integration strategies. We examine changes in the level of integration engagement and its influence on firm performance. Design/methodology/approach: We employ a multi-method – survey and interview – replication approach to 1) gauge the extent to which companies are increasing their engagement in SCI and 2) assess integration’s influence on firm performance.Findings: Despite managerial awareness of SCI’s potential benefits, levels of integration have remained relatively unchanged over time. We find that integration is positively related to operational performance and firm performance. Integration’s primary influence is through productivity and customer service. The interviews indicate some firms are beginning to manage value co-creation initiatives across multiple tiers of the supply chain. They also reveal a major challenge to effective integration is a lack of managerial commitment. Awareness of integration’s competitive potential is insufficient to mobilize resources and mitigate resistance to collaboration. Originality/value: Multi-method, replication research is extremely rare, but it is necessary to understand collaboration dynamics. We demonstrate that integration can improve operating and firm performance. Indeed, our approach enables us to delve into the paradox between the positive performance impact and the lack of progress toward greater integration. Theoretically, we link commitment and capability. Managerially, we propose a maturity framework that managers can use to benchmark their own SCI initiative.

Elaborating a dynamic systems theory to understand collaborative inventory successes and failures

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a holistic paradigmatic lens through which the supply chain collaboration phenomena – including collaborative inventory management – can be understood and explained.Design/methodology/approach – As theory‐building research, the paper explores the environmental conditions and managerial processes that promote or hinder supply chain collaboration from a variety of theoretical lenses including contingency theory, the resource‐based view of the firm, the relational view of the firm, force field analysis, constituency based theory, social dilemma theory, and resource‐advantage theory.Findings – To demonstrate how an integrated theoretical framework can help us understand the dynamics of supply chain collaboration, the paper uses the framework to explicate the evolution and state of collaborative inventory management.Practical implications – The framework can accurately depict and explain highly publicized collaborative failures and successes. It is also possibl...

Why supply chain collaboration fails: the socio-structural view of resistance to relational strategies

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to elaborate theory regarding the reasons why collaboration strategies fail. The relational view posits that supply chain integration can be a source of competitive advantage. Few firms, however, successfully co-create value to attain supernormal relational rents. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a quasi-longitudinal, multi-case interview methodology to explore the reasons why collaboration strategies fail to deliver intended results. The authors interviewed managers at 49 companies in Period 1 and managers at 57 companies in Period 2. In all, 15 companies participated in both rounds of interviews. Findings – This study builds and describes a taxonomy of relational resistors. The authors then explore how sociological and structural resistors reinforce each other to undermine collaborative behavior. Specifically, the interplay among resistors: obscures the true sources of resistance; exacerbates a sense of vulnerability to non-collaborative behavior that ...

Mitigating resisting forces to achieve the collaboration‐enabled supply chain

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address how companies mitigate existing forces to achieve the collaboration enabled supply chain (SC).Design/methodology/approach – Seven key theories were used to provide insight into the theoretical framework for the creation of the collaboration‐enabled SC: contingency theory, the resource‐based view of the firm, the relational view of the firm, force field theory, constituency‐based theory, social dilemma theory, and resource‐advantage theory. An exploratory cross‐sectional survey was conducted at two different points in time – a six‐year period in between. The survey targeted three different functional areas – logistics, manufacturing, and sourcing – to compare and contrast functional perceptions of barriers and bridges to collaboration.Findings – Companies are beginning to pursue greater collaboration, however, managers are often stymied in their pursuit of collaborative business models. The data suggest that the challenge is not the existence of a single ba...

Can small firms gain relational advantage? Exploring strategic choice and trustworthiness signals in supply chain relationships

Organisational theory explicates that partners who overcome the challenges to developing trust-based interorganisational relationships can gain a vital source of competitive advantage. However, the extant relational research focuses on large, resource-rich entities. We, by contrast and extension, investigate whether small and medium-sized firms can leverage supply chain relationships for competitive advantage. Specifically, power imbalances and resource constraints are additional challenges common to small firms that may diminish their desire and ability to pursue relational advantage. However, we posit that effective, trust-based governance can enable small and medium-sized firms to overcome their unique challenges to enter more collaborative relationships and thereby improve operational and firm performance. Our findings from a survey of manufacturing firms provide evidence that small and medium-sized firms can gain performance benefits when they (1) make the conscious choice to pursue trust-based collaboration and (2) strategically demonstrate trustworthiness.

Benchmarking the state of humanitarian aid and disaster relief

– A review of relief‐and‐recovery glitches related to natural disasters revealed four main issues that hinder the effectiveness of relief efforts. A common theme across these issues is a need for a more holistic systems design to provide better coordination within humanitarian aid and disaster relief (HADR). This paper addresses this issue., – This is a conceptual paper using systems design theory to frame the extant literature and delineate the challenges and opportunities in HADR with respect to environment, processes, and goals. With the focus on systems design, the authors use fundamental principles of systems thinking to identify core issues and questions that require the attention of future research., – HADR supply chains are made up of a complex set of players. By answering the questions the paper have proposed using systems thinking, these organizations can be motivated to coordinate efforts in the HADR supply chain to create a more cohesive response effort., – Progress is needed to transition from temporary to synchronized, “borderless” HADR supply chain networks. The result would be that HADR supply chains would more effectively reduce suffering and operate at lower total costs – two goals that are worth pursuing., – This paper is written in response to Richeys call for a more theoretical base in HADR research. Addressing the proposed research questions introduced in this paper will increase HADR system transparency, allowing us to better evaluate theoretically the governance and synchronization mechanisms required to enhance collaboration and improve HADR effectiveness.

Supply chain success: key initiatives differentiating high- and low-performing firms

Supply chain management (SCM) has emerged as a strategic response to the confluence of increasing global competition and pressure on management to be more productive with capital and assets. Many firms, however, are not realising the full potential of their supply chain initiatives. In this study, 588 firms active in supply chain integration (SCI) were divided into three groups based on overall firm performance. Strategic and tactical differences were observed between those in the high- and low-performing groups. Results indicate that high-performing firms have differentiated their supply chain capabilities in three critical areas: truly focusing on the needs of customers, communicating/sharing information with other supply chain members, and improving internal integration and alignment. Primary activities supporting the initiatives include supportive and engaged senior management, creating performance measures to support integration around customers, and building information architectures that facilitate cross-organisational information sharing. This combination of initiatives and activities separates the firms in the sample, providing insight into how other firms can accelerate their supply chain maturation processes.

Moments of angst: A critical incident approach to designing customer-experience value systems

Purpose – Competitive dynamics are placing greater emphasis on customer experience, making the management of the last 100 meters of the supply chain critical to differential performance. Traditionally, supply chain design has emphasized two processes: new product development and order fulfillment. Today, a third process must be designed and managed for competitive advantage. That is, the authors need to learn to design service value systems to enhance the customer experience and promote loyalty and lifetime streams of profit. This research informs the enduring challenge that underlies the delivery of high levels of customer satisfaction by enriching theory related to the design and provision of distinctive customer experience. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The critical incident technique (CIT), an inductive method, is employed to explore two core dimensions of expectancy theory and to identify the phenomenological and underlying systems design factors that bring abo...

Please Clap! How Customer Service Quality Perception Affects the Authenticity of Sustainability Initiatives

Why do some companies gain image benefits from sustainability investments and others do not? The extant literature posits that consumer perceptions of authenticity influence reactions to a company’s sustainability efforts. Thus, consumers’ preconceived notions about a firm may influence the firm’s return on sustainability investments. Through behavioral experiments, employing Social Judgment Theory, Availability, and Affect Heuristics, we assess how a firm’s service quality perception influences a consumer’s appraisal and response to its sustainability efforts. We find that preexisting positive service perceptions reinforce and amplify consumers’ sustainability attributions. By contrast, negative service perceptions undermine sustainability returns, engendering cynicism toward sustainability initiatives.

Perceptions of the Teacher–Leader in Modern Society: Insights from the Master Teacher's Pedagogy

Abstract Meeting the challenges of a modern era, including corporate scandal, government gridlock, and societal turmoil, requires a high level of effective leadership. In such an environment, the teacher–leader plays a critical role in cultivating the knowledge worker and learning organization. After all, the teacher–leader leverages the human resource by challenging and inspiring people to bring forth their best efforts and ideas in the quest to identify and implement creative solutions to societys dilemmas. To understand the opportunities and challenges encountered in the teacher–leader paradigm, the pedagogy of a prototypical teacher was modeled and evaluated. As the ideal model of the teacher–leader, the authors selected Jesus Christ, a historical figure whose acumen and influence earned him the title of “Master Teacher.” Jesus Christ was selected because he has repeatedly been recognized as a great leader; a great teacher; and one of the most influential people who has ever lived. Using the biblical record, Jesus’ teaching style was examined and a survey instrument developed and administered to students and faculty at a major university. Three core constructs that underlie Jesuss approach to teaching were identified: 1) empathy and motivation, 2) rigor and internalization, and 3) accountability and measurement. While students and faculty evaluate the techniques that comprise the empathy-and-motivation construct favorably, the other two constructs elicit student evaluations that would be too low for Jesus to obtain tenure. Ultimately, providing the rigor and accountability needed to cultivate personal growth and competitive skills is an unpopular task that professors tend to avoid by teaching to student expectations. Thus, the leadership conundrum—there is little incentive for teachers to lead or to help cultivate tomorrows leaders. The world we have created today has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them. – Albert Einstein