Blandine Ageron

Innovative supply chain practices: the state of French companies

Purpose – This research aims to explore innovation in supply chain management. Innovation has often been studied in supply chain relationships and specifically from a product point of view. The authors aim to observe innovation by focusing on the different practices and collaborations suppliers and customers are developing to improve their competitiveness and the performance of the whole supply chain.Design/methodology/approach – A review of previous literature on innovation in supply chain management is presented and the authors design an interview guide for their data collection that is developed from their previous literature review on innovation in supply chain management. Data are collected from 68 innovations in French companies and subsequently analyzed to identify the major elements of innovations in supply chain management.Findings – The key findings of the paper identify the major components affecting innovative supply chain practices and SC performance. The results suggest that innovation is es...

Inter-organisational alignment to enhance information technology (IT) driven services innovation in a supply chain: the case of radio frequency identification (RFID)

Firms cannot be competitive if their information systems (ISs) and business strategies are not aligned. The strategic alignment model (SAM) developed by Henderson and Venkatraman (Strategic alignment: leveraging information technology (IT) for transforming organizations. IBM Systems Journal, 38 (2/3), 472–484.) considers strategic alignment as a stand-alone challenge between a company and its IS. This concern of alignment has not been empirically extended to the inter-organisational level. This research raises the question of inter-organisational alignment and follows how companies, embedded in a supply chain (SC), adapt their ISs and organisations while implementing IT-driven innovation. We conducted a case study on a radio frequency identification (RFID) project in a jewellery SC. This SC is made of a middle-sized retailer (MSR), composed of headquarters and 80 stores, and one single supplier, a logistic service provider (LSP). By combining an RFID project framework and the SAM, this study provides some answers to the dynamics of alignment and highlights various sequences according to the different phases of the project. Through a single case study, this article finally proposes to extend the alignment perspectives of the SAM to the inter-organisational level.

IS/IT as supplier selection criterion for upstream value chain

Purpose – This exploratory research aims to examine and evaluate the importance of IS/IT criterion in the suppliers selection process. The paper attempts to assess if there is superior supply chain performance arising from the integration of this criterion and to determine difficulties companies face resulting from this deployment.Design/methodology/approach – A review of previous literature on supplier selection is presented and the authors designed a structured questionnaire for their data collection. Data were collected from 90 French companies and subsequently analyzed to understand the IS/IT criterion used for supplier selection along the upstream value chain.Findings – The results suggest that IT/IS is a significant supplier selection criterion within supply chain context because of the rapid proliferation of information sharing across upstream chains.Research limitations/implications – Since this empirical investigation has been limited to French companies, further studies can be done for compariso...

Value creation and supplier selection: An empirical analysis

In order to increase their competitiveness amid a growing internationalisation, many companies outsourced a part of their activities by the late 1980s and 1990s. This outsourcing process has transformed organisational boundaries and created supply chains where suppliers and sub-contractors are essential parts of these chains. There is a growing tendency to select these partners and, consequently, they are fewer in number and tend to be found farther and farther from the network leader. This geographical distance between the company and its suppliers affects the organisational density of the network and raises the problem of cooperation−coordination in the buyer−supplier relationships. The objective of this chapter is to examine the criteria used in the suppliers’ selection process and thereby in the supply chain. More specifically, in the context of distributed supply sources and partnership objectives, the geographical distance between the company and its suppliers raises the problem of organisational density and increases the need for partnership cooperation−coordination in the supply chain.

Structuration de la chaîne logistique amont et processus de sélection des fournisseurs : quelle place pour les TIC ?

La recherche d’une compétitivité de plus en plus grande dans les années 1980 et la mondialisation des années 1990 ont amené les entreprises à externaliser nombre de leurs activités et à délocaliser leurs unités de production. Le phénomène d’externalisation a eu pour conséquence un déplacement des frontières des entreprises par la création de réseaux de partenaires, dont l’articulation donne lieu à la formation d’une chaîne logistique ou supply chain composée d’un panel fournisseurs et sous-traitants. Les partenaires de cette chaîne sont à la fois de plus en plus sélectionnés, réduits en nombre, et de plus en plus éloignés géographiquement de la firme « pivot » donneuse d’ordres. Cet éloignement pose un problème de densité organisationnelle et fait émerger avec une plus grande intensité le problem de la coordination-coopération entre chacun des maillons de la chaîne logistique. La question générale posée dans cet article est celle des critères qui fondent actuellement le choix des fournisseurs et donc la construction d’une chaîne logistique. Plus spécifiquement, dans un contexte d’éloignement des sources d’approvisionnement et de recherche de partenariat, cette étude cherche à évaluer l’importance des technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC) en tant que critère de choix d’un fournisseur. On essaiera de répondre à deux questions : quel est, en 2007, le poids relatif des TIC par rapport aux autres grands critères classiques ?Quels sont les outils TIC que les entreprises privilégient dans la selection de leurs fournisseurs ?

Value Creation in Collaborative Networks: The Case of RFiD Implementation

In this article, we question the way CNs are built around the imple- mentation of RFiD in a supply chain and what are the value creation logics among these CNs. We address three main questions: the way and types of CNs in a RFiD implementation project, the nature of the aggregator and value crea- tion of each actor during the different phases of the project and finally the inter- connections between CNs in the value creation logic. We provide answers to theses questions based on a case study that describes the implementation of the RFiD innovative technology in a jewellery supply chain.