Evelyne Vanpoucke

Supply chain information flow strategies: an empirical taxonomy

Purpose - The paper identifies different information flow strategies to enhance integration in strategic alliances and studies these strategies with respect to contextual factors and the impact on performance. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines empirical data gathered from 56 manufacturing companies, describing 112 supply chain relationships. An empirical taxonomy is created based on cluster analysis. Findings - Based on a parsimonious description of inter-firm information flows in the literature and our empirical findings, we identify 3 types of alliances: Silent, Communicative and IT intensive alliances. While Silent alliances have the poorest overall performance, substantial similarities are found between Communicative and IT intensive alliances. In particular, the analysis suggests that IT intensive alliances, albeit performing better on operational capabilities, are not performing better on relationship satisfaction compared to Communicative alliances. Additional analyses indicate that partners of an IT intensive alliance are substantially more interdependent and larger in size. Research limitations/implications – This research presents a taxonomy of information flow strategies in a supply chain context. This research is not describing causality, since our data is not longitudinal in nature. Practical implications – Managers need to selectively invest in IT according to an overall supply chain integration strategy, which also takes softer, less technological forms of integration into consideration. Originality/value – This research provides insight into inter-firm information flows from a contingency perspective, recognizing heterogeneity of firms and supply chain practices..

Leveraging the impact of supply chain integration through information technology

Purpose Companies increasingly exchange information to work more closely with supply chain partners. Although information exchange is a critical element for up- and downstream partnerships, the purpose of this paper is to indicate that it is not a guarantee for improved performance and should be combined with other integration tactics to fully capture its benefits. Design/methodology/approach Using a global sample in the industrial sector, a moderated mediation framework for both upstream and downstream integration, which links integration tactics to operational performance, was empirically tested. Findings This research shows that operational integration is indispensable to capture the benefits of information exchange. In addition, it points out that the impact of the use of information technology (IT) is stronger for upstream integration. Practical implications While the data show that the use of IT significantly improves the delivery performance in the supply chain, it also signals to managers how and when to invest in supply chain integration tactics. Originality/value This paper contributes to a better understanding of the supply chain integration-performance link, by clarifying some of the inconsistencies in previous literature and by simultaneously analyzing upstream and downstream implications.

The predictive value of behavioural characteristics on the success of strategic alliances

An increasing number of companies are setting up strategic alliances with suppliers and customers. However, the majority of these alliances do not succeed. Our aim is to understand how different behavioural characteristics are associated with alliance success. We hypothesise that alliance attributes, communication behaviour, and alliance management are predictors of cost benefits and service benefits. Furthermore, we found that while alliance attributes are related with both cost and service benefits, communication behaviour and alliance management are only associated with service and cost benefits, respectively. We also see that alliance attributes explain most of the variance of supply chain success and are thus better predictors of alliance success than other behavioural characteristics. Furthermore, we provide insight into the way managers can build up supply chain performance by setting up strategic alliances.

The role of motivation in relating green supply chain management to performance

Purpose Not all companies deal with green supply chain management (GSCM) in the same way. The purpose of this paper is to understand a company’s GSCM motivation and how this motivation is linked to stakeholder pressures, a company’s GSCM practices and performance. Design/methodology/approach The authors report the findings of a survey on GSCM motivations. Findings Clear differences are seen in why companies are motivated to pursue GSCM. Based on these different motivations, this paper explains differences in perceived stakeholder pressure and performance. Research limitations/implications GSCM motivation is a sensitive topic and as such might cause respondents to provide socially desired answers. However, the analyses show clear variances in the answers, indicating that the measures put forth by the authors are valid. Social implications This study shows that to achieve sustainable GSCM, companies can be motivated in various ways. Also, stakeholders can learn from this study: they need to focus their attention toward companies whom they have the highest impact on. Originality/value First, this study tests a framework for GSCM motivations and shows that motivation mediates the relationship between stakeholder pressures and performance. Second, this study shows that these differences in motivation impact performance outcomes.

Critical success factors simplified: implementing the powerful drivers of dramatic business improvement, by M. T. Howell

Critical success factors simplified: implementing the powerful drivers of dramatic business improvement, edited by Marvin T. Howell, is a practice-oriented book that provides guidance on how to identify and select the right Critical Success Factors (CSFs), how to measure their impact, and how to adjust them in order to reach your goals. In this rapidly changing world, it is necessary for organisations, department managers and team members to understand the critical organisational factors for success. Organisations and their people need to identify which objectives and goals need to be reached and which processes need to be installed to really make the difference. This book aims to guide the reader on how to identify the CSFs and how to translate them into concrete action programmes. The first chapter describes the four types of CSFs as defined by Rockart (1986). Rockart makes a distinction between industry, strategic, environmental, and temporal factors. The author also explains how these critical factors can be applied to organisations, how they can be categorised, and why it is important for an organisation to implement CSFs. The second and third chapters elaborate on how external and internal CSFs can be identified. Environmental scans help organisations to analyse which government, industry, economic, technological and social factors can help with identifying external CSFs. The factors retrieved from this environmental scan have to be evaluated and have to be graded according to their importance. Furthermore, this information can be translated into a strategic plan by using SWOT Analysis. Next, the third chapter describes three methods that can be used to identify internal CSFs: the original CSF method, the Five-Phase CSF method, and the ‘‘very simple method’’. In summary, the chapter concludes that it is initially important to define a clear vision, mission, and goals from which critical actions and activities have to be derived. The fourth chapter explains in more detail how the appropriate CSFs can be selected, how implementation progress can be measured and how and when corrective actions need to be taken. Different methods are described in detail on how the implementation progress of those CSFs can be measured. The chapter concludes by giving a process example on how this model can be put into practice. The next chapter describes how the vision and mission need to be defined in objectives and how critical success should be identified to reach those objectives. Finally, the relationship between Key Result Areas and CSFs in strategic planning is explained. A practical example is given in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 elaborates on how CSFs can play a major role in ensuring that systems are implemented in a timely fashion, measuring the implementation progress of CSFs and addressing barriers encountered. The author explains how managers can enable continuous improvement by implementing and managing CSFs and define a CSF improvement plan. Furthermore, the book also highlights the benefits of benchmarking.

Drivers and Barriers for E-Business: Evolution Over Time and Comparison Between SMEs and Large Companies

The ups and downs of e-business investments are related to a hype cycle. This hype cycle strengthened the statement that companies are too willing to believe in the promises of the new Internet economy without really thinking about internet-ability. According to the data in this practice-oriented survey work, SMEs are more eager to follow the e-business hype cycle. We try to give some explanations for these differences in e-business between SMEs and large companies. This requires an examination of the planning, the drivers and the barriers for conducting business processes over a computer-mediated network. We found that larger companies are mainly driven by cost-cutting to implement e-business, while SMEs attach, next to cost-savings, high importance to cooperation between their suppliers and clients. Furthermore, we can observe that larger companies see more opportunities in translating their ebusiness strategy into a formal long-term plan. This explains perhaps why larger companies are less trend sensitive for investing in e-business than SMEs.