Jon Kirchoff

Reshoring and insourcing: drivers and future research directions

Purpose – Reshoring and insourcing decisions have been discussed in the popular press, yet coverage of these topics in the academic literature is limited. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it seeks to develop a more complete understanding of the underlying drivers of reshoring and insourcing decisions and their permutations. Second, it seeks to provide directions for future research to further analyze the link between drivers and outcomes of the reshoring and insourcing phenomena. Design/methodology/approach – This research follows a conceptual approach guided by transaction cost economics (TCE) and organizational buying behavior (OBB) theories. First, a theoretical framework of reshoring and insourcing decisions is developed. Next a comprehensive summary of reshoring and insourcing drivers is evaluated, yielding an in-depth discussion of future research directions (FRDs). Findings – The analysis demonstrates that the framework can be utilized to explain recent insourcing and reshoring changes ...

The impact of strategic organizational orientations on green supply chain management and firm performance

Purpose – Empirical research provides evidence that green supply chain management (SCM) practices positively impact firm performance. Yet, questions remain regarding how firms configure their organizations and design green practices to achieve improved performance, especially in light of a constantly changing business environment. This research uses the resource-based and strategic choice theories to better understand the antecedent roles of two strategic orientations, supply chain orientation (SCO) and environmental orientation (EO), on both the implementation and outcomes of green SCM practices. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Survey responses from 367 supply chain managers are tested through structural equation modeling. Findings – Findings suggest that a combination of SCO and EO capabilities positively influence the implementation of green SCM practices, and positively impact firm performance. Results also suggest that the capability bundle of SCO, EO, and green ...

The role of absorptive and desorptive capacity (ACDC) in sustainable supply management

Purpose – Sustainable supply management (SSM) has attracted considerable attention from researchers in recent years concentrating on how firms develop and use SSM capabilities to meet stakeholder demands. Acquiring and sharing sustainability knowledge with suppliers have been identified as critical success factors of SSM. The purpose of this paper is to identify the mechanisms that allow firms to effectively acquire and share sustainability-related knowledge with suppliers and how these knowledge generation and desorption mechanisms support the evolution of firm SSM capabilities. Design/methodology/approach – To address the research purpose, four longitudinal case studies, two industry leaders in SSM and two industry followers, were conducted at multiple consecutive points in time between 2008 and 2013. Findings – The results indicate which mechanisms constitute a sustainability-related absorptive and desorptive capacity and how they support SSM. Thereby, this research explains which mechanisms support fi...

Gaps and barriers along the North Carolina agri-food value chain

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to formulate an exhaustive list of the issues, gaps, and barriers at each level of the agri-food value chain in North Carolina (NC), and second, to identify the issues of greatest importance to its members. Design/methodology/approach – This research employed the Delphi technique in two stages of input. The first round of input was designed to create a comprehensive list of issues for each of nine “stages” of the agri-food value chain. In round two, the issues were prioritized. Findings – The top ten responses of each stage were aggregated into themes that represent the most critical issues identified by respondents: connectedness within the value chain, access to markets and marketing, affordability/availability of food and food distribution, farm profitability, societal awareness, and education about healthy, local food, and supporting institutions. Originality/value – The findings could be used by practitioners to inspire innovation in food-related...

The Spillover Effects of Negative Supply Chain Information on Consumers’ Perceptions of Product Attributes

Research shows consumers moving from passive recipients of products and services to becoming a more integral part of supply chain operations and even strategies. As consumers are exposed to, and take interest in, more supply chain information, questions are arising concerning the impact this information has on product-related attributes and evaluations. This study examines the extent to which messages about a company’s supply chain activities, specifically those dealing with social responsibility, affect consumer evaluations of products sold by the company. Results indicate this “spillover effect” is most likely to occur when the message is negative. Positive messages are less influential. This effect is generalized across two sample populations, while accounting for relevant individual differences in consumer behavior.

The impact of functional integration on perceived risk and consumer-based brand equity

Abstract Consumers today have access to a wide span of corporate information and are increasingly aware of the degree to which the functional areas of marketing and supply chain activities are becoming more integrated. Functional integration involves coordinating supply- and demand-focused activities and is theorized to create two interrelated benefits for consumers: lower perceived purchase risk and, ultimately, higher consumer-based brand equity. Despite an emphasis on the important role of consumers in the functional integration literature, the consumers’ viewpoint is missing. This research addresses this gap using a survey and an experiment to investigate the impact of functional integration on consumers’ perceptions of risk and consumer-based brand equity. Findings suggest that when functional integration acts as a component of brand association, purchase risk decreases and consumer-based brand equity increases. The results can help scholars and practitioners better understand the role of functional integration by advancing the nomological net of brand associations as part of the standard marketing mix.