Thomas J. Kull

A Supply Risk Reduction Model Using Integrated Multicriteria Decision Making

Risk management in supply chains is receiving increasing attention in both academia and industry. Firms are recognizing the importance of considering supply risk in evaluating and selecting suppliers for strategic partnerships. One of the critical issues faced by purchasing managers is in effectively defining, operationalizing, and incorporating supply risk measures in the supplier evaluation process. Due to the multidimensional nature of supply risk, analytical tools that can effectively integrate various risk measures into the decision process can prove useful for managers. To this end, the contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we consider extant research in supply risk in developing a framework for risk assessment based on various categories and types of risks. Second, we propose a combination of analytic hierarchy process and goal programming as a decision tool for supplier selection in the presence of risk measures and product life cycle considerations. The efficacy of the model is tested at a mid-sized automotive supplier and managerial implications are discussed.

The risk of second-tier supplier failures in serial supply chains: Implications for order policies and distributor autonomy

Abstract As organizations decrease inventory, the potential impact of a supply disruption increases. However, due to supply chain structural changes, the likelihood of a disruption may be less. Additionally independent supply chain actors may react to policy changes, changing supply chain configurations and perhaps reducing loss magnitudes. If risk is a product of likelihood and magnitude, does higher inventory reduce an organization’s supply related risk? This paper examines the supply risk issue within the context of a second-tier supply failure, and is grounded in inventory and resource dependency theories. By evaluating risk assessment in a simulation environment, exploratory findings suggest that increased inventory in a tiered supply chain can sometimes increase supply risk rather than decrease it. Managerial insights into the effects of supply chain stability and coordination are provided. By taking a systems perspective of supply risk management, organizations will be better able to manage supply risk concerns.

Quality Management and Cooperative Values: Investigation of Multilevel Influences on Workgroup Performance

Unsuccessful quality initiatives often are attributed to an organizational culture that does not recognize the importance of the cooperative values that underlie “soft” quality management practices, like customer focus and empowerment. Yet, the literature remains unclear as to how quality management and cooperative values interrelate by failing to incorporate the multilevel influences on this relationship in organizations. This research analyzes a multilevel model based on sociotechnical systems and quality management theories. Secondary data are used to test an explanation of how organizational-level and workgroup-level quality management practices relate to cooperative cultural values and workgroup performance. A single-level model is also tested to demonstrate its inadequacies. Based upon the support for a multilevel model, managerial insights are provided that aid in deciding where resources should be allocated during a quality initiative.

Last‐mile supply chain efficiency: an analysis of learning curves in online ordering

Purpose – As companies extend supply chains via direct delivery to consumers, supply chain efficiency depends upon the usability of the online ordering system. The purpose of this paper is to focus on customer order cycle efficiency gains through the “learnability” of web sites.Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyzes empirical data using nonlinear regression from seven firms and over 4,000 customers to examine how order time – an important performance metric – changes within an online grocery ordering environment.Findings – The evidence supports various forms of power‐law learning for web‐based ordering (i.e. the first few orders involve substantial learning). However, significant differences exist between web sites, and a portion of the ordering time may be irreducible.Research limitations/implications – The research lends insight into how web sites influence last‐mile supply chain efficiency via differing learning rates in the order cycle. Perceptual measures were used in order to assess custom...

Supplier Selection Behavior Under Uncertainty: Contextual and Cognitive Effects on Risk Perception and Choice

Buyers often make supplier selection decisions under conditions of uncertainty. Although the analytical aspects of supplier selection are well developed, the psychological aspects are less so. This article uses supply chain management and behavioral decision theories to propose that attributes of the purchasing situation (category difficulty, category importance, and contingent pay) affect cognition that, in turn, affects a supply managers choice. We conducted a supplier selection behavioral experiment with practicing managers to test the models hypotheses. When the context involves an important or difficult sourcing category, higher risk perceptions exist that increase preference for a supplier with more certain outcomes, even when that choice has a lower expected payoff. However, the presence of contingent pay decreases risk perceptions through higher perceived supplier control. We also find that a managers risk propensity increases preferences for a supplier with less certain outcomes regardless of perceived risk. Our model and results provide a theoretical framework for further study into the cognitive aspects of supplier selection behavior and provide insight into biases that influence practicing supply chain managers.

Supplier opportunism in buyer-supplier new product development: A China-U.S. study of antecedents, consequences, and cultural/institutional contexts

Collaborating with a supplier in a buying firms new product development (NPD) project is commonly advocated and adopted, but does not always improve project performance. Some pre-existing collaboration contexts, such as buyer–supplier NPD projects, are especially exposed to supplier opportunism due to the uncertain nature of the collaboration process. Adopting agency theory and transaction cost theory perspectives, we examine: (i) contextual antecedents and project consequences of supplier opportunism and (ii) if these causal influences vary in different cultural and institutional contexts. Using a survey sample of 214 United States (U.S.) and 212 Chinese buying firms’ responses about buyer–supplier NPD projects, we find that supplier opportunism is significantly influenced by the task and relational contexts. We also show that supplier opportunism damages both design quality and efficiency, two aspects of project performance. When comparing U.S. to China, we find that task and relational contexts have a greater impact on supplier opportunism in the U.S., but design efficiency is less hurt by supplier opportunism there. Finally, we show challenges of preventing supplier opportunism in certain NPD collaboration contexts, and offer solutions for overcoming these challenges.

Competitive Goals and Plant Investment in Environment and Safety Practices: Moderating Effect of National Culture

Operations managers clearly play a critical role in targeting plant-level investments toward environment and safety practices. In principle, a “rational” response would be to align this investment with senior managements competitive goals for operational performance. However, operations managers also are influenced by contingent factors, such as their national culture, thus creating potential tension that might bias investment away from a simple rational response. Using data from 1,453 plants in 24 countries, we test the moderating influence of seven of the national cultural characteristics on investment at the plant level in environment and safety practices. Four of the seven national cultural characteristics from GLOBE (i.e., uncertainty avoidance, in-group collectivism, future orientation and performance orientation) shifted investment away from an expected “rational” response. Positive bias was evident when the national culture favored consistency and formalized procedures and rewarded performance improvement. In contrast, managers exhibited negative bias when familial groups and local coalitions were powerful, or future outcomes—rather than current actions—were more important. Overall, this study highlights the critical importance of moving beyond a naive expectation that plant-level investment will naturally align with corporate competitive goals for environment and safety. Instead, the national culture where the plant is located will influence these investments, and must be taken into account by senior management.

Sustaining the Benefits of a Quality Initiative through Cooperative Values: A Longitudinal Study

Although research has shown that organizational cultural values influence the success of quality initiatives, how and when cultural values are influential is unclear. This longitudinal study asserts that quality management should be viewed from a dynamic perspective to better understand the role of cooperative cultural values in a quality initiative. We use a multilevel model of quality management, and develop time-oriented hypotheses using a sociotechnical systems perspective to examine the role of cooperative values. Our analysis uses longitudinal data from over 30 U.S. federal government agencies, collected during an enterprise-wide quality initiative. We find that, over time, the influence of organization-level quality practices diminishes, but the influence of cooperative values increases; workgroup-level quality practices remain consistently important. Our findings reveal the unexplored influences of cooperative values to sustain the benefits of quality management.

Complements or Substitutes? Culture–Technology Interactions in Healthcare

The U.S. government recommends that hospitals adopt Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) systems to improve the quality problems that plague U.S. hospitals. However, CPOE studies show mixed results. We hypothesize that CPOE effectiveness depends on the prevalence of patient safety culture within a hospital. Using organizational information processing theory, we describe how patient safety culture and CPOE enable healthcare organizations to better process information. Specifically, we posit that CPOE complements some aspects of patient safety culture and substitutes for others. Using ridge regression, we empirically test this proposition using data from 268 hospitals and multiple data sources. Results show that while CPOE complements the patient safety dimensions of handoffs and transitions, feedback and communication about error, and organizational learning, CPOE substitutes for the dimension of management support for safety, in the context of our dependent variable. As organizations work to implement new systems, this research can help decision-makers understand how culture impacts such initiatives and account for culture when anticipating effects. [web URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/deci.12199/full]

Attitudes toward supplier integration: the USA vs China

Purpose Studies show the benefits of supplier integration, yet negative attitudes toward supplier integration exist that research fails to explain. The purpose of this paper is to investigate managerial attitudes toward supplier integration and how intra-firm processes and culture affect the formation of such attitudes. In particular, the paper aims to examine the differing influences between the USA and China. Design/methodology/approach Using multi-group structural equation modeling, the authors re-analyzed the data collected by Nahm et al. (2004) and Li et al. (2014) comprised of responses from 224 US and 117 Chinese manufacturing managers. Findings The study finds that managerial attitudes toward supplier integration depend on the degree to which a collaborative organizational culture and synchronous manufacturing practices exist within a firm. Moreover, in the Chinese context, the influence of a collaborative organizational culture is lower than the influence of synchronous manufacturing practices. The opposite is found in the US context. Practical implications The results suggest that overcoming negative attitudes of supplier integration requires more than simply espousing the benefits of supplier integration; looking deeper into an organization’s internal characteristics and situational context is required. In particular, if the country context already emphasizes the collaborative culture, the organization should focus on synchronous manufacturing practices in order to form a positive attitude toward supplier integration. Originality/value This paper is the first to examine how managerial attitudes toward supplier integration are formed. The work is novel because the authors suggest that the formation of managerial attitudes toward supplier integration inter-firm management can be affected by intra-firm management in the minds of managers, which are influenced by country contexts.