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We investigate the double-edged impacts of interorganizational knowledge flows in academia–industry collaboration on the innovation economic impacts of science-based firms. When a firm receives knowledge directly from more research institutes, its innovation economic impact improves subsequently. In contrast, when a firm receives knowledge indirectly from other firms through a research institute, its innovation economic impact declines subsequently. We also explore the moderation effects of firm technological originality and generality. We report empirical findings from a panel data of science-based firms in the United States. Our analysis yields theoretical implications for academia–industry collaborations in the science-based entrepreneurship literature and practical implications for management practitioners and policymakers in science-based firm creation and development.

Technological advancements have led to an increase in the popularity of consumer-to-consumer product trading (C2C-PT). How C2C-PT affects the manufacturer (called the “firm”) and consumers in the market is unclear. We, therefore, build analytical models to explore this problem. We consider a case in which a firm develops and sells a product to consumers in the market. Consumers possess heterogeneous random valuations of the product and are strategic in the sense that they are forward-looking utility maximizers. The firm makes the optimal decision on the product selling price. We study the impacts of C2C-PT on both the firm and consumers. We identify the optimal purchasing decision for the consumers and establish the optimal pricing policy for the firm. We show that the presence of C2C-PT may either benefit or hurt the firm and consumers, while the consumer's strategic behavior will always bring harm to the firm. Most interestingly, we prove that strategic purchasing behavior is not always beneficial to consumers themselves.

The patent-intensive industries play a leading and exemplary role in innovation driven, it is crucial to research evaluation methods to draw their levels and difference of innovation efficiency. This article proposes a new definition method for the patent-intensive industry with the ratio of inventions in force and research and development (RD constructing evaluation index system by comprehensive analysis of previous researches and objective judgment; extracting evaluation data. It evaluates the innovation efficiency of patent-intensive industries, demonstrates the corresponding characteristics: 1) the overall level of innovation efficiency is not high; 2) the RD and 3) the industry with better overall innovation efficiency has better transformation capability. It also provides the targeted industrial policy suggestions by dividing the patent-intensive industries into four categories. The research result shows that the proposed method is suitable for the innovation efficiency evaluation for the patent-intensive industries, and its research framework could be applied to the evaluation of other industries.

The organizational design of subcontracting in the construction industry has received limited attention. This article integrates transaction cost economics and resource-based view to investigate how the governance capabilities of the general contractor impact the organizational arrangement of subcontracting and how the goal orientation of project moderates these relationships. Regression analyses were conducted on information collected by a questionnaire survey administered to a sample of 279 respondents who were employed by Chinese general contractors and who were privy to strategy information in construction projects. The results showes that the general contractor with strong governance capabilities tends to increase the extent of the work to be subcontracted and the dispersion of subcontractors used in projects. Moreover, these relationships change when the goal orientation in projects differs. In projects that display an exploitative goal orientation, the positive impact of governance capabilities on the extent of subcontracting will be weakened while the impact on subcontractor dispersion will be strengthened. In contrast, the relationship between governance capabilities and the extent of subcontracting will be stronger, and the relationship between governance capabilities and the subcontractor dispersion will be weaker in projects that exhibit an explorative goal orientation. The findings contribute to the subcontracting literature by distinguishing between the extent of subcontracting and subcontractor dispersion and by highlighting the importance of the general contractor's governance capabilities and project goal orientation when setting up a subcontracting arrangement.

This article develops an attention-based view of organizational knowledge filters and it explains the theoretical roots for their existence, typology, and boundary conditions of influencing knowledge spillovers (i.e., employee venturing behaviors). Although prior studies have examined the roles of institutional factors in the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship (KSTE), it still lacks insights into whether and how the core proposition of the KSTE—the impact of knowledge filters on knowledge spillovers—differs across nations. Based on the analysis of a dataset of the U.S. and Indian firms collected from LinkedIn, this cross-institutional study reveals that though knowledge-creating firms’ cultural knowledge filters and capability knowledge filters both relate positively to employee venturing behaviors, the latter has a stronger impact than the former, across the U.S. and Indian firms. Due to different economic and cultural institutions, cultural knowledge filters exhibit a stronger impact on employee venturing behaviors in the U.S. firms, whereas the influence of capability knowledge filters is stronger in Indian firms.

Existing research has produced mixed, inconclusive, and even conflicting findings on the impact of open innovation (OI) on innovation output. This article takes a meta-analysis approach, systematically reviews the existent literature to identify the main contextual factors, and statistically tests the significance of these factors in influencing the effect of OI on innovation output. Based on the data of 139 studies published by 2020, this article demonstrates that 1) OI has a stronger effect on innovation output in coupled OI (a combination of inbound and outbound OI) than the inbound or outbound OI alone; 2) OI has a stronger effect on innovation output in developing than developed countries; 3) OI has a stronger effect on innovation output at subfirm than firm level; and 4) OI has a stronger effect on innovation output in service than manufacturing industries. The findings have important implications for managers, researchers, and policy-makers.

The success of online third-party business-to-business (B2B) platforms relies heavily on simultaneous governance of both sellers and buyers. This study examined and compared the effects of punishme...

It is beyond dispute that convergence drives innovation in the current business environment. In particular, industry convergence becomes critical because of the increased complexity of technology and diversified customer needs. This is especially true in many startups, where mergers and acquisitions are considered viable exit strategies. Despite the gravity of analyzing industry convergence, only a few studies have conducted quantitative approaches owing to the lack of comprehensive data available to analyze this. In response, this article analyzes the dynamic trends and phenomena of industry convergence using merger and acquisition information sourced from a Crunchbase dataset. How business startups integrate and merge together to create new value can be an important proxy for analyzing industry convergence. This article collected merger and acquisition data from 2010 to 2019 and divided it into three periods to analyze the dynamic trends of industry convergence and then visualized these trends using a network analysis. This article is expected to assist both managers and policymakers understand the dynamic changes in industry convergence and provide insight into future trends.

As a relatively large production and trade industry in China's manufacturing sector, apparel manufacturing has entered the data analytics era with much-enhanced productivity by using information technology. The extent to which the state-of-the-art information technologies can increase the productivity of this entire industry has not been fully investigated. This article selects 30 Chinese listed apparel manufacturing enterprises from 2012 to 2018 as a sample and analyzes the impact of information technology investment on their performance using the panel fixed effect and random effect models. In addition, the moderating effect of enterprise equity concentration on the abovementioned relationship is studied. Equity concentration reflects the distribution of equity from the total amount. Excessive equity concentration enables large shareholders to obtain higher control rights with smaller cash flows, seizing the interests of small and medium shareholders and digging tunnels. This is, thus, not conducive to healthy and long-term development of the firm. The results show that information technology, such as software investment, hardware investment, and total information technology investment, can improve the enterprise performance. Among them, software investment has the greatest impact on the enterprise performance. When the proportion of the software investment increases by 1%, the enterprise performance increases by 17.6%. The equity concentration has a negative impact on the relationship between the investment in information technology and enterprise performance.

China has become a workshop for the world, and manufacturing in the country is increasingly moving beyond labor-intensive, low value-added products. As a result, companies in different industries around the world are facing increasing competition. Taiwan's bicycle industry is a good example. Taiwan's A-Team aims to establish standardization to achieve the functions of an industrial platform in the bicycle industry. Taiwan's A-Team forms an innovation ecosystem through the participation of domestic and foreign complementary companies and suppliers. The companies of Taiwan's A-Team focus on high value-added products in the global bicycle industry by competing and cooperating with each other in the innovation ecosystem. A study of Taiwan's A-Team provides a number of insights into how this goal is achieved.

The demand for apparel/fashion products is usually of heavy weather-related uncertainty, which can be solved by the publicly accessible weather information provided by the government. That is because weather information provides a more accurate demand signal, and the key weather indicators fashion brand, the latter determines the wholesale price but usually postpones the price decision to observe the weather information. Alternatively, the small retailer can outsource procurement to a powerful agent, who fixes the fashion brand's wholesale price. In this article, we investigate an apparel supply chain consisting of two competing small retailers (retailers 1 and 2), a powerful procurement agent, and a famous fashion brand. Given retailer 2's procurement outsourcing, retailer 1 decides whether to outsource procurement to the agent or directly procure products from the fashion brand. We identify cooperation and competition relationships in the retailers’ ordering decisions based on the weather information. The different intensities of the cooperation/competition relationships alter retailer 1's preferences of procurement outsourcing because of the mitigated/intensified quantity competition. Interestingly, we show that, when demand uncertainty is high, retailer 1's procurement outsourcing strategy will switch from Turnkey to Consignment and back to Turnkey, as its demand becomes more sensitive to the weather condition.

Traditional technology diffusion literature focuses on the diffusion of technologies within the extant manufacturing paradigm. By contrast, few studies have explored the determinants and mechanisms of technology diffusion when moving across manufacturing paradigms. In this article, therefore, we aim to explore the intrinsic and institutional factors, as well as the impact mechanism on technology diffusion in the context of manufacturing paradigm shift. Specifically, this article investigates the role of the government in this scenario. A firm-level survey is conducted to investigate the National Programme “Made in China 2025” and its first demonstration city Quanzhou. The data comes from multiple sources, including questionnaires, official statistics data, and patent databases. Logistical regression is used to analyze 236 valid observations. Results reveal that besides the intrinsic factors including the characteristics of general purpose technology (GPT) and economic expectation, GPT-oriented service platforms also have significant impacts on technology diffusion in a manufacturing paradigm shift. In addition, government interventions, especially indirect ones, have significant moderating effects on this influential mechanism. This study provides insight into how government can promote technology diffusion in a manufacturing paradigm shift. These results will be of interest to policy makers, industrialists, and academics.

To maximize productivity, manufacturers must organize and equip their workforces to efficiently handle variable workloads. Their success depends on their ability to assign experienced and skilled workers to specialized tasks and coordinate work on production lines. Worker turnover may disrupt such efforts. We use staffing, productivity, and pay data from within a major consumer electronics manufacturer’s supply chain to study how firms should manage worker turnover and its effects using production decisions, wages, and inventory. We find that worker turnover impedes coordination between assembly line coworkers by weakening knowledge sharing and relationships. Publicly available unit-cost estimates imply that worker turnover accounts for $206–274 million in added direct expenses alone from defectively assembled units failing the firm’s stringent quality control. To evaluate managerial alternatives, we structurally estimate a dynamic equilibrium model (an Experience-Based Equilibrium) encompassing (1) workers’ endogenous turnover decisions and (2) the firm’s weekly planning of its production scheduling and staffing in response. In counterfactual analyses, a less turnover-prone, hence more productive, workforce significantly benefits the firm, reducing its variable production costs by 4.5%, or an estimated $928 million for the studied product. Such benefits justify paying higher efficiency wages even to less skilled workforces; furthermore, interestingly, rational inventory management policies incentivize self-interested firms to reduce rather than tolerate turnover. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management. Funding: The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the data sponsor, and K. Moon gratefully acknowledges support from the Wharton Dean’s Research Fund and the Claude Marion Endowed Faculty Scholar Award of the Wharton School. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4476 .

Motivated by the practices of production sourcing in the apparel manufacturing industry, this article investigates an apparel manufacturing supply chain wherein an original brand manufacturer (OBM) may either outsource production to a competitive manufacturer (CM) or a non-CM (NCM) or set up factories to produce in-house, namely, Strategy C, Strategy NC, and Strategy N, respectively. If the OBM outsources production to the CM, technology spillover happens, and the CM is able to manufacture products with the same consumers’ preference level as the OBM does. We find that the OBM prefers Strategy N regardless of the manufacturing level and consumers’ product preference level when the investment cost is low. However, the OBM prefers Strategy C or NC when the investment cost is high. Specifically, when the manufacturing level is high, or the manufacturing level is medium, and the consumers’ product preference level is high, the OBM prefers Strategy NC; otherwise, the OBM prefers Strategy C. Furthermore, we demonstrate that employing the dual-sourcing strategy wherein the OBM outsources production to both CM and NCM simultaneously does not necessarily help OBM effectively mitigate the negative impact of technology spillover and delivery uncertainty, which depends on specific conditions.

Розвиток торговельної діяльності відбувається у відповідності до діючої Концепції розвитку внутрішньої торгівлі України. Швидкими темпами змінюються споживчі уподобання, асортиментна кон’юнктура, розширення впливу географічних та видових можливостей представлених товарів. Здійснений аналіз внутрішніх змін в обсягах товарообороту підприємств в розрізі товарних груп, господарюючих суб’єктів на рівні країни та окремих її регіонів дозволив аргументувати та обґрунтував важливість дотримання сукупності принципів організації торгівлі, рівноваги попиту і пропозиції, купівельної спроможності, економічної обґрунтованості та окупності. Використані методи авторських узагальнень, аналітично-статистичних розрахунків, порівнянь дозволили систематизувати цифровий матеріал дослідження та обґрунтувати висновки щодо стану та динаміки розвитку торговельної діяльності України, а також Хмельницької області, як одного з її регіонів. Проведене дослідження акцентує увагу на мережевому маркетингу, як однієї з форм розвитку і удосконалення торгівлі та визначення необхідної номенклатури і вузьких місць в діяльності суб’єктів торгівлі, в тому числі ринків. Аргументовано перспективність використання електронної комерції (купівлі-продажу), що значно розширює можливості здійснення торговельної діяльності як для покупців, так і підприємств торгівлі. Пропонується враховувати вплив демографічної безпеки, як одного з чинників, що формує товарну політику країни та її експортний потенціал. Визначено, що вплив на збільшення показників товарообороту має екстенсивний фактор зростання цін на спожиті товари, що певним чином вносить викривлення у сприйняття цифрової інформації. Використання інноваційних технологій, сучасних методів прийняття управлінських рішень у сфері маркетингу, логістики дозволяє удосконалювати процес торгівлі, задовольняти попит споживачів і забезпечувати ефективність підприємств торговельної сфери діяльності.

Clean technology (cleantech) is becoming increasingly important as firms and industries seek to address challenges around the global scarcity of resources and also achieve wider social and environmental goals. Yet there are underlying problems with how capital markets respond to this increasing demand for new and innovative cleantech investments. In this article, we use a large U.K. dataset to first consider the extent to which firms engaging with cleantech increase their demand for external capital. We then consider how different types of debt and equity financiers deal with this demand for funds. Our key findings are that: 1) businesses engaging with clean technologies have a higher demand for external capital and 2) these demands are not being fully met by traditional providers which forces firms to seek out alternative and nontraditional sources of finance.

Industries differ in the extent to which they can offshore their production. I document that industries with low offshoring potential carry a sizeable risk premium compared with industries with high offshoring potential, suggesting that the possibility to offshore affects industry risk. A two-country dynamic trade model in which offshoring allows firms to secure market share against foreign competitors can rationalize the empirical findings. This paper was accepted by Gustavo Manso, finance. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4393 .

Understanding the drivers of market concentration in the generic pharmaceutical industry is essential to guaranteeing the availability of low-cost generics. In this paper, we develop a structural model to capture the multiple determinants governing manufacturers’ entry decisions; in particular, we focus on how manufacturing complexity and the regulatory environment for generics approval affect concentration in drug markets. We estimate the model using data collated from six disparate sources. We find that manufacturing complexity, as reflected in the number of active ingredients, for example, significantly reduces the likelihood of generics entry. Moreover, the delay in the review process for the generics applications significantly affects the number of firms entering a market. Our policy simulations suggest that a shortened drug approval review time significantly increases the average number of entrants per market and reduces the fraction of markets with no generics entry; however, a notable portion of markets would still lack any generic competition. This paper was accepted by Jayashankar Swaminathan, operations management. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4423 .

We study systemic risk in a supply chain network where firms are connected through purchase orders. Firms can be hit by cost or demand shocks, possibly leading to defaults. These shocks propagate through the supply chain network via input-output linkages between buyers and suppliers. Firms endogenously take contingency plans to mitigate the impact generated from disruptions. They reroute undelivered orders to alternative buyers and switch excess demand to different suppliers. We show that, as long as firms have large initial equity buffers, network fragility is low if both buyer and supplier diversification is low. We argue that horizontal mergers may lead to a more fragile network if firms have small initial equity buffers. We find that a single sourcing strategy is beneficial for a firm only if the default probability of the firm's supplier is low. Otherwise, a multiple sourcing strategy is ex-post more cost effective for a firm.

“Retail Link” initially developed by Walmart enables the tier-1 supply chain partners to access the sales big data, and hence achieve demand information sharing. Doing so helps improve supplier relationships, but the supplier can make better wholesale price decisions based on accurate demand information, which might hurt the profit of the multinational firm (MNF) such as Walmart. Therefore, it is observed that some MNFs outsource both procurement and logistics functions to a logistics service provider (LSP) for the benefits of “one-stop-shopping,” and meanwhile, cut the information link with the supplier. This significantly changes their decision interactions and the resulted social welfare. In this article, we build a co-opetition model and study an MNF's two typical outsourcing strategies, where the MNF either outsources the logistics or the bundled functions of procurement and logistics to an LSP. We find that, when the market demand uncertainty is low, the MNF prefers bundled outsourcing given its significant brand image advantage. When the market demand uncertainty is high, the MNF prefers bundled outsourcing regardless of its brand image advantage. Interestingly, when market demand uncertainty is moderate, the MNF prefers bundled outsourcing when its brand image advantage is either not significant or very significant. We further compare the social welfare levels under two outsourcing strategies and find that win–win situations in the senses of the MNF's profit and social welfare can be identified.

Motivated by the practices of technology investment in the new energy vehicle manufacturing industry, this article investigates an outsourcing supply chain in which an original brand manufacturer (OBM) possessing the core new energy technology R&D outsources production to a competitive manufacturer (CM). To cater to market demands and increase market competitiveness, the CM may actively invest in technology with the OBM or by himself, or not, i.e., Strategies JI, OI, and NI, respectively. In particular, owing to technology spillover effect, the CM could use the technology inferior to the OBM's to produce his own-branded products in Strategy NI. Our results reveal that the OBM consistently profits the most in Strategy JI. However, the CM's preference strategy is influenced by the competition intensity, technology spillover level, consumers’ product preference, and cost-sharing ratio. In specific, when both the competition intensity and technology spillover are weak or the competition intensity is strong for arbitrary technology spillover level, the CM may prefer Strategy JI or OI depending on consumers’ product preference and cost-sharing ratio and never prefers Strategy NI. However, when the competition intensity is weak but the technology spillover level is strong, the CM may prefer Strategy NI in certain situations. Furthermore, our study extends the model to involve variable production costs, and reveals that the main results derived in the basic model still hold.

We present two classroom experiments on technology licensing. The first classroom experiment introduces the concept of royalty stacking. The students learn that non-cooperative pricing of royalties for complementary intellectual property rights leads to a double-marginalization effect. Cooperation solves the problem and is welfare improving. The second classroom experiment introduces students to cross-licensing. It shows that reciprocal royalty payments dampen competition. The classroom experiments stimulate discussions of technology licensing, intellectual property rights, different royalty structures, patent pools and technology standards. We present the experimental procedures, and suggests routes for the discussion.

Collusion occurs when companies conspire to remove competition from the process of bidding and collectively agree who will win an auction by engaging in price fixing and bid-rigging. In this article, we modify an existing method based on order statistics to improve its accuracy and reliability to detect the presence of collusion. The new approach can be robustly implemented in practice and is difficult to defraud. We use data from the Brazilian Federal Police's ongoing “Operation Car Wash” investigation to identify collusive behavior during an uncapped auction. Such a rich dataset enabled the new approach to be tested in a real-life setting. We demonstrate that our method's increased predictive power makes it the best option to determine full collusion in uncapped auctions. Our new approach can be used in conjunction with other collusion detection methods to improve their accuracy and reliability. The contributions of our article are twofold: 1) Public and private sectors procurement authorities are better positioned to detect collusion even when limited auction data is made available; and 2) law enforcement agencies are provided with a robust method that can be used together with prevailing evidence to pursue a conviction for engaging in collusive behavior.

Blockchain technologies are at the heart of digital innovation and are a harbinger of Industry 4.0. Consequently, popular press and academic researchers alike have focused on its importance. Yet blockchain technologies’ most promising efforts, cryptocurrency and smart contracts, are underpinned by blockchain mining. The blockchain mining service is undergoing change, cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and others are nearing the end of their minting. Smart contracts are in their infancy. The financial impetus for providing the mining service has changed. Here, we add to the literature through a deep financial analysis of blockchain mining regarding its long-term financial viability. Our methods include a financial cost analysis and an analysis of the financial viability of cryptocurrency through focus on Ethereum. It is found that blockchain miners, despite initial profitability, cannot maintain sustainable financial viability without substantial fees. This article is important to those academics who focus on understanding how service technologies and products underpin Industry 4.0. Finally, this article contributes to the practitioners’ decision-making process to embrace blockchain mining as a technological entrepreneur.

Environmental dynamism, as exemplified by the rate of change and the degree of instability of the environment, plays a considerable role in determining whether firms will adopt green process innovation (GPI). Although environmental dynamism may offer new development opportunities, it also increases the risks and uncertainties associated with market potential and technology prospects. Integrating works on organizational adaptation theory and the framework of technology push, market pull, and regulatory push/pull, we examine the effects of environmental dynamism on GPI, with a focus on the moderating effects of supply chain cooperation. Examining a sample of 210 manufacturing firms in China, we find that GPI is positively related to technological dynamism but negatively associated with regulatory dynamism. In addition, supply chain cooperation weakens the association between environmental dynamism and GPI: specifically, supply chain cooperation reduces both the positive effect of technological dynamism and the negative effect of regulatory dynamism on GPI. These findings offer a new explanation for the ambiguous viewpoints and results by providing finer-grained insights on how and under which situation environmental dynamism impacts GPI.

This paper contends that the use of alternative constructs as Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) measures has made a partial contribution to the different and contradictory results provided by various empirical studies. It further argues that the comprehensive nature of Enterprise Risk Management implies that its adoption and implementation affect different aspects of firms and, therefore, the most appropriate construct to measure it should be equally comprehensive in order to capture all possible signals, outputs and effects from the features of a firm. Secondly, the specialised nature of banking operations and the associated risk necessitates risk measures that suit the peculiarities of the sector and in this study we have proposed banking sector specific ERM model. In this regard, we propose a comprehensive methodology and multifaceted approach to determining ERM measures for the banking sector, taking cognisance of the various components of ERM and the specific needs of the sector. In our proposed comprehensive methodology for determining ERM measures for the banking sector, we combined two important models: the ERM model for the banking sector and the CAMELS model for assessing the performance of banks. The integration of these two models provides a comprehensive and all-encompassing approach for determining ERM measures for the banking sector. Our model is novel and offers a significant contribution to the literature of bank risk management. Our model provides a comprehensive risk management framework for bank executives, bank risk managers, the board members of banks, central banks and the authorities responsible for financial sector stability.

Many electricity markets in the world have experienced the vertical unbundling where the generation and transmission sectors were separated from a vertically-integrated monopolistic power company. This restructuring could positively impact the productivity of the firms because of intensified competition and enhanced autonomy but could also negatively affect the productivity because of the loss of synergy and scaled economy. By exploiting the vertical unbundling that took place in China in 2003, this study finds that vertical unbundling increased the labor use of the generation firms and the material use of the transmission firms. Additional investigation reveals that generation firms suffer from an efficiency loss in labor use due to the loss of coordination after vertical unbundling and the transmission firms face an increased transaction cost in acquiring material and bear the additional cost transferred from the efficiency loss of the upstream generation firms. Our findings suggest that benefits of vertical unbundling relative to integration critically hinge on the market structure of the industry.

This study examines the impact of bonded zone policy on the performance of firms. We use a difference-in-differences approach and exploit differences in the timing of bonded zone approval as our id...

Drawing on social exchange theory and institutional theory, this article extends the literature on sustainable operations by examining the mediating and moderating effects of buyer–supplier relation and institutional context on the relationships among internal green practice, external green practice, and environmental performance. This article analyzes data from 440 firms in three categories of market (the institutional context): industrialized Western, emerging Western, and emerging Asian markets. Both internal green practice and external green practice have positive direct impacts on firms’ environmental performance. More specifically and interestingly, external green practice partially mediates the relationship between internal green practice and environmental performance, and this process is moderated by the quality of the buyer–supplier relation. A higher quality of buyer–supplier relation helps to achieve a better outcome. In addition, the examined relationships vary between the emerging market and developed market: that is, they depend on the institutional context. The findings have implications for both practitioners and policymakers on how to improve environmental performance through leveraging green practice and buyer–supplier relation and what policies on green supply chain management might best be used in different markets.

Supply chain collaborations may generate substantial cost savings. Many such initiatives cease to exist, however, due to not reaching an agreement on how to share the gains. We describe an exercise to understand the challenges in collaborative gain sharing. Funding: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration (FP7 Transport) [Grant Agreement 284926].

Blockchain technology has wide area of application, this article is very particular on emphasising another important field of application named Agro-products supply chain. Wherein this era, and the future needs to nurture the agriculture sector along with latest technologies, so that nation would make a revolution in the process of food supply from the farm to the plate. The main drawback in the agriculture supply chain is lack of transparency in food production and distribution, costly middleman, limited financial resources & disconnection between supplier and retailer. So this article proposes, suitable theoretical auction flow model to overcome all the issues highlighted in this agro-sector, we would like to give the solution by improving the transparency in the supply chain, by providing farmers direct access to suppliers through an appropriate auction system with an option of immediate payment on delivery & transparent transaction information to them. Further we can involve government as a central authority to overcome the technical aspects, education, policies and regulatory frame works, in turn they can generate job opportunities to the unemployed graduates.

Through digitalization, online platforms facilitate suppliers to meet market demand with customized offerings, but this business model’s value-creation potential is often hampered by market frictio...

Food is an important part of the lives of people and of human cultures across the world. The agricultural and food sector is regarded as a major global employment. Agricultural supply chain management is made one of the most complicated and demanding processes by the huge number and heterogeneity of the stakeholders involved, such as farmers, distributors and retailers, as well as customers. The blockchain technology can monitor the origin of food and so assist construct reliable chains of food supply and increase customer confidence. It makes it easier to employ data based technology to make farming smarter as a confidential means of storing data. It also permits timely payment between stakeholders, utilized in conjunction with smart contracts, which may be triggered by changes in data on the blockchain. This article discusses blockchain technology applications in food supply chains, agricultural insurance, smart agriculture and agricultural goods transactions.

Firms’ knowledge base is one of the key antecedents of firm innovation. While extant literatures identify diversification and depth of firms’ knowledge base as the important inputs of firm innovation, coherence of firms’ knowledge base reflecting the relatedness of knowledge base is largely neglected. This article goes a further step and points out that coherence of firms’ knowledge base will co-affect with diversification or depth of firms’ knowledge base to foster firm innovation, because it improves the efficiency of knowledge combination and integration. Moreover, degree centralization of industrial knowledge networks, as a characteristic of industrial knowledge base, moderates the abovementioned relationships by offering technological combination opportunities in the industry and helping firms break cognitive inertia. Based on patent data of 76 global firms from three-dimensional printing, information and communication technology, wind energy, and lithium battery industries during the period of 1993–2013, the analysis results show that coherence of firms’ knowledge base positively moderates the relationship between diversification of firms’ knowledge base and firm innovation. Furthermore, degree centralization of industrial knowledge networks, together with coherence of firms’ knowledge base, strengthens the positive relationship between knowledge diversification and firm innovation. Theoretical and practical suggestions about firms’ knowledge management were discussed.

Management innovation is related to new organizational structures and administrative systems that generate the possibility of creating value for the company. Using as theoretical framework the dynamic capabilities theory, this article examines the relationship between management innovation, technological innovation, and performance, testing the moderating effect of management innovation. Methodologically, the work uses data from the Survey of Development and Technological Innovation 2015–2016 of the Colombian manufacturing industrial sector. For the analysis, six ordinary least squares and robust regression models are estimated. The results suggest that in Colombia, companies do not achieve better results by introducing technological and management innovations simultaneously, since management innovation negatively moderates the relationship between technological innovation and performance. However, management and technological innovations positively influence firm's performance when they are introduced into companies separately. Theoretically, the work advances the literature on the dynamics capabilities perspective, using it to analyze management innovation, technological innovation, and performance in emerging economies. Empirically, useful information is provided for the design of strategies for practitioners seeking to improve the performance of companies with the introduction of management innovations, technological innovations, and new administrative practices. There is a need to develop a far greater understanding of how the invention and implementation of new administrative practices, organizational structures, or management techniques affect in tandem technological innovation capabilities and firm's performance.

The product recall is becoming a challenging issue in supply chain management, and both suppliers and manufacturers are motivated to exert recall efforts to improve supply chain performance. Considering a supply chain composed of one supplier and one manufacturer with product recalls and demand uncertainty, we investigate the contract design by integrating the revenue sharing contract with three cost sharing policies, namely, fixed-rate cost sharing (Contract F), linear cost sharing (Contract L), and threshold-based cost sharing (Contract T), to coordinate the production quantity and recall efforts. Results show that cost sharing could improve the product recall probability and supply chain profits, but only Contract T can coordinate the supply chain in both production quantity and recall efforts. Moreover, the cost sharing rate in Contract T first decreases and then increases as the recall cost increases. When the recall cost is small (large), Contract T (Contract F) is optimal for the manufacturer. In contrast to our intuition, we find Contract L could overmotivate supply chain members to exert a recall effort that is greater than the first-best when the cost coefficient of recall efforts is large enough. However, demand uncertainty will mitigate the impact of product recalls on motivating recall efforts.

Blockchain for supply chain use cases is quickly becoming a prevalent topic of discussion among distribution giants and smaller players. The actual and perceived benefits of blockchain have driven these discussions, as supply chain partners are well aware of the data protection, increased transparency, and end-to-end authentication of goods that blockchain technology can provide. Track and trace mandates from regulatory bodies are also driving the discussions. However, missing from the dialogue is how partners in this ecosystem manage and resolve disputes using smart contracts inherent in blockchain instead of existing dispute resolution mechanisms and processes. This gap is critical; trust will be eroded if supply chain partners do not have adequate dispute resolution mechanisms within the blockchain ecosystem. This paper highlights the areas of friction and potential disputes for supply chains arising from emerging technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), asset management using Internet of Things (IoT), and particularly blockchain, a type of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). We discuss the importance of regulation in how the use of DLT in supply chains is managed and suggest principles of resolving inevitable disputes with disparate information. We emphasize the need for portable and enforceable contractual terms and argue that standardizing how disputes are resolved may go a long way to technology adoption.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the industrial district have their own advantages because they can share information, knowledge, and facilities in a communal way. However, the implementation of cleaner production in SMEs requires a process of innovation that is environmentally friendly. Open innovation enables organizations like SMEs to innovate better by adopting knowledge from outside of the organization. Cleaner production is a major factor to attain sustainability because it is part of the steps for sustainability process. Innovation is required in the adoption process of cleaner production to reach sustainability; not to mention it has a role in cleaner production activity. This research model consists of two second-order variables, i.e., open innovation climate, and open innovation. Based on hypothesis testing on modern SMEs, open innovation has a positive influence on cleaner production; and open innovation climate has a positive influence on open innovation modern SMEs; environmental dynamism and environmental competitiveness do not have a positive effect in moderating open innovation climate and open innovation. On the other hand, all hypotheses on traditional SMEs are confirmed to have a positive influence or/and positive effect; open innovation has a positive influence on cleaner production; open innovation climate also has a positive influence on open innovation; environmental dynamism and environmental competitiveness have positive effects in moderating open innovation climate and open innovation.

© Copyright 2022 The Author(s). In this article, with the increased disruptions faced by businesses and the occurrence of natural disasters in the world, supply chain resilience remains a major challenge especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Despite the relevance of SMEs to the economy, there is limited scholarly work on resilience practices in SMEs and a limited understanding of how SMEs can achieve resilience. To understand the role of supply chain resilience in SMEs, we undertake a systematic literature review (SLR), which results in the identification and analysis of 101 journal articles, published between 2006 and 2019, on SME supply chain resilience. Our analysis into SME supply chain resilience highlights four focal areas: 1) the role of collaboration and culture; 2) the role of SMEs’ capabilities; 3) the role of Information Systems; and (4) the role of cost and financing. Our SLR investigation identifies future research directions and focal areas tailored to SMEs to help them to assess and develop their supply chain resilience.

This study investigates whether industrial diversification generally provides a tax advantage and how the convexity of the tax system contributes to this benefit. The main findings show that multi-industry operations lower a firm’s taxes and income volatility relative to single industry operations on average, but the benefit is not universal. Namely, there is no significant tax advantage when multi-industry firms have high crossindustry cash flow correlations or when limitations are placed on the convexity mechanism, such as when firms have recent diversifying acquisitions or a high degree of crossjurisdiction activity. To shed new light on the mechanism through which U.S. firms realize this benefit, I exploit two temporary policies expected to reduce tax convexity via extensions of loss carryback periods. I find these policies also mitigate the tax advantage. Taken together, the results underscore how context matters in determining whether a firm will realize a tax advantage from multi-industry operations. JEL Classifications: D23; G11; H25; M41.

The ifo Institute is Germany’s largest business survey provider, with the ifo Business Climate Germany as one of the most important leading indicators for gross domestic product. However, the ifo Business Survey is not solely limited to the Business Climate and also delivers a multitude of further indicators to forecast several important economic variables. This paper gives a literature overview over existing studies that deal with the forecasting power of various ifo indicators both for gross domestic product and further economic variables such as exports. Overall, the various indicators from the ifo Business Survey can be seen as leading indicators for a multitude of variables representing the German economy, making them a powerful tool both for an in-depth business cycle diagnosis and for applied forecasting work.

Many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) engage in dyadic information integration partnerships or partial integration with their direct suppliers and customers. They often utilize e-commerce or cloud computing technology platforms hosted by third-party providers to leverage such partnerships. However, information security breaches and disruptions caused by cyberattacks are commonplace in the information technology industry. The effects of said disruptions and breaches on e-commerce businesses under varied disruption conditions are still uncertain. Furthermore, the effect of security breaches on nonparticipating members of the supply chain is poorly understood, especially under various disruption profiles. Using discrete event modeling, in this article, we explore the impact of disruption caused by information security breaches on supply chain performance and the externality effect of partial integration on nonparticipants. We also examine the impact of breach disruption frequency and remediation length on supply chain performance with varying levels of information sharing. These impacts were studied under two typical inventory replenishment policies for SMEs. It was determined that remediation length should be a prioritized factor in impact management and that flexibility in the inventory replenishment policy can help mitigate the impact of information disruption on the inventory performance of businesses, especially that of nonparticipants, in information-sharing partnerships.

When multiple retailers hold inventory to satisfy random demand, retailer inventory-sharing strategies can potentially reduce the supply-demand mismatch and increase overall supply chain performance. In this paper, we experimentally investigate alternative inventory-sharing strategies in a two-tier supply chain with an upstream manufacturer and two downstream retailers. In one setting, retailers act as if they are centralized and use a single quantity to fulfill joint demand. In the other, retailers are decentralized and face separate demands, but they can transfer inventory after demands are realized. In this latter decentralized scenario, we also consider whether the manufacturer or retailers have decision authority over the inventory transfer price. One key result is that when the retailers are decentralized and the manufacturer sets the transfer price, both retailers and the manufacturer earn higher profits than in the centralized retailer strategy, which runs counter to theory. We also find that when retailers are decentralized and set their own transfer price, the most equitable distribution of profits is achieved. In an effort to account for these results, we find that a model of fairness captures decisions well. Overall, by investigating how different inventory-sharing strategies affect the distribution of profits in a two-tier supply chain, our results provide guidance to firms considering how, if at all, they should enter such arrangements. This paper was accepted by Jay Swaminathan, operations management. Funding: The authors acknowledge financial support from Cornell University and the University of Virginia. Supplemental Material: The data files and electronic companion are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4323 .

Today, firms pursuing a pioneering strategy are often engaged in supply chain relationships to benefit from external resources and to improve their innovation. However, this effort can be impeded by power asymmetries in such relationships and especially by the execution of coercive power by their partner firm. Contracts could potentially reduce this risk of opportunistic behavior. Our survey study on 778 small to medium-sized enterprises in the European packaging and medical equipment industries examines how coercive power of the partner and the contractual arrangement between firms moderate the pioneering strategy's innovation outcomes in the short and long run. Our results confirm the negative effect of coercive power on innovation performance in both the short and long term. However, the compensating effect of rather complete contracts differs temporally. Whereas, contract completeness protects against higher dependence at the beginning of the collaboration, their effect diminishes over time. In contrast, rather incomplete contracts enhance the innovation performance in the long term, possibly complemented with trust.

Development is a process that takes place in society to improve the existing living conditions to change from an undesirable current situation to a desired future situation within a specific period of time using the available resources. The traditional industries express the depths of the Egyptian conscience as they are a factor of communication between generations. The traditional industries have cultural, social and economic aspects and therefore must be preserved. The importance of traditional industries is due to the fact that they are characterized by many values. This study will deal with basic aspects of these industries, and their marketing and production in a scientific and practical manner. It increases the efficiency of its production and marketing in quantity and quality.

This article develops and tests a primary conceptual model of the direct effects of business environment on supply chain integration (SCI) and an alternative moderation model to better understand the role of the environment in developing integration and financial performance improvement. Structural equation modeling and moderated regression are used to analyze the survey data collected from manufacturing firms in China. The results reveal significant positive relationships between environmental dynamism and all three dimensions of SCI, and between environmental hostility and internal integration. The results also indicate that internal integration fully mediates the relationships between environmental hostility and both customer and supplier integration. Supplier integration is significantly and positively associated with financial performance, whereas internal and customer integration are not significantly associated with performance. Importantly, through the test of an alternative model, environmental hostility and environmental dynamism are shown to affect SCI directly, rather than moderating the SCI-performance relationship. This article provides useful guidelines for managers to develop integrated supply chains to improve the financial performance under dynamic and hostile environments.

This article considers a two-stage supply chain consisting of a supplier and two competing multichannel retailers and examines their channel and pricing strategies. The supplier wholesales a product to the retailers who resell the product to consumers with different channel preferences. The retailers can either operate their online and offline channels separately and apply differential pricing strategy, or choose to integrate the channels and adopt unified pricing strategy. We establish a game-theoretical model to derive the optimal wholesale price of the supplier and equilibrium retailing prices of the two retailers, and investigate the impact of consumer structure and channel integration ability on the prices, demands, and profits. We then analyze the effect of channel integration and discuss the equilibrium strategy. We find no adoption, asymmetric adoption, and symmetric adoption of channel integration strategy are all possible equilibria. However, one or the both retailers can be worse off in the competition, while the supplier can be always better off if any retailer integrates the channels. Our results suggest that retailers should be very cautious when deciding whether to integrate channels under competition, and the supplier could design other mechanisms to encourage the retailers to integrate their channels.