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Institutional transitions within emerging markets create significant challenges for effective supply chain management. This research investigates external pressures, internal strategic choices, and institutional imprinting influences on supply chain outsourcing and operational performance. Results of primary and secondary data from a sample of 769 firms in Russia demonstrate that industry competitor growth and decentralized outsourcing decision making encourage firms to outsource more supply chain activities. Interestingly, however, these influences are directly and indirectly thwarted within firms that have a strong imprint from the former Soviet centrally planned economy. Further, the positive impact on operational performance resulting from decentralized decision making and outsourcing becomes negative when firms have a strong Soviet imprint. This research underscores the significance of founding institutional imprints of emerging economies when considering supply chain decentralization and outsourcing decisions. Keywords: imprinting theory; supply chain outsourcing; decentralized decision-making; Russia; transition/emerging economies, INTRODUCTION Theory development and testing in supply chain management generally assume the existence of strong institutional frameworks (Darkow, Weidmann & Lorentz, 2015). It is unclear whether the same implications hold [...]

Empirical evidence shows that investments in sustainable supply chain management can improve economic-based performance. Thus, based on standard economic theory, rational business decision makers should and will implement sustainable supply chain management practices. However, through inductive research methods, we uncovered an intriguing theme that runs counter to both the existing empirical evidence and such economic-based assumptions. We find that managers operating in firms without exemplary sustainable supply chain management practices face immense hurdles in developing a business case for implementing sustainability initiatives. Despite the lack of such practices--and in tension with the prevailing empirical evidence and theory--the firms within which these managers operate were performing well on economic-based performance metrics. Departing from the neoclassical economic theory of the firm, we apply the Behavioral Theory of the Firm's theoretical assumptions to findings which suggest four segments of managers in non-exemplary firms who vary based primarily on how they perceive strategic vulnerability, evaluate choices, and utilize sustainability knowledge. Keywords: sustainable supply chain management; human judgment and decision making; environmental issues; social responsibility; grounded theory; qualitative data analysis; behavioral theory of the firm, INTRODUCTION The debate on whether or not a strong business case exists for developing and implementing socially and environmentally sustainable practices has attracted considerable attention from practitioners and academics. In [...]

Since its introduction over three decades ago, the field of supply chain management (SCM) has undergone numerous transformations. Today it is a prevailing theme in scholarly and popular research, and numerous disparate disciplines claim its ownership. Despite the field's evolution there continues to be little agreement on the domain and unifying theory of SCM, as well as a consensus definition. The result has been a lack of clarity as to the scope of SCM, 'siloed' research methodologies, and parallel research efforts. We interviewed 50 academic scholars across disciplines, as well as 20 SCM business executives, to extract commonality of opinion and discuss the future of SCM. The most important of these findings are the identification of common ground' regarding the definition and scope of SCM, establishment of the need for interdisciplinary research, the recognition of the existence of 'inner' and 'outer core' functions central to SCM, and the nature of functional involvement in interdisciplinary research. In this paper we present these findings and provide a path forward based on the collective wisdom of these scholars and executives. Keywords: supply chain management; purchasing/operations; purchasing/IS, INTRODUCTION The field of supply chain management (SCM) has undergone significant development and change over the past three decades, as the term was first coined by Keith Oliver in a [...]

Increasingly, suppliers are being tasked to spend large amounts of time with strategic customers in order to promote effective knowledge sharing and coordination between supply chain members. Suppliers are also expected to deal with added pressures on their time from increasing workloads, unanticipated problems and changing priorities. Psychology research suggests that individuals (e.g., supplier personnel) cope with such time pressure by either working faster or avoiding risks. Existing research, however, has largely ignored the impact of these time pressure coping mechanisms (TPCMs) in interactive contexts such as buyer-supplier relationships. This study develops the notion that TPCMs impact knowledge sharing in buyer-supplier relationships. Specifically, results from a between subjects scenario-based experiment indicate that suppliers using TPCMs decrease a buyer's willingness to share knowledge and exchange information. Such adverse effects are most evident in close collaborative buyer-supplier relationships. These findings advance theory and provide insight for managers seeking to improve knowledge sharing through buyer-supplier relationships in today's time-constrained business environment. Keywords: buyer-supplier relationships; behavioral supply management; knowledge sharing; analysis of variance; laboratory studies, INTRODUCTION One of the more salient struggles for business managers continues to be the question of how to deal with time pressure in decision making. Indeed, the second most popular [...]

A new survey shows that many companies still rely on the traditional methods of communicating with their supply chain partners--and in doing so, they're missing out on the advantages afforded [...]

Dell Inc.'s renowned direct sales model is regularly cited as the key reason for its overall competitive prowess, and that model has been studied and analyzed by managers and researchers [...]