David J. Closs

• Michigan State University

This research examines the role of complementary strengths in the relationship between firm toxic emissions and financial performance. The research posits and demonstrates that the impact of toxic emissions on performance is moderated by the firm's employee relations strengths and concerns. This research also posits that the moderating role of empl...

This article (re)introduces the supply chain management academic audience to the critical relationship between transportation infrastructure, freight traffic, economic market drivers, and regional economic development. With the growing importance of transportation, logistics, and supply chain economics to support industrial activities, specific sup...

As global competition intensifies, the geographic fragmentation of supply chain activities is creating a concentration of trade at regional freight gateways or hubs. This has significant implications for the economic prosperity of the specific gateway regions. The study explores the deliberate governance efforts of regional economic development age...

Global competition has intensified geographic repositioning of supply chain activities with implications for the economic prosperity of specific regions and geographies affected by such shifts. Despite recent advancements made in the theory and practice of facility location decisions, a gap exists in understanding how these decisions are influenced...

The modeling of logistics systems is performed to seek the best possible system configuration to minimize costs or maximize operational performance, in order to meet or exceed customer expectations. Classically, analytic system analysis of this type has been performed using optimization, simulation, or heuristics. However, in the past two decades,...

Supply chain disruptions pose an increasingly significant risk to supply chains. This research develops a framework to examine the threat of potential disruptions on supply chain processes and focuses on potential mitigation and supply chain design strategies that can be implemented to mitigate this risk. The framework was developed by integrating...

Many firms are increasing their focus on sustainability. However, this focus has primarily emphasized environmentalism and ethics. Enterprise value chains must develop and support a broader sustainability perspective to ensure that its consumer, business, supply chain, community and environmental relationships and interactions remain viable. Using...

To remain competitive, most firms must develop global supply chains for sourcing, marketing, or both. This article discusses the rationale for developing global supply chains. Following the review, the article describes the challenges in global supply chain development and the stages that firms evolve through. The final section of the article descr...

This paper examines the simultaneous impact of configuration capacity, inventory level, and complexity on service performance as measured by unit and order fill rates in a configure-to-order environment. Demand skew is treated as a control variable. A simulation model based on data from a leading electronics manufacturer is used to test the hypothe...

Purpose This paper compares firms purchasing and/or selling food products internationally to those with domestic supply chains in order to determine if international firms: place greater managerial importance on security; and are more likely to engage supply chain partners in security‐related verification and information exchange. The purpose of th...

Purpose The purpose of this research is to apply a simulation experiment to investigate the impact of new components purchasing and used components recovery strategies on multiple performance measures. The research compares the effectiveness of these strategies, given different levels of uncertainty for the return flow from the contingency perspect...

This research assesses whether, and under what conditions, firms are willing to trade off price and delivery reliability for greater supplier security. Specifically, international sourcing and concern over security incidents occurring at the respondent's firm are proposed as conditions that may increase demand for supplier security. This research s...

Business units in six Fortune 500 companies were studied to develop better understanding regarding drivers of product portfolio complexity and the means to manage them. Our research focuses on identifying important competencies for managing product portfolio complexity and on the development of appropriate theoretical explanations. We found three i...

This research develops a framework for organizational value creation from agile IT applications. Based on the four themes in the business value research—business process perspective, complementarities, application level of analysis, and extent of use—three antecedents (organizational fit, process assimilation, and network adoption) are identified a...

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 pro...

Performance measurement is critically important to business success. Collecting and responding to information that does not advise management about success in meeting established goals is counterproductive and potentially injurious to the success of the firm. This research develops a framework that allows individual firms to assess their unique mea...

This paper examines the simultaneous impact of demand variability, demand skew, and configuration capacity on customer service in a configure-to-order environment. Simulation is done in ARENA and data are analyzed using ANOVA and MANOVA. The findings indicate that the factors studied have differential impact on performance both individually and int...

Purpose Aims to conceptualize flexible logistics programs and information connectivity as two important aspects of logistics flexibility and to examine the role of information connectivity in making flexible logistics programs successful. Design/methodology/approach A hierarchical regression model is used to test the research hypotheses. Findings...

The study evaluates the implications of coordinating price markdown policies with supply chain policies of inventory replenishment, and transportation expediting on retail performance of a short lifecycle product. The product replenishment policies consider the freeze quantities and times for order placement along with the replenishment mode(typica...

Purpose The chemical industry is struggling to improve its supply chain performance, and improved asset utilization may help get the industry headed in the right direction. Since most chemical firms own or lease their rail fleets, rail utilization can have a substantial impact on overall asset utilization. The paper aims to focus on current manager...

While environmentally friendly operations can provide a positive public image, firms wishing to reduce their environmental impact must initiate activities that reduce cost as well. Reusable container systems are one means of reducing environmental waste, but the economics of such systems has been somewhat uncertain to date. This research proposes a...

True supply chain excellence will only come from making a digital business transformation. It's a transformation that exploits all that technology has to offer, facilitates supply chain collaboration, and leads to new levels of operational excellence. More than a one-time project, the transformation is a journey—and the time to start that journey i...

Performance measurement is critically important to business success. Collecting and responding to information that does not provide management with guidance to meet established goals is counterproductive and potentially injurious to the success of the firm. This research develops a framework that allows individual firms to assess unique measurement...

The relationship between supply chain competencies and performance has been somewhat elusive. The 21st Century Logistics framework, developed at Michigan State University is currently assessed as to its global relevance, particularly relating to performance. A sample of U.S. firms is compared to a sample of Australian and New Zealand firms to asses...

Purpose This research seeks to investigate logistics information technology (LIT) from an international perspective. The initial focus determines the viability of categorizing LIT into two constructs – internal and external LIT. The second focus examines the relationships between internal and external LIT and customer‐related performance capabiliti...

Logistics information technology (IT) can be a significant source of competitive advantages. Examines logistics IT practices for different industries and global regions and identifies any IT gaps between world class logistics firms and their more average (baseline) counterparts. Overall, the merchandising firms were perceived to have a lead over th...

Activity-based costing (ABC) is a tool used by managers to more closely approximate the “true costs” of operations. The application of ABC in logistics is more commonplace today than just a few years ago, though still far short of universal. Sound tracking of operational costs is critical when pursuing the logistics objective of providing desired c...

This paper reports simulation research that empirically investigates and compares supply chain performance under varying conditions of information exchange and demand uncertainty. Specifically, the research objective is to quantitatively document the characteristics and performance impact of information exchange among supply chain entities. The fin...

This article describes the logistics dimensions that World Class Firms use to differentiate their capabilities from their more average counterparts. These dimensions, which have been identified through international research, yield logistically excellent firms. The dimensions are documented and described. Using these dimensions as a foundation, the...

Information technology has been among the foremost topics within the logistics literature of recent years. However, there has been little empirical evidence relating logistics information system (LIS) capabilities to logistics competence. Seeks to close this gap in the research, identify particular LIS capabilities that contribute most to logistics...

Trade restrictions; border crossing difficulties, and company organizational structures have limited historical cross-border distribution activity. The result, generally, is two or three independent distribution systems to support North American logistics operations. With the completion of the US-Canada Free Trade Act, many of these limitations are...

Many companies are unaware of the information technologies that can be used to enhance competitive intelligence (CI) efforts. Others, enamored with the potential of these technologies, find themselves mired in a technical bureaucracy created by their new systems. These new systems have not effectively responded to CI personnel nor the end users. Th...

One strategy that can offer substantial transportation performance improvement is freight consolidation. Freight consolidation refers to the practice of aggregating customer orders over space and/or time until a specified minimum total shipment weight/volume is accumulated and/or a maximum holding time for the oldest customer order is reached. The...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Marketing and Transportation. Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, leaves 376-385).