Jennifer Blackhurst

Iowa State University | ISU · Department of Supply Chain & Information Systems

This article investigates the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and their proactive mediation by adaptive operational decisions in different network design structures in anticipation of and during the pandemic. In generalized terms, we contribute to the understanding of the effect of prepared-ness and recovery decisions in a pandemic setting on supp...

Growth is one of the more important strategic priorities for top managers today and product innovation is a necessary strategy for achieving that goal. While product innovation is beneficial and necessary, it also introduces greater complexity and uncertainty in a firm’s operations. We focus in this study on an untested negative consequence of prod...

Supply chain literature has amply explored the effect of different resilience strategies in the face of supply chain disruptions. Firms often apply a multitude of resilience strategies in tandem. Such strategies can vary from slack inventory to volume flexibility and responsiveness to backup capacity. Yet, there is a lack of empirical or analytical...

This paper examines the ripple effect in supply chains due to circular flows embedded in supply chain design. Although supply chains are complex and nonlinear, circular flows exist in real-world supply chains but are often unknown or hidden to supply chain managers. These circular flows exist when a Tier 2 supplier is also a Tier 3 (or higher) supp...

This is an editorial to special issue on "Supply chain resilience and its interplay with digital technologies: making innovations work in emergency situations", IJPDLM, 51(2), 2021: https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0960-0035/vol/51/iss/2

In this paper, we explore the topic of supply chain resilience (SCR) in an open-system context. Systems theory and cybernetics are important methodologies in the analysis of complex networks. However, relatively little is known about their application in supply chain (SC) operations. Using systems theory and cybernetics for SCR conceptualization, w...

The purpose of this research is to develop a better understanding of smart systems and autonomous processes of the Industry 4.0 era. Does the implementation of Industry 4.0 processes and systems expose firms to higher levels of risk in the supply chain through capability loss or does Industry 4.0 spur capability enhancement and thereby increase sup...

Are business continuity programs (BCPs) useful in improving company performance? Risk management research suggests that BCPs are important in response and recovery from disruptions. However, critics suggest that BCPs rely too much on known risks and are overly complicated. This creates a decision dilemma regarding whether to invest in BCPs or not....

Supply chain managers are responsible for making decisions regarding supply chain risk in order to mitigate the impact of supply chain disruptions. This study develops and tests a theoretical model that leverages the individual-level knowledge-based view perspective to understand the process through which risk mitigation orientation of the supply c...

Supply chain employees must make decisions on when and how to react to potential and realized supply chain disruptions. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, we examine how an individual’s regulatory focus, level of risk, as well as the uncertainty of the supply chain disruption affect willingness to pursue a new disruption mitigation strategy. Emplo...

This paper expands our understanding of firm resilience to supply chain disruptions by operationalizing firm resilience and by examining factors that contribute to development of firm resilience to supply chain disruptions. In doing so, this research uses a newly developed scale to examine the impact of a supply chain disruption orientation on firm...

Employee engagement in environmental behaviors is an important topic in operations management. Drawing upon stakeholder, commitment, and organizational support theories, this study creates and tests an empirical model of how store managers (i.e., supervisors) influence their direct reports (i.e., subordinates) to become engaged in environmental beh...

There are several factors which affect a firm's ability to successfully integrate internally and externally for organizational improvement. This study seeks to understand the relationship between a firm's strategy, its supply chain integration efforts, and firm performance. Leveraging the theoretical lens of structure – conduct – performance (SCP)...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the supply chain risk management literature by examining how stakeholders place pressure on the firm to engage in risk management activities. Design/methodology/approach – This paper utilizes a survey approach to test the nomological model. The analysis was carried out using structural equati...

In today's highly dynamic and competitive environment, companies are under the pressure to improve their supply chain strategy in order to be more responsive to customer demand. However, supply chains are susceptible to unanticipated events that make responsive supply chain management a challenging task. One such disruption event is a product stock...

In today’s global business environment, supply chains have increased in both length and complexity. This increase in length and complexity coupled with a focus on improving efficiency, such as lean manufacturing practices, may lead to higher levels of supply chain risk where the likelihood of a disruption severely impacting supply chain performance...

Recently, companies have become increasingly aware of the need to evaluate suppliers from a sustainability perspective. Introducing the triple bottom line (economic, social, and environmental performance) into supplier assessment and selection decisions embeds a new set of trade-offs, complicating the decision-making process. Although many tools ha...

Evaluating and selecting suppliers is an essential part of effectively managing today's dynamic and global supply chains. In this paper, we propose a supplier evaluation and selection methodology based on an extension of data envelopment analysis (DEA) that can evaluate suppliers in an efficient manner. Through the incorporations of a range of virt...

The purpose of this paper is to introduce supply chain management researchers to industry cluster theory within the context of supply chain management decisions. Industry cluster theory emphasizes the explicit and implicit benefits that accrue to various economic players due to geographic proximity. As such, it provides a contrasting view to the cu...

This research presents a methodology for determining the optimal dwell point location for an overhead bridge crane to minimise the expected response times. The problem is modelled as a planar minisum location problem with both zero dimensional (point) and two-dimensional (planar) existing demands. These demands come in three forms: from the Input/O...

A supply chain is a network of entities such as manufacturer, suppliers and distributors working together to transform goods from raw material to final product while moving them to the end customer. Effective supply chain management is a critical component of a firm’s ability to fill consumer demand, regardless of the industry. Supply chain perform...

It is well established that supply chains can be multitiered dynamic systems where each tier may have multiple entities (such as suppliers or manufacturers) and the linear flow of goods is uncommon (Riddalls, Bennett and Tipi 2000). This complexity is exacerbated when entities in the supply chain may be involved in a multitude of other supply chain...

Coordinating and managing distributed entities in a supply chain is a challenging task due, in part, to conflicts present in such systems. If not handled effectively, the conflict can degrade the performance of the system as a whole due to the fact that each individual entity may be working towards goals that sub-optimize the integrated system. The...

With an increased focus on collaborative design for success in global markets, there is a need for a negotiation mechanism for designs distributed over autonomous stakeholders. This paper utilizes the unit price of the design variables as a medium for negotiation between autonomous and self-interested design participants represented by design agent...

Purpose This research aims to develop a supplier risk assessment methodology for measuring, tracking, and analyzing supplier and part specific risk over time for an automotive manufacturer. Design/methodology/approach Supply chain risk literature is analyzed and used in conjunction with interviews from the automotive manufacturer to identify risks...

This paper presents an extended data envelopment analysis (DEA) model which includes a new benchmark filtering measure to identify the decision making units (DMUs) which consistently have the best performance. Additionally, window analysis is utilized over multiple time periods in order to consider the time dependent nature of hospital data. The pr...

A variety of cluster analysis techniques exist to group objects having similar characteristics. However, the implementation of many of these techniques is challenging due to the fact that much of the data contained in today’s databases is categorical in nature. While there have been recent advances in algorithms for clustering categorical data, som...

Typical supply chains can be characterised by their complexity and by the inherent uncertainty in their operations. Modelling such supply chains would allow for analysis of the system; however, this is a difficult task both in practice and research. This paper proposes a generalisable network based methodology to model supply chain operations and t...

Given the size, complexity and dynamic nature of many supply chains, there is a need to understand the impact of disruptions on the operation of the system. This paper presents a network-based modelling methodology to determine how changes or disruptions propagate in supply chains and how those changes or disruptions affect the supply chain system....

Supply chain disruptions and the associated operational and financial risks represent the most pressing concern facing firms that compete in today's global marketplace. Extant research has not only confirmed the costly nature of supply chain disruptions but has also contributed relevant insights on such related issues as supply chain risks, vulnera...

Supplier evaluation and selection, an important element in supplier-based manufacturing and supply chain management has been gaining attention in both academic literature and industrial practice. In this paper, we presented a modified data envelopment analysis (DEA) method for supplier selection which can operate under conditions of imprecise infor...

Managing risk has become a critical component of supply chain management. The implications of supply chain failures can be costly and lead to significant customer delivery delays. Though, different types of supply chain vulnerability management methodologies have been proposed for managing supply risk, most offer only point-based solutions that dea...

The three-dimensional Fermat-Weber facility location problem with Tchebychev distances is investigated. Expanding on previous research for the analogous two-dimensional problem, this study presents a new algorithm for solving the elusive three-dimensional case. The algorithm presented herein finds near optimal solutions in practical computational t...

Recently, there has been an increased focus on supply chain collaboration efforts such as Vendor-Managed Inventory (VMI). Often, supply chain partners have experienced gaps between desired and actual performance in working towards a successful collaborative relationship. In this research, we analysed two VMI initiatives that have not yet produced t...

While the literature related to supply-chain disruptions is informative, it has primarily focused on supply-chain disruptions from a general or high-level view of the phenomenon (e.g. supply-chain uncertainty, risk perceptions). Additionally, although most would agree that disruptions are present in all supply chains, there is a limited amount of i...

The concept of an integrated or synthesized supply chain is a strategy for managing today's globalized and customer driven supply chains in order to better meet customer demands. Synthesizing individual entities into an integrated supply chain can be a challenging task due to a variety of factors including conflicting objectives, mismatched incenti...

While there is considerable pressure to improve the operation of supply chains, their inherent complexity can make modeling a supply chain a difficult task. This difficulty is compounded when the need to model the effects of product and process design changes are also considered. Yet there could be considerable benefits in designing supply chains t...

As companies increasingly adopt global sourcing and supply chain management practices, they are discovering both opportunities and challenges. On the one hand, global sourcing is lowering purchase prices and expanding market access. On the other hand, operating a global distribution channel increases the level of supply chain risk—there's an increa...

Collaborative Product Development (CPD) is an engineering process that involves decision-making through iterative communication and coordination among product designers throughout the lifecycle of the product. The high level of collaboration and communication of a CPD environment requires a robust Distributed Information System. In this paper, we r...

Supply chains are interlinked networks of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and customers that provide a product or service to customers. Typical supply chains can be characterized by their complexity and by the inherent uncertainty in their operations. Therefore, modelling such supply chains is a difficult and challenging research task, parti...

Concurrent Engineering (CE) is concerned with improving the product development process by the consideration, during the early stages of product design, of the disparate factors associated with the life cycle of the product. An extensive body of research has emerged in CE focused mainly on the internal operations of an enterprise. However, early pa...