Matteo Giacomo Maria Kalchschmidt

• Management Engineering
• Professor (Full) at Politecnico di Milano

Purpose This study builds on the panarchy theory by viewing the supply chain as a socio-ecological system and further expands it by considering the within-level linkages internal to the supply chain level. Three types of linkages are considered: the two cross-level linkages with the planetary and the political-economic levels and the supply chain w...

The spread of Industry 4.0 in recent years has been remarkable in Europe, mainly due to the investments and incentives provided to upgrade manufacturing companies' production processes. This study focuses on the application of the Manufacturing Execution System (MES), often identified as an enabler of Industry 4.0. The first objective of the study...

This paper aims to understand why firms engage with their suppliers to collaborate for sustainability. For this purpose, we use the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Supply Chain dataset and apply the Structural Topic Model to: 1) identify the topics discussed in an open-ended question related to climate-related supplier engagement and, 2) estimate t...

This study theoretically articulates and empirically validates a model of relationships between a firm’s manufacturing strategy – proxied through competitive priorities – and servitization orientation. In addition, it analyzed the moderating effect of firm size on this relationship. The model was developed and tested through hierarchical regression...

The establishment of valuable collaborations among supply chain partners is essential for the success of a circular economy. However, there are still many doubts about the most helpful collaboration practices that could support sustainable development. The analysis deals with deepening links between the circular economy and supply chain collaborati...

This study aims at investigating the influence of contingency factors on the drivers of offshoring and backshoring decision processes. A case survey of existing case studies on backshoring was performed with qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). In total, 43 cases from 16 research papers were analyzed. The results showed that many factors act as...

This paper investigates whether and how Industry 4.0 innovation intensity, which is developed through patenting and which provides a firm-specific ownership advantage, relates to “relocation of second degree” (RSD) of manufacturing activities, i.e. the movement of previously offshored activities to either the home country (RHC) or a third country (...

The article concerns the revision of earlier decisions to offshore production activities (so called “relocation of second degree”); more specifically it is focused on the “reshoring” (also referred as “relocation to the home country”, “back-reshoring” or “back-shoring”). The research aims are to investigate what types of mistakes occur along the de...

The University of Bergamo switched from regular classes to online classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic during March 2020, without leaving to the students the chance to meet their teachers in the traditional setting even once. As such, this context represents a unique opportunity to compare the traditional courses, held in the years before, with rem...

Many firms have started Industry 4.0 (I4.0) initiatives in recent years, without having a sound understanding of the effects generated by the technologies introduction. This research provides indications of what to expect from the implementation of two key technologies for I4.0: big data analytics and manufacturing execution systems. The study expl...

The reshoring phenomenon has been explored mainly in the context of manufacturing, while research on business service still appears lacking behind. To address this gap, the article explores the reshoring phenomenon relevance in the context of business services. The research applies a Delphi method developed along three rounds involving a panel of 1...

In the last decades, supply chains have increasingly transcended national boundaries developing into global supply chains. Along with the many opportunities arising from international sourcing and the extended commercial presence over the world, the management of a globally dispersed supply chain is highly complex. A key issue to consider when deal...

This article aims to investigate the organisational implications of adopting Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies, giving specific attention to operations. The paper addresses these implications in two directions: organisational prerequisites for, and consequences of, I4.0 technologies. The research is based on a multiple case study of Italian Small an...

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between green supply chain management (GSCM) internal practices and firm environmental performance within multiple countries based on a meta-analysis of correlations. Through a systematic literature search, 33 articles reporting quantitative studies, involving 6556 manufacturing companies, ab...

This study is built on a quantitative meta-analysis of already existing reshoring case studies. Case studies have been popular in this research stream, given its still exploratory stage. They usually provide rich insights through qualitative data, but in this study, they have been codified into quantitative data, thus allowing to make statistical i...

Smart city initiatives can be seen as a powerful driver for exploring future scenarios of contemporary cities through the lens of emerging technologies. Yet, the translation of those visions into actual urban implementations often fails to place the citizen experience at the forefront for the sake of the efficiency and optimization of urban process...

Private equity (PE) funds have started looking beyond their original short-term horizon. They have expanded their investment time-frame and gradually moved their focus from exploiting leverage and market timing of the deals to generating structural value in their portfolio companies. The impact of their takeovers has been largely studied in terms o...

As industries are becoming increasingly global, researchers and practitioners are compelled to look at supply chains (SCs) from a global perspective. In this respect, the Global Value Chain (GVC) framework is particularly useful in understanding global dynamics because it relates the nature of relationships between firms (governance) to the possibi...

The chapter investigates the importance that differences in national culture characteristics have in explaining the investment that companies do in collaboration with their supply chain partners. Empirical analysis is based on the fifth round of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS V), through which have been gathered data among 39...

Purpose – This research introduces and defines the concept of purchasing ambidexterity in terms of two dimensions: balance dimension and combined dimension. The study proceeds to empirically examine the multiple performance effects generated for the buying firm and its key suppliers. Methodology – Ambidexterity theory informs our conceptual model....

At the interface between supply chain management and strategy, this paper uses a global value chain (GVC) perspective to explore the concept of firm-level upgrading – i.e, changing the processes, products, the position in the supply chain or the supply chain itself - to increase the share of added value obtained by a firm. In particular, by means o...

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a fundamental role in International Development but their projects often lack efficiency and effectiveness. A key aspect is the proper use of project management tools and methodologies. The Logical Framework (LF) has been suggested as a key tool in this sector. However, the extent and impact of its use by...

The smiling curve theory adds to globalization phenomenon a discrimination feature, by assuming a selective division of higher and lower value added stages respectively to developed and developing countries. In such a Global Value Chain context, the upgrading ability – that helps to gain a higher share of value added – is a relevant variable to con...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse how the role of the plant in a manufacturing network (MN) affects the configurations of the flows of goods among plants, suppliers and customers and how these configurations, in turn, affect the extent of adoption and effectiveness of supply chain (SC) integration. Design/methodology/approach Three r...

Bergamo 2.035 is in fact a specific instance of application of this vision to a well-defined territory, taking into account the city’s distinctive features, its size and its relationship with surrounding areas, its cultural and productive vocations; in short all those aspects that make each single territory “unique”. This research program ultimatel...

Although sustainable supply chain (SC) management has been widely investigated in recent years, the focus has mainly been on the practices adopted by a single company, so missing the big picture at SC level. This study of the Italian meat industry considers the SC as a whole, identifying the critical points for each stage in terms of economic, envi...

The original paper investigated, on a large sample of manufacturing firms, the adoption of Internet-based tools to support supply chain processes. Four strategies are identified, according to the level of adoption of e-commerce, e-procurement and e-operations. The four strategies are subsequently analysed according to contingent factors and supply...

The globalization phenomenon compelled researchers and practitioners to look at Supply Chains (SCs) from a global perspective. In this sense, the Global Value Chain (GVC) analysis can be beneficial to SC management by bringing new lenses of analysis, through the concepts of governance and upgrading. Based on the analysis of the International Manufa...

The global value chain (GVC) framework and its central concept of governance are increasingly advocated as powerful tools for interpreting managerial issues with particular reference to global supply chain (SC) management. However, a gap still exists about how the GVC concepts, which have been developed at the industry level, can be applied at the...

We explore how environmental and social performance of manufacturing firms can be improved as sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) develops and evolves within a firm from internal to external practices. Importantly, this study considers how key suppliers’ sustainability performance and buyer–supplier trust mediate and moderate such a developm...

Purpose: This research aims to develop a model of congruence for the management of supply risk which is easy to apply, but accurate. We also aim at providing empirical evidence about the relationship between misfit - i.e. the incongruence between a firm’s preparedness in (supply) risk management and the potential riskiness characterizing the contex...

Additive manufacturing is shifting business models towards mass customisation and responsible production paradigms. Such a technology is fostering re-localisation and value-added approaches in order to increase customer involvement into a more flexible and sustainable production process. This paper provides both theoretical tools and case studies t...

Managers are being challenged by multiple (and diverse) stakeholders, which have variety of expectations and informational needs about their firm’s supply chains. Collectively, these expectations and needs form a multi-faceted view of stakeholder accountability, namely the extent to which a firm justifies behaviors and actions across its extended s...

In recent years, companies have paid growing attention to supply chain management at a global level. However, an under investigated point is how companies in different contexts experience the effects of global sourcing and the outcomes from their investments in the supply chain. Based on a model proposed by Golini and Kalchschmidt (2010), the aim o...

Performing global sourcing – which is defined as the amount of purchases made by a plant outside its continent of origin – effectively is highly complicated because of several concurring variables (e.g. number of suppliers, supplied goods, and the location of the buyer and supplier, among other factors). However, the findings available in literatur...

Using the lenses of the Global Value Chain analysis, this paper explores the concept of upgrading and the role of supply chain (SC) management in the context of the Italian textile and clothing industry. By means of seven case studies, we highlight different upgrading trajectories, the internal and external drivers and which SC management leverages...

Using the lenses of the Global Value Chain analysis, this paper explores the concept of upgrading and the role of supply chain management in the context of the Italian textile and apparel industry. By means of five case studies, we highlight different upgrading trajectories, the internal and external drivers and which supply chain management levera...

Innovativeness refers to an organization’s willingness/ability to change through architectural/radical innovation of processes, products and management systems. Existing literature generally supports the importance of innovativeness for environmental and social sustainability. Open questions, however, still remain: (i) which mechanisms (i.e., tools...

International Development (ID) projects carried out by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are considered one of the pillars for providing assistance to developing countries, but these projects are reported to have high failure rates and their performance is often considered not satisfactory. Only recently researchers started to consider project...

While previous published studies have evaluated the drivers of supply disruptions, only a few have empirically investigated the role of manufacturing postponement enablers as mitigating practices. This work explores the complex interaction between supply disruptions (i.e., supplier failure, purchase unavailability), risk conditions (i.e., anteceden...

Purpose. The aim of this paper is to explore (i) the impact that sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has on company’s sustainability performance (both environmental and social), (ii) the direct and the indirect impacts that traditional supply management (SM) has on such performance and (iii) the effect that global sourcing exerts on the rela...

The current body of literature with regard to supply chain vulnerability pays limited attention to how companies actually evaluate and manage risk. A second limitation is the scarce use of empirical evidence. Aiming at reducing these gaps, this work proposes a new conceptual model by which companies can assess their upstream vulnerability. The deve...

This work investigates how sustainable supply chain management develops within a company and evolves from internal to external practices. Specifically, the relationships among sustainable process management (internal practices), sustainable supply management (external practices), customer pressure and innovativeness are elaborated in a conceptual m...

As the dependence on suppliers intensifies, companies can adopt product and process modularity to reduce the potential negative effects of supply disruptions. Indeed, enabling manufacturing postponement can provide firms with a prompt response; by reducing the complexity of the system and allowing for easier configuration of the production process,...

Supply chain managers face many challenges when developing more sustainable operations, often beginning with translating ambiguous demands from stakeholders into practice. Drawing from accounting and sustainable supply chain literatures, we synthesize a model to explain how supply chain managers might define, defend, and rationalize sustainability...

This work investigates the relationships between sustainable supply chain management practices – i.e. sustainable process management (SPM) and sustainable supply management (SSM) – and two important drivers: customer pressure and innovativeness. A theoretical model that combines stakeholder theory and resource based view is developed and tested by...

This work aims at providing evidence of the impact of project management training programs. The research focuses on the impact of training effectiveness (higher learning) on the project managers' competencies (applied behaviors). Data have been collected within PMP-Project Management Program: a corporate training program developed and delivered thr...

The paper focuses on best practices in demand forecasting. Literature has addressed the best practice concept under three different perspectives. According to the universalistic perspective, some forecasting practices are universally effective regardless of the context in which companies operate. In the contingent perspective, the effectiveness of...

This paper investigates the moderating effect of global supply chain (SC) configurations on the relationship between SC improvement programs and operational performance improvement, based on data collected from the fifth edition of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS). Configurations are defined through the level of sourcing, manu...

Sustainability, intended as including in companies’ strategies and practices environmental and social aspects, is an always more relevant topic. In this paper we specifically address how three variables, namely “sustainable” supply chain management (SSCM), “traditional” supply chain management (SCM) and global sourcing interact each other to determ...

During the last decades companies have seen an increased in their dependence from suppliers. As a result, companies’ competitive advantage strictly depends on suppliers’ reliability and performance. For this reason, Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) has become a major topic for both researchers and practitioners. Anyway, despite the effort put in...

This research aims at moving a step forward toward the understanding of why industrial companies show different postures toward sustainability in their supply networks. Specifically, the role played by external pressures (i.e., from government and market) and internal capabilities (i.e., organizational commitment, supply management capabilities, in...

In recent years, several contributions have been provided concerning sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), ranging from a theoretical analysis of the topic to practical applications across several industrial sectors. The scope of SSCM has been extended toward various industries and supply chains, not only domestic supply chains but also globa...

Over the years, practitioners and researchers have devoted their attention to forecasting techniques and methods that can be adopted to improve companies' performance. However, forecasting techniques alone are not enough since companies should also consider several other issues associated with forecasting process management, e.g. how companies coll...

In recent years, companies have paid growing attention to supply chain management at a global level. With regard to the upstream part of the supply chain, the need for better suppliers, the research into specific competences and concerns related to international competition have forced companies to improve their ability to cope with suppliers locat...

Several operations decisions are based on proper forecast of future demand. For this reason, manufacturing companies consider forecasting a crucial process for effectively guiding several activities and research has devoted particular attention to this issue. This paper investigates the impact of how forecasting is conducted on forecast accuracy an...

Spare parts management is a rather complex issue. One of the reasons of its complexity is the lumpy pattern of the demand that spare parts frequently present. Several methods have been proposed to cope with this particular kind of problem and improvements have been proved compared to classical forecasting techniques. Literature has however devoted...

This article examines the integration of quantitative and judgmental forecasting, focusing on the implementation process and its impacts on the organization. To this end, the study is based on an action research case study in the cement industry. Empirical evidence highlights the critical change management issues that need to be dealt with to imple...

As supply chain vulnerabilities and the dependence of companies to their parents (i.e., suppliers) intensify, companies are adopting manufacturing postponement in order to reduce potential negative effects of supply risks. Indeed, manufacturing postponement allows firms to properly manage point of differentiations along their production lines, impr...

Globalization is an ever growing phenomenon. Especially for what concerns sales and distribution activities, globalization offers the possibility, even to smaller companies, to access to new markets and, in turn, to increase scale and scope of operations. However there are some pitfalls, such as higher lead times induced by longer distances. This c...

Literature has devoted increasing attention to the problem of supply and demand management in uncertain contexts. Only limited contributions, however, can be found regarding the interaction between forecasting and flexibility enablers to manage demand as well as regarding the flexibility enablers’ effect on company performance. We will discuss the...

Purpose In 2003 the authors investigated the level of adoption of e‐business by manufacturing firms in Europe. Four company strategies were identified based on different extents of adoption of internet‐based tools for interaction with customers and/or suppliers. The purpose of this paper is to replicate, those analyses using the new release of the...

This paper analyses the impact of local sourcing on lead time performances. In particular attention is devoted to the effect of choosing to source locally without having made a proper strategic analysis of the purchasing process. Analyses are based on data provided by the IMSS research project regarding more than 500 companies in different countrie...

In recent years increased attention has been paid to integrated demand and supply chain management. The present research study discusses the main concept in this context, i. e., flexibility. In particular, we have learned from existing research work, that is difficult to link the construct “flexibility” with performance (efficiency as well as effec...

In the last few years, companies have paid growing attention to the management of their supply chain at a global level. The need for better suppliers, international competition and research of specific competences have forced companies to improve their ability to cope with suppliers and customers located in different countries around the world. Thi...

Several operations decisions are based on some kind of forecast of future demand. For this reason, manufacturing companies pay significant attention towards this process and research has devoted attention to this issue. This paper investigates the impact of how forecasting is conducted on accuracy and operational performances. Attention is here pai...

Demand forecasting is a major issue in several industrial sectors. A relevant choice for companies is the proper level of forecast aggregation. Forecasters need to properly identify what is the object of the forecasting process, in terms of time bucket (e.g., forecasts are produced on a daily level or on weekly one), set of items the demand refers...

Demand forecasting is a relevant issue both in research and practice. In the past several papers have investigated forecasting practices. This research uses data from the GMRG survey to achieve three main objectives. First of all, we aim to describe current practices in the machinery and textile sectors; in particular we investigate: (i) aims and u...

Purpose In many industrial contexts, firms are encountering increasingly uncertain demand. Numerous factors are driving this phenomenon; however, a major change that is spreading among different sectors is the ever‐growing attention to customers. Companies have identified that customers are critical not only because they directly influence the succ...

Most operations decisions are based on some kind of forecast of future demand. Thus, forecasting is definitely a very traditional area in the operations and inventory management literature. While literature concerning forecast explores the adoption of various qualitative and quantitative methods, this paper tries to design new solutions to improve...

This paper addresses the problem of forecasting irregular demand, balancing the tradeoff between forecast accuracy and cost of collecting information. The literature suggests the adoption of a clustering approach, however it is not clear under which conditions this method is actually beneficial. We consider three kinds of demand variability, namely...

In many industrial sectors, firms are dealing with a demand which is more and more uncertain often due to the supply chain structure. One of the most critical effects of demand uncertainty is the simultaneous increase of inventories and decrease of customer service. This work describes an integrated system for managing inventories in a multi-echelo...

Several operations decisions are based on proper forecasts of future demand. For this reason, manufacturing companies consider forecasting a crucial process for effectively guiding several activities, and research has devoted particular attention to this issue. This paper investigates the impact of how forecasting is conducted on forecast accuracy...

In recent years several contributions have been provided concerning sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), ranging from theoretical analysis of the topic to practical applications across several industrial sectors. The scope of SSCM has been extended towards various industries and supply chain, not only domestic supply chain but also global su...

This paper focuses on the analysis of the impacts of project management corporate training programs. This work aims at providing evidence regarding the impact of project management training programs by analyzing three layers at which training can be evaluated: i) perceived quality, ii) knowledge and iii) applied competences. Data has been collected...

Attention is here paid to the relationship between organizational configurations, forecasting practices and performances. Attention is at first paid on the relationship between the forecaster organizational position and how companies evaluate future demand, and, on a second hand, focus is paid towards the impact of the forecasting organizational st...

In the last few years, many authors have addressed the topic of supply chain vulnerability. The main limitation of the current body of literature is its scarce use of empirical evidence. In addition, only limited attention has been paid to how companies actually respond to risk. This work aims to further develop our understanding of how companies m...

This work investigates the relationship between manufacturing best practices and competitive priorities. By means of data provided by four editions of the IMSS dataset, a longitudinal analysis is performed to analyze to which extent this relationship is stable over time. Results provide evidence that some best practices have always been adopted to...