Morgan Swink

Texas Christian University | TCU

Purpose This research examines the long-held belief in the adaption-related literature that a firm’s ability to adapt organizational structure to changing environments is related to superior performance. We create and test a construct that reflects an organization’s ability to change structure, which we call Supply Chain Structural Adaptability (SC...

Existing literature offers multiple interpretations of how managers might develop and deploy supply chain visibility (SCV). However, current visibility research lacks rigorous definitions of visibility types and their relationships to contextual factors. Our systematic literature review and analysis extends previous studies by identifying visibilit...

The COVID-19 pandemic requires firms to adequately respond. In this study, we first explore in our empirical data how firms responded to the COVID-19 crisis and identify five tactical response types, operational, digitalization, financial, supportive, and organizational responses. Furthermore, our findings indicate that responses vary in scope; Som...

This study examines the effect of direct equity ownership (DO) a buyer holds in its supplier on financial performance and operations of the supplier and buyer. Based on a sample of US buyer–supplier pairs from 1982 to 2017, we find that DO benefits buyer performance, but not supplier performance. The results support the view that DO mainly provides...

Companies are recently facing increasing supply chain disruptions that may influence their supply base design choices. However, studies investigating how these choices affect the effectiveness of other supplier management practices, such as supplier integration, are scarce. The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of various types of supplier...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how managers' abilities to design and implement organizational change initiatives affects supply chain (SC) responsiveness. Extant research focuses on specific process and resource options to address responsiveness, with only limited reference to managers' capabilities in adapting to new organizat...

Purpose The lean and global character of supply networks today opens supply chains to potential disruptions, especially in volatile environments. Most disruptions are of relatively low potential impact; however, firms also occasionally face high-impact disruptions that may even threaten survival. This study applies and extends absorptive capacity c...

Purpose Extant studies on the relational capital—performance benefits in buyer–supplier relationships (BSRs) give limited attention to the value of internal resources/capabilities possessed by each party, thus imply the universal benefits of relational capital regardless of a party's own abilities. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper aim...

We investigate how common institutional investors (CIIs) in supply chains affect supplier performance. Social network theory suggests that buyer–supplier relationships are influenced by networks of ties in which they are embedded. While prior research has concentrated on networks of trade interactions, we instead examine the influences of networks...

Public policy and associated governmental regulatory issues play critical roles in shaping the practice of supply chain management (SCM). To date, however, these issues remain largely unexplored by SCM researchers. This article makes the case that such issues are highly relevant to the field of SCM, and that SCM researchers are uniquely positioned...

Imitation and innovation are two primary R&D approaches that firms follow in technology development, especially in R&D-intensive industries. That imitation and innovation share R&D resources and investments gives rise to what is coined in this article as the imitator's dilemma. The imitator's dilemma tells a story of why firms should break out of i...

Purpose Managing internal supply chains is becoming increasingly complex, requiring managers to balance diverse needs. As a result, managers continuously face the need to change how they organize their internal supply chains. The purpose of this paper is to examine this phenomenon by addressing why multinational supply chain management organization...

In response to globalization, diversification, and other organizational drivers, managers continue to seek organizational designs that promote integration. We study this phenomenon by focusing on requirements and mechanisms for internal supply chain integration (SCI). Using qualitative interview data, we examine how managers in manufacturing firms...

This research studies how technological maturity in manufacturing process innovation (MPI) projects moderates the impacts of different types of team diversity on technical success. While researchers consider the variety aspect of team diversity to be beneficial as a rich source of information, they consider disparity and separation to be detrimenta...

The aim of this paper is to assess contextualized operational effectiveness of involving internal supply chain personnel, referring to logistics and supply management, in a firm's product innovation activities. Building on the classical contingency theory argument, the study presents a careful contextualization of the performance effects of involvi...

By evaluating secondary data from 74 bankrupt manufacturers and 199 matched non-bankrupt competitors, this study investigates the relationship of manufacturers' service offerings to their survival. While showing that the number of services offered is not significantly associated with bankruptcy likelihood, the results suggest that greater numbers o...

This study investigates the recent emergence of Chief Supply Chain Officers (CSCOs). Drawing on contingency theory, we analyze firm-level antecedents and consequences associated with CSCOs being appointed to top management teams (TMTs). We conceptually develop the role of CSCOs and hypothesize that CSCOs are most likely to be appointed to TMTs at f...

Many new product introductions continue to be unsuccessful, and while researchers have studied product development processes, relatively few studies directly address new product launch. We do so in the present research and posit that supply chain intelligence, defined as technological and competitive knowledge sourced and integrated from suppliers,...

Purpose – In an effort to further explain why manufacturing firms that move towards service provision often do not achieve the financial benefits they would expect, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of service additions on the risks affecting the firm. Design/methodology/approach – Using data drawn from a sample 129 bankrupt manuf...

This study examines relationships among a firm's innovativeness, its unexpected product failure costs, and financial performance. When a firm chooses to develop more innovative products and processes, product reliability outcomes become more uncertain. These uncertainties in turn may lead to unexpected warranty claims costs, as well as other costs...

Operations managers confront the challenge of deciding when to implement various administrative innovations such as Six Sigma, ISO 9000, and Lean. This research examines the operating performance effects of early versus late adoption of Six Sigma process improvement. Using theories of organizational learning and knowledge transfer, we develop hypot...

We employ information processing theory (IPT) to posit beneficial impacts of internal integration on firm profitability and its underlying components of process efficiency and asset productivity. We further hypothesize that these effects are greater for firms that operate wider spans of supply chain processes. These expectations are tested with the...

Project switching occurs when a multi-project worker shifts his/her attention from one project to another before completing the first project. In this study, we study the effects of two areas of management policy on project switching behavior, project prioritization, and work monitoring. We conduct a controlled experiment to evaluate direct and com...

This study explores the relationships between facets of a firm's green supply chain management (GSCM) efforts and the preferences expressed by its consumers for its products. Data obtained from over 300 consumers indicate that they find products more desirable when they perceive that a firm uses green management systems, engages in resource recover...

As global supply chains compete in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing business environment, supply chain responsiveness has become a highly prized capability. To increase responsiveness, supply chain managers often seek information that provides greater visibility into factors affecting both demand and supply. Managers often claim, howeve...

We assess the operational impacts of Six Sigma program adoptions through an event study methodology, comparing financial data for 200 Six Sigma adopting firms against data for matched firms, which serve as control groups for the analyses. We employ various matching procedures using different combinations of pre-adoption return on assets (ROA), indu...

When and how can supply chain management (SCM) be a source of long‐term competitive advantage for the firm? We revisit and update arguments recently advanced by Hunt and Davis (2008) in this journal concerning which theoretical perspectives — the resource‐based view of strategy or resource‐advantage theory — may provide the most useful “lenses” for...

Purpose Operational practices and operational capabilities are critical yet distinct elements in operations strategy. The purpose of this paper is to examine their conceptual differences and explore how they are developed in a portfolio, considering the potential for practices and capabilities to be either compensatory or additive in nature. Desig...

This paper revisits Frohlich and Westbrook's arcs of integration concept [Arcs of integration: an international study of supply chain strategies. Journal of Operations Management 2001, 19 (2) pp. 185–200]. Using survey responses from 403 supply chain professionals, we compare the arcs of integration group memberships generated with our sample to th...

Managers struggle to cope with complexity in their product portfolios. However, research into diversification, product platforms, and other issues related to product portfolio complexity has often produced inconsistent guidance. This situation is at least partially attributable to an incomplete definition of portfolio complexity, and to correspondi...

This paper examines the roles of three elements of intellectual capital in implementing process innovations. Building upon prior literature, we develop a model describing how worker expertise, information sharing quality, and psychological safety work together as elements of the human, structural, and social dimensions of intellectual capital to in...

Research has shown that both product-process technology (PPT) integration and supply chain integration efforts produce operational benefits, yet synergies between these types of integration are not well understood. This article empirically examines strategic customer integration and supplier integration as complementary activities for PPT integrati...

Purpose This paper aims to present a framework that will help manufacturing firms to configure their internal production and support operations to enable effective and efficient delivery of products and their closely associated services. Design/methodology/approach First, the key definitions and literature sources directly associated with servitiz...

Editor's note The authors of this paper presented an All-academy session at the 2008 Academy of Management annual meeting in Anaheim, California. We were excited by the dynamic nature of the debate and felt that it related closely to critical issues in the areas of operations management, strategy, product development and international business. We...

The objectives of this research are first to empirically replicate Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) utilization taxonomies identified in foregoing research, second to investigate the relationship between patterns of AMT utilization and manufacturing capabilities attainment, and third to explore differences in context, and performance across...

The study of marketing-manufacturing integration (MMI) in new product development (NPD) projects is rather limited, and has not clearly indicated how levels of MMI should differ across various stages of development for high and low levels of product innovativeness. Our study builds upon prior research that has applied resource dependency theory to...

In this paper, we examine the operations strategy literature in the POMS journal to determine what has been learned and to suggest new directions for further study in this important area of research. Our review of this literature resulted in the selection of thirty-one relevant articles, many of which draw upon multiple theoretical perspectives. We...

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...

In this paper, we distinguish between the internal and external means by which manufacturing plants engage in process technology development. While computerized and equipment-based advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) are typically sourced from external vendors, plants also develop proprietary process technologies in-house. We present internal...

Decision Support Systems (DSS) are widely used in logistics decision applications, and a large number and variety of systems are commercially available. We investigate the contributions of user characteristics including experiences, data preferences, intuition, and effort to decision performance in a logistics DSS context. The study includes a labo...

Logistics managers frequently utilize decision support systems (DSS) to make facility network design decisions. Many DSS do not provide optimization capabilities, but instead rely on scenario evaluation as a means for developing solutions. We experimentally assessed the performances of decision makers, including experienced managers, who used four...

Geographic information systems (GIS) have taken on an increasingly important role supporting decision making in many organizations. GIS have been used to support a breadth of tasks including oil and mineral exploration, facility location, logistics support, and facilities management decisions. The effectiveness of GIS as a decision support tool com...

Generally accepted auditing standards require auditors to plan audits of clients' account balances. If accounts are to be sampled, then part of this planning must include setting the tolerable misstatement for each account or class of transactions to be sampled. Although classical sampling approaches provide certain advantages, they have not been w...

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...

Effective project management relies on the timely exchange of information regarding appropriate resource availability, associated scheduling options, and related costs and benefits. At the same time, such information, or lack thereof, can also impact the behavior of project managers in ways that do not directly focus on work objectives but neverthe...

In this article we describe and test a theory of complementarities between design–manufacturing integration (DMI) and usage of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT). This study extends prior AMT research by examining the role of complementary assets in explaining how AMT adoption contributes to manufacturing performance. In addition, the study...

In this paper we focus on the integration of strategic objectives and process knowledge that a manufacturing factory collects from its external interfaces. Using data from a variety of manufacturing industries, this study examines four different types of strategic integration at the manufacturing plant level. We use a path analytic approach to simu...

There is a need to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of marketing-manufacturing integration (MMI) in new product development. In this paper we examine the influences of MMI in each of four stages of new product development (NPD) on new product time and success. A path analysis of data collected from 467 completed NPD projects indic...

This paper discusses the merits of purchasing firms of pursuing a focused commitment strategy (FCS) with suppliers. An FCS involves committing long-term investments with a limited number of suppliers to achieve superior performance. Drawing upon transaction cost theory, agency theory and the knowledge-based view, a basis is provided for comparisons...

In this paper, we develop a theory of efficiency and performance tradeoffs for new product development (NPD) projects. Data from 137 completed NPD projects are analyzed for evidence pointing to tradeoffs in performance patterns manifested in the data. In addition, we investigate hypothesized relationships between certain NPD practices and a holisti...

Manufacturing plant managers have sought performance improvements by adhering to the guiding principles of leanness and agility . Lean manufacturing and agile manufacturing paradigms have also received considerable attention in operations management literature. However, paradoxically, the extant literature is lacking in clarity and fails to delinea...

Product innovation and supply chain process innovation efforts have traditionally been managed as separate activities. Today, collaborative innovation approaches seek to integrate them. The effect is to fully develop and exploit supply chain capabilities, radically improving the value propositions materialized by products. However, the advent of co...

PurposeThis paper is an exploratory investigation of manufacturing practices, dimensions of manufacturing performance, and their relationships via an empirical study, in an effort to develop new insights into operations strategy.Design/methodology/approachBy examining manufacturing data gathered from 58 of “America's Best Plants”, we investigate an...

Manufacturing plant managers have sought performance improvements through implementing best practices discussed in World Class Manufacturing literature. However, our collective understanding of linkages between practices and performance remains incomplete. This study seeks a more complete theory, advancing the idea that strategy integration and enh...

This research study explores the impacts of project management on performance in three empirically identified new product development (NPD) project contexts: incremental NPD projects; architectural NPD projects; radical NPD projects. Each project type involves different levels and types of uncertainty. An information processing view of NPD suggests...

Using data from 137 completed new product design (NPD) projects, we examine the direct and indirect effects on new product design quality of technological novelty, project organization complexity, and design-manufacturing integration (DMI). We use structural equation modeling to test the potential of DMI as a mediator of the effects of project orga...

Metrics provide essential links between strategy, execution, and ultimate value creation. Changing competitive dynamics are placing heavy demands on conventional metrics systems, and creating stresses throughout firms and their supply chains. Research has not kept pace with these new demands in an environment where it is no longer sufficient to sim...

How do accelerated time goals affect the execution and completion of new product development (NPD) projects? This research addresses this question as it relates to project content, project leadership, and aspects of design integration. Research data were drawn from a survey of 131 completed NPD projects from firms representing a wide variety of man...

Researchers and consultants have promoted many tools and techniques for accelerating the execution phase of new product development. But which ones make the greatest impact? Data gathered from over 130 new product development projects separated the high-impact methods from the less significant ones. Interestingly, managers perceive that project org...

This research uses survey data to evaluate three competing conceptual models: 1) a zero effect model, 2) a mediation model, and 3) an intervention model. Each model suggests a different role for design- manufacturing integration (DMI) as it influences design quality outcomes in NPD. The data support the intervention model as the superior model, sug...

Many war stories, as well as a number of empirical research studies, point to the value of design integration and top management support in new product development (NPD) efforts, where design integration is conceptualized as the coordination of product and process design activities performed by various organizational groups. However, some emerging...

A clear understanding of manufacturing competencies improves the formulation and implementation of manufacturing strategy for competitive advantage. Manufacturing competencies play three key roles in the formulation of strategy: (1) they clarify the differences between manufacturing means and manufacturing outcomes; (2) manufacturing competencies h...

Recently, global competition has led to shorter product life cycles and increased technological sophistication. Products are becoming more complex due to rapid technological developments and increasing consumer demands for lower costs, greater variety, and greater performance. At the same time the proliferation of new technologies is rendering prod...

The thesis of this article is that new product manufacturability (NPM) is influenced by certain challenges inherent in new product development (NPD), and by efforts to integrate manufacturing and other functional concerns into the product design process. This research tests the direct and interacting effects of these influences via a survey of 91 c...

The field of operations management has been criticized for the inadequacy of its theory. We suggest that this criticism may be too harsh, and further, that many building blocks of theory are prevalent in the body of existing research. This paper has two goals. The first is to suggest that careful organization of our thinking can lead to useful, pro...

Notes that substantive relationships between dimensions of competition and supportive manufacturing strengths have not been clearly established. Existing priorities-based models of strategy ignore the dynamics of manufacturing capabilities. Furthermore, these models employ highly aggregated concepts which mix together operational priorities, outcom...

The ‘concurrent engineering’ approach has radically changed the ways that new products are developed in many firms. However, implementing concurrent engineering has not always proved easy. As the popularity of concurrent engineering has grown and its applications have become more diverse, the core concepts that define concurrent engineering have be...

Once hailed as the salvation of U.S. manufacturing competitiveness, concurrent engineering (CE) offers the potential for faster development of higher quality, more producible products. Unlike traditional, serial approaches to new product development (NPD), CE emphasizes cross-functional integration and concurrent development of a product and its as...

Operations managers use a variety of decision making tools when designing facility networks. Intuition, scenario evaluation, heuristic and optimization procedures are commonly applied. This paper discusses the relative advantages and disadvantages of the alternative methodologies for network design and proposes a cost trade-off model for choosing t...

A substantial number of propositions have been made over the last 20 years regarding the content of manufacturing strategy and the process of strategy development and implementation. Although many of the propositions have been well received, few have been rigorously tested via empirical methods. Reviews empirical research efforts to date in order t...

Distribution network strategy, which defines the number, location, and market area of distribution facilities is an important component of a firm's overall business strategy. While there have been considerable advances in optimization algorithms for solving distribution system design problems, they have not kept pace with the complexity of the prob...