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Abstract
Purpose
Digital technologies (DTs) are one of the most important and beneficial ways to enhance the effectiveness of supply chain finance activities. Based on resource orchestration theory, the purpose of this study is to apply the “resources-capability-performance” framework to investigate how DT deployment (in terms of both breadth and depth) impacts supply chain financing performance (SCFP).
Design/methodology/approach
Hierarchical regression analysis was applied in the theoretical modeling examination. Through the sample of 380 survey questionnaires from the Chinese manufacturing industry, this study empirically validated the proposed model.
Findings
Results of this study present that both the breadth and depth of DT deployment positively impact SCFP, whereas supply chain transparency (SCT) acts as a mediator between them. Moreover, financing alignment positively moderates the relationship between the breadth of DT deployment and SCT.
Originality/value
From an integrated perspective, this study highlights the dual deployment ways of DTs to improve SCFP. Moreover, this research further enriches and extends the application of resource orchestration theory by providing theoretical mechanisms for the mediating role of SCT and elucidating the moderating role of financing alignment.
... SCF decentralization disperses risk through multiple channels, meaning it is no longer completely dependent on a single core enterprise or financial institution for financing, and information transparency is improved to reduce the risk of default to a certain extent. The new concept of SCF development is the use of digital technology to improve the flexibility of financing, optimize the financing process, reduce the cost of financing, and other mechanisms to accelerate the flow of supply chain information and enhance the overall value of the supply chain, thereby improving the efficiency of supply chain finance [27,28]. Thus, the development of SCF in China is more consistent with the global development trend. ...
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a critical role in promoting the development
of China’s real economy and improving national productivity, but their financing still faces
challenges. In recent years, supply chain finance (SCF) has become one of the most important solutions
to SMEs’ financing difficulties. Promoting the digital and innovative development of SCF can
better meet the financing needs of SMEs. This study is based on a case study of Zhejiang MYbank
Co., Ltd. (MYbank) in Hangzhou, China, which is a representative institution of digital supply
chain finance development in China and committed to realizing the digital innovation development
of SCF. Based on MYbank’s financial index data from 2018 to 2022, the implementation effect of
MYbank’s digital supply chain finance is quantitatively analyzed from the perspectives of SMEs
and MYbank. The main findings are as follows.(1) In the practice of digital supply chain finance,
MYbank implements the new concepts of SCF decentralization and full coverage of supply chain
links while enhancing the sustainability of SCF. (2) For SMEs, MYbank’s digital supply chain finance
development has led to an increase in the financing scale and financing availability of SMEs. (3) The
analysis of MYbank’s comprehensive benefits shows that the digital innovation development of SCF
effectively increased the overall economic value of the enterprise during the period of 2018–2022.
Based on these findings, this study provides implications for commercial banks and other financial
institutions to develop digital supply chain finance.
Digital technology (DT) has been widely adopted by firms to improve their innovation performance. However, few studies have explored the diversified adoption of DTs and the impacts of their various combinations on firms’ innovation from a holistic perspective. Hence, this study identifies three categories of digital technology adoption (DTA)—enhancing, adapting, and substituting—from the perspective of business model innovation (BMI) and recognizes five adopting actions corresponding to the above categories. This study aims to explore the configurative effects of DTA on firms’ sustainable innovation performance (SIP). To study this, 94 cases of Chinese high-tech manufacturing firms are collected using both the interview and questionnaire methods. The data are analyzed using a coding method and then complemented with fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to understand how DTA can be combined to enhance firms’ SIP. The findings suggest that several reoccurring activity patterns may lead to high SIP. Among these patterns, enhancing always plays a crucial role. This study complements the previous research by shifting the focus from a single effect of DTA toward a more holistic view.
Supply chain finance (SCF) essentially provides a flexible cash flow solution that maximizes the working capital situation for the main stakeholders in the supply chain. Buyers benefit from longer payment terms and reduced working capital requirements, suppliers have early and accelerated cash flow, and financial intermediaries obtain revenue by providing business finance. However, current SCF platforms have some opaque factors, such as information asymmetry that results in delayed payments to suppliers; this is particularly harmful to small and medium-sized enterprises. Cybersecurity risks (e.g., fraudulent invoices, duplicate transactions, and double-spending payments) have also been increasing rapidly and continue to threaten technology-reliant SCF platforms. Blockchain technology is a disruptive innovation that provides security benefits for business parties because of characteristics such as decentralization, transparency, and immutability; these elements enable SCF platforms to increase transparency and trust and decrease the potential of transaction manipulation among participants. This paper proposes a blockchain-enabled alternative SCF model to address current challenges in supply chain financing processes. By adopting the underlying techniques of blockchain technology through an ancillary decentralized application and smart contract, the proposed scheme can provide the buyers, suppliers, and financial institutions in the SCF ecosystem with efficient, transparent, and secure financing services.
In the wake of technological innovation, supply chain transparency has become a concrete avenue for long-awaited improvements to supply chain processes and practices. Transparency is of particular interest to Supply Chain Finance; however, it is yet empirically unknown whether and how benefits would materialise. Being at the interface of finance and operations, Supply Chain Finance aims at improving the inter-company management of financial flows. Nowadays, different financing schemes are offered foremost by cooperation between financial institutions and fintechs. Uncertainty remains on whether and how supply chain transparency would benefit these schemes to allow the adoption of more sophisticated, higher-value schemes. By applying the Gioia method, we analysed a series of interviews with experts from the Supply Chain Finance industry regarding transaction cost economics, agency theory, and dynamic capability. The resulting series of pragmatic, theory-grounded but practice-inspired propositions untangle the relationship and barriers between supply chain transparency and Supply Chain Finance. The propositions provide advances in the theoretical understanding of Supply Chain Finance and uncover relevant directions for future research. This poses the base for actionable results in future research and leads to an impact in research by addressing the concerns and tensions raised by Supply Chain Finance experts.
Blockchain has gained momentum as a disruptive technology in supply chain management against its introduction as a finance-related instrument. Nevertheless, the developing academic understanding and the limited practical implications lead to insufficient insights into the use of blockchain technology, particularly in the supply chain finance (SCF) domain. Thus, the expected potential of blockchain technology remains underexplored. Accordingly, this study explicates this situation by examining the extant literature findings and web-based big data that can provide evidence about the real needs in supply chains, and investigating how blockchain emerges as a disruptive SCF-oriented technology. The study employs a web analytics method, Search Engine Results Page (SERP) analysis which considers the trends in blockchain technology use and the interactions between blockchain, supply chain and finance appearing in Google searches. The SERP method examined real-time clicks, web traffics and most commonly asked questions about blockchain. The SERP findings revealed that the interest in blockchain technology neither focused on finance nor data privacy as emphasised in the literature but mainly on the benefits of increasing digitalisation and efficiency in supply chains. The results offered practical implications for capturing recent blockchain-and supply chain-related trends and designing more digital and efficient supply chains.
People are excessively confident that they can judge others’ characteristics from their
appearance. This research identifies a novel antecedent of this phenomenon. Ten studies
(N=2,967, four pre-registered) find that the more people believe that appearance reveals
character, the more confident they are in their appearance-based judgments, and therefore, the more they support the use of facial profiling technologies in law enforcement, education, and business. Specifically, people who believe that appearance reveals character support the use of facial profiling in general (Studies 1a-1b), and even when they themselves are the target of profiling (Studies 1c-1d). Experimentally inducing people to believe that appearance reveals character increases their support for facial profiling (Study 2) because it increases their confidence in the ability to make appearance-based judgments (Study 3). An intervention that undermines people’s confidence in their appearance-based judgments reduces their support for facial profiling (Study 4). The relationship between the lay theory and support for facial profiling is weaker among people with a growth mindset about personality, as facial profiling presumes a
relatively unchanging character (Study 5a). This relationship is also weaker among people who believe in free will, as facial profiling presumes that individuals have limited free will (Study 5b). The appearance reveals character lay theory is a stronger predictor of support for profiling than analogous beliefs in other domains, such as the belief that FacebookTM likes reveal personality (Study 6). These findings identify a novel lay theory that underpins people’s meta-cognitions about their confidence in appearance-related judgments and their policy positions.
Exploring the value of multi-source information fusion to predict small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) credit risk in supply chain finance (SCF) is a popular yet challenging task, as two issues of key variable selection and imbalanced class must be addressed simultaneously. To this end, we develop new forecast models adopting an imbalance sampling strategy based on machine learning techniques and apply these new models to predict credit risk of SMEs in China, using financial information, operation information, innovation information, and negative events as predictors. The empirical results show that the financial-based information, such as TOC, NIR, is most useful in predicting SMEs’ credit risk in SCF, and multi-source information fusion is meaningful in better predicting the credit risk. In addition, based on the preferred CSL-RF model, which extends cost-sensitive learning to a random forest, we also present the varying mechanisms of key predictors for SMEs’ credit risk by using partial dependency analysis. The strategic insights obtained may be helpful for market participants, such as SMEs’ managers, investors, and market regulators.
Supply chain finance (SCF) is receiving increasing awareness in research as a result of uncertainties in the global financing for supply chain (SC). There are limited and fragmented studies in the implementations of financial services in SC management. This article builds on recovery from the financial crisis of 2008 and posts COVID-19 pandemic, where uncertainties crippled SCF providers and brokers services. At the same time, cutting-edge technological advancements such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) are revolutionizing the processes of business ecosystem in which SCF is entrenched. This article thus adopts a fuzzy set theoretical approach to unpack the entities relationship validity for sustainable SCF mate-framework, and the originality of AI concepts to sustainable SCF to identify the issues and inefficiencies. The results indicate that AI contributes significant economic opportunities and deliver the most effective utilization of the supply networks. In addition, the article provides a theoretical contribution to financing in SC and broadens the managerial implications in improving performance.
Over the last decade, supply chain finance (SCF) has gained popularity and increasing attention among academicians and stakeholders in the context of financial flows in the supply chain. However, some research gaps still exist that need to be explored to improve the sustainability of supply chains. Specifically, there is a critical research need to look at the conceptual background of SCF and its potential applicability in various phases of supply chains. Therefore, this article aims to bridge this gap by conducting a comprehensive State‐of‐the‐Art literature review based on 367 papers published from 2006 to 2020. Furthermore, this article is one of the first attempts to present current and past studies in the domain of SCF in a holistic manner. The analysis highlights the most influential authors, keywords, organisations, leading publications and clusters in existing research areas. This article also sets out a proposed research framework based on the triangulation approach perspective, that is, financial perspective, buyer perspective and supply chain‐oriented perspective. The most important and unique contribution of the article is the identification of new and emerging research areas where the application of SCF is still in the nascent stage. These findings can guide stakeholders at every stage of the value chain to appropriately use techniques that model policies to better inform investment and operational decisions in line with Sustainable Development Goals.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the role that communication, trust and digital transformation can play in the relationship between joint problem-solving and supply chain resilience. More specifically, the authors try to examine the possibility of digital transformation as a replacement for trust within a joint problem-solving context.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey instrument was developed and administrated to manufacturing firms within the United Kingdom and the United States. Based on data collected from 291 senior managers, multiple linear regressions were conducted through a customized process model to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The results point to the actual impact of digital transformation being far more complicated than the initial benefits that it appears to bring within a supply chain. Thus, technology is only effective when applied within the right context. The authors showcase that the trio of digital transformation, trust and joint problem-solving can be highly valuable to establish supply chain resilience and that further investigation on the interrelationships between these concepts is warranted.
Practical implications
Manufacturing firms that aim to adopt new technologies should not consider advanced digital technologies as an alternative to trust. While digital transformation can improve resource sharing and integration, governance mechanisms–such as trust–will remain the cornerstones of strategic supplier relationships. Therefore, supply chain partners must strive to achieve a balance between trust and the right type of digital technology.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the growing literature focusing on the role that digital transformation can play in developing supply chain capabilities. It adds an early empirical insight on the role of technology and governance in joint problem-solving and supply chain resilience.
An emerging body of work acknowledges the challenges focal firms face in gathering material information about their extended supply chains and begins to point to the role of supply chain structure in influencing supply chain transparency. Still, large-scale empirical evidence on this complex association remains elusive, especially at the supply chain level of analysis. We begin to bridge this empirical gap by examining whether supply chain structure systematically associates to supply chain transparency in the context of the collective public environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures made by a focal firm’s customers, suppliers and sub-suppliers. To shed light on this underexplored empirical phenomenon we gather Bloomberg SPLC data and Bloomberg ESG data about 4803 firms and 20,504 contractual ties organized in 187 extended supply chains. We find that supply chain density positively associates with supply chain transparency, whereas supply chain clustering holds a negative association. We also find that supply chain geographical heterogeneity positively associates with supply chain transparency. Our results significantly expand the literature on supply chain transparency and are relevant to supply chain professionals because they emphasize the central role of supply chain structure in enabling or constraining supply chain transparency.
Purpose
In this study, we examine the implementation of purchase order finance (POF) which is an innovative supply chain finance (SCF) solution by an innovative SCF lender (i.e. supply chain service provider (SCSP)). The effect of information integration between the SCSP (lender) and product designers (borrowers) on the lender's POF decisions and the borrowers' new product launch is investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
We conduct a case study in the Chinese smartphone industry. A mixed methods design is used, and data are collected from both the supply chain service provider (SCSP) and product designers. We first conduct a qualitative study. Hypotheses are developed concerning the relationships between information integration, in terms of social interaction and information system integration, POF and new product launch. We then conduct a quantitative study. The multilevel structural equation modelling method is used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
We find that information system integration is positively associated with POF but has no significant effect on new product launch. Social interaction is negatively associated with POF but positively associated with new product launch. POF is positively associated with new product launch.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by empirically examining the implementation of POF from both the lender's and borrower's perspectives. We find that information system integration and social interaction have different effects on POF and new product launch. The results thus provide insights into how a lender makes POF decisions and reveal the benefits of POF for borrowers.
Purpose
This study examines the role of financial service providers (FSPs) in assessing the supply chain credit of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and how they help SMEs obtain supply chain finance (SCF) through an established digital platform using big data analytics (BDA).
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted data mining analysis on the archival data of China's FSPs in the mobile production industry from 2015 to 2018, using neural networks in the first stage and multiple regression in the second stage.
Findings
The findings suggest that digital platforms sponsored by FSPs have a discriminative effect based on implicit BDA on identifying the quality and potential risks of borrowers. The results also show that tailored information utilised by FSPs has a supportive effect based on explicit BDA in helping SMEs obtain financing.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the emergent research on BDA in supply chain management by extending the contextual research on information signalling and platform theory in SCF. Furthermore, it examines the distinctive financing decision models of FSPs and provides a solution that addresses the information deficiency and overload of both lenders and borrowers and plays a certain reference role in alleviating the financing problems of SMEs.
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the use of big data (BDU) in predicting technological innovation, supply chain and SMEs' performance and whether technological innovation mediates the association between BDU and firm performance. Additionally, this research also seeks to explore the moderating effect of information sharing in the association between BDU and technological innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Using survey methods and structural associations in AMOS 24.0., the proposed model was tested on SME managers recruited from the largest economic and manufacturing hub of China, Pearl River Delta.
Findings
The findings suggest that BDU is positively related to technological innovation (product and process) and organizational outcomes (e.g., supply chain and SMEs performance). Technological innovation (i.e., product and process) significantly mediates the association between BDU and organizational outcomes. Moreover, information sharing positively moderates the association between BDU and technological innovations.
Practical implications
This research provides deeper insights into how BDU is useful for SME managers in achieving the firm’s goals. Particularly, SME managers can bring technological innovation into their business processes, overcome the challenges of forecasting, and generate dynamic capabilities for attaining the best SMEs’ performance. Additionally, BDU with information sharing enables SMEs reduce their risk and decrease production costs in their manufacturing process.
Originality/value
Firms always need to adopt new ways to enhance their productivity using available resources. This is the first study that contributes to big data and performance management literature by exploring the moderating and mediation mechanism of information sharing and technological innovation respectively using RBVT. The study and research model enhances our insights on BDU, information sharing, and technological innovation as valuable resources for organizations to improve supply chain performance, which subsequently increases SME productivity. This gap was overlooked by previous researchers in the domain of big data.
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how innovation capability and market response capability of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) affect their supply chain financing performance (SCFP) through supply chain financing solutions (SCFS) adoption. At the same time, the mechanism by which supply chain financing reduces information asymmetry before (ex-ante) and after (ex-post) SCFS adoption to promote SCFP is also inquired.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on enterprise competence theory, this paper proposes a theoretical model and tests it using survey data from a sample of 218 SMEs in China. Multiple regression analysis is employed to test the hypothesis.
Findings
The study finds that: (1) SMEs' innovation capability and market response capability positively affect SCFP. (2) SMEs' innovation capability and market response capability exert significantly positive effects on SCFS adoption. (3) SCFS adoption plays a mediating role between SME capabilities and SCFP. (4) Supply chain integration (SCI) and information technology application have no moderating effects on the relationship between SME capabilities and SCFS adoption. Finally, (5) SCI and information technology application have positive moderating effects on the relationship between SCFS adoption and SCFP.
Originality/value
Based on enterprise competence theory, this study sheds light on the internal mechanism through which SMEs' capabilities affect SCFP by introducing SCFS adoption and explores the role of situational factors in SCF in reducing ex-ante and ex-post information asymmetry. This study provides an innovative theoretical perspective on supply chain financing and enriches the existing research.
Purpose
Based on signaling theory, this paper aims to explore the impact of supply chain transparency (SCT) on firms' bank loan (BL) and supply chain financing (SCF) in the context of voluntary disclosure of supplier and customer lists.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on panel data collected from Chinese-listed firms between 2012 and 2021, fixed-effect models and a series of robustness checks are used to test the predictions.
Findings
First, improving SCT by disclosing major suppliers and customers promotes BL but inhibits SCF. Specifically, customer transparency (CT) is more influential in SCF than supplier transparency (ST). Second, supplier concentration (SC) weakens SCT’s positive impact on BL while reducing its negative impact on SCF. Third, customer concentration (CC) strengthens the positive impact of SCT on BL but intensifies its negative impact on SCF. Last, these findings are basically more pronounced in highly competitive industries.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the SCT literature by investigating the under-explored practice of supply chain list disclosure and revealing its dual impact on firms' access to financing offerings (i.e. BL and SCF) based on signaling theory. Additionally, it expands the understanding of the boundary conditions affecting the relationship between SCT and firm financing, focusing on supply chain concentration. Moreover, it advances signaling theory by exploring how financing providers interpret the SCT signal and enriches the understanding of BL and SCF antecedents from a supply chain perspective.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the combined impact of the Industry 4.0 blockchain and industrial internet of things technology (IIoT) technologies on the development of supply chain linkages associated with power, benefits and risk reduction and the ultimate impact of the linkages on supply chain performance.
Design/methodology/approach
A structural model with blockchain and IIoT as antecedents to the supply chain power, benefits and risk reduction linkages and the linkages as antecedent to supply chain performance is theorized. Data collected from 303 US manufacturing managers are analyzed using a covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB/SEM) methodology.
Findings
The CB/SEM results indicate that blockchain technology does not directly impact implementation of the linkages. Rather, implementation of blockchain technology supports implementation of IIoT technology, which strengthens supply chain linkages, thereby improving supply chain performance.
Research limitations/implications
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to provide empirical evidence that Industry 4.0 technologies such as blockchain and IIoT strengthen linkages among supply chain partners related to power, benefits and risk reduction and that those stronger linkages lead to improved supply chain performance. It should be noted that this study is based on data from managers representing only one sector (manufacturing) and one country (USA). Replication based on data from other sectors and countries is needed to support generalization of the results.
Practical implications
Practitioners are provided with empirical evidence that the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies such as blockchain and IIoT support supply chain management. These technologies facilitate data and information sharing among supply chain partners, enabling the integration and coordination of business processes throughout the entire supply chain.
Social implications
The ultimate customers of supply chains benefit when supply chain partners work together efficiently and effectively. The implementation of blockchain and IIoT digital technologies lead to improve linkages among supply chain partners driving improvements in both efficiency and effectiveness, thus benefiting customers and society.
Originality/value
Industry 4.0 technologies are relatively new with the promise of improved supply chain performance. The efficacy of Industry 4.0 technologies as mechanisms to enhance information sharing is demonstrated based on the results of this study.
Purpose
Leveraging the benefits of supply chain digitalization is a big challenge for many firms. To address this issue, this study aims to use information processing theory to explore the mechanisms between supply chain digitalization and supply chain performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on survey data from 223 Chinese companies, the authors tested the moderated mediation model using the Process program in SPSS.
Findings
The empirical results reveal that supply chain traceability and supply chain agility partially mediate the supply chain digitalization–supply chain performance relationship. More interestingly, the above significant mediation effects show differences across industries. In particular, manufacturing firms rely more on supply chain traceability, whereas supply chain agility contributes more to service firms. Lastly, supply chain dynamism is a significant moderator that enhances the mediation effect of supply chain traceability in the supply chain digitalization–supply chain performance relationship.
Originality/value
This study offers new insights into the growing literature on supply chain digitalization by proposing a new moderated mediation model that demonstrates the relative importance of different mediators. The findings also help managers boost their supply chain performance in the digital era.
Despite widespread acknowledgment of the disruptive effects of digital technologies on firm performance, the mechanisms underlying such effects have not been adequately explained. To fill this gap, we consider two sub-components of technological opportunism (TO), that is, technology-sensing capability (TSC) and technology-responding capability (TRC), and investigate their effects on firm performance from the perspective of resource orchestration (RO). Using survey data from 350 Chinese companies across diverse industries, we find that three RO capabilities – structuring, bundling and leveraging – play different roles in the TO-performance relationship. In particular, resource structuring and leveraging fully mediate the TSC-performance relationship. In contrast, the TSC-performance relationship is fully mediated by resource structuring. Our findings contribute to the growing body of research on technology adoption by offering new theoretical explanations for the mechanisms behind the TO-performance relationship. Our study also helps companies develop effective ways to deal with digital disruption.
Purpose
In recent years, the application of blockchain in enterprise financing has become a hot topic in academic research. This study aims to review the existing literature, construct a knowledge framework for this research topic and propose an agenda for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on 181 papers published from 2016 to 2020 in core journal databases in China and abroad, this study used bibliometric tools to identify and analyze an overview of literature publications, research hotspot trends and research theme clustering. This study also qualitatively analyzes literature from the dimensions of enabling mechanisms, multitechnology synergy, challenges, theoretical perspectives and research methods.
Findings
This study presents the research progress of blockchain applications in direct financing, bank credit, supply chain finance and other financing modes and analyzes the similarities and differences between domestic and international literature. This study also reveals enabling mechanisms of blockchain in enterprise financing, reflected as information quality improvement (data elements), trust mechanism innovation (business process) and collaboration structure enhancement (network structure). The study found several challenges (e.g. technological uncertainty, data security and organizational change) and trends (e.g. integrated innovation of multiple digital technologies). Additionally, the authors identified several gaps and opportunities for further research.
Research limitations/implications
This study adopts a strict strategy of selecting search terms when retrieving the literature, leading to the exclusion of certain papers on this topic.
Practical implications
This study provides valuable insights into the innovative development of enterprise financing modes enabled by blockchain and emphasizes that managers should clarify the applicable boundaries and necessary conditions of blockchain innovation in different financing scenarios to match technological innovation with industrial expectations.
Originality/value
This study constructs a knowledge framework on this topic based on a comprehensive review of existing research and proposes several important issues for future research based on the identified research gaps.
Purpose
This study examines the cognitive factors of adopting blockchain technology in various supply chain scenarios and its role in reframing the distinctive values of supply chain financing. Based on expectancy theory, this study explores the different profiles underlying the components of expectancy, valence and instrumentality.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a multiple-case study of four Fintech companies using blockchain technology to promote the performance of supply chain operations and financing.
Findings
The results show that blockchain-enabled supply chain finance (BSCF) can be classified into four scenarios based on the scope and purpose of blockchain technology applications. The success of BSCF depends on the profiles of BSCF expectancy (the recognized purpose and scope of BSCF), instrumentality (identified blockchain attributes and other technology combinations) and valence (the perceived distinctive value of BSCF). Blockchain attributes help solve information asymmetry problems and enhance financing performance in two ways: one is supporting transparency, traceability and verification of transmissions and the other entails facilitating a transformation to new business models.
Originality/value
This research applies a new perspective based on expectancy theory to study how cognitive factors affect Fintech companies' blockchain solutions under a given supply chain operation or financing activity. It explains the behavioral antecedents for applying blockchain technology, the situations appropriate for the different roles of blockchain technology and the profiles for realizing the value of blockchain technology.
Purpose
This paper lays the groundwork for future research in supply chain transparency in two ways. First, the authors delineate the construct and explore how it is shifting the business landscape. Second, the authors connect nine theories to the construct to guide future scholars in this growing research area.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors explore the practical implications for the future of supply chain transparency research through the application of nine theories: stakeholder theory; the technology acceptance model; transaction cost theory; commodity theory; competing values theory; ambidexterity; the natural-resource-based view of the firm; actor-network theory and neo-institutional theory. The authors also consider the blending of theories to provide further insights into the ways firms engage in supply chain transparency.
Findings
This analysis relates theories from several disciplines (i.e. marketing, supply chain management, economics, information systems and organizational behavior) to add theoretical insights to the concept of supply chain transparency, with suggestions for using these theories in conjunction to address complex emerging issues. The authors offer guidance and direction for cross-disciplinary research to help supply chain and logistics influence other fields.
Originality/value
Supply chain transparency is a boundary-spanning phenomenon swiftly proliferating multiple aspects of business. This research applies nine theoretical perspectives to guide future researchers and lays the foundation for managers looking to adopt transparency into their supply chains.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has accelerated the building of resilient supply chains, and supply chain digitalization is gradually being recognized as an enabling means to this end. Nevertheless, scholars generally agree that more empirical studies will need to be conducted on how digitalization can facilitate supply chain resilience at various stages and enhance supply chain performance in a highly uncertain environment. To echo the call, this study develops a theoretical influence mechanism of "supply chain digitalization → supply chain resilience → supply chain performance" based on dynamic capability theory. The proposed relationships are validated using survey data collected from 210 Chinese manufacturing companies. The results help identify the paths digitalization and supply chain resilience can take to improve supply chain performance in a turbulent environment. The different roles of three supply chain resilience capabilities, namely absorptive capability (before the disruption), response capability (during the disruption), and recovery capability (after the disruption), which impact on supply chain performance differently, are highlighted. In addition, it is found that digitalization can bring a differential impact on these three supply chain resilience capabilities through different aspects of resource and structural adjustment measures. The findings also confirm the mediating role of absorptive capability, response capability, and recovery capability between digitalization and supply chain performance. During crisis, supply chain digitalization can increase cost-effectiveness, enhance information and communication efficiency, and promote supply chain resilience to achieve better performance. For theoretical contribution, this study enriches the research on supply chain digitalization and resilience by underpinning the relationships between the two with dynamic capability theory. For practical contribution, the research findings provide insights for enterprises to leverage digitalization to strengthen resilience in supply chain.
Purpose
Disasters are growing in frequency and scale, unmasking the systemic vulnerabilities of modern supply chains and highlighting the need to understand how to respond to such events. In the context of an extreme event such as the COVID-19 pandemic, this research focuses on how networks of organizations leverage their combined resources and capabilities to develop, manufacture and deliver new products outside their traditional markets.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a theory elaboration process, the authors build on resource orchestration theory to develop data collection and analysis protocols to support a multi-case study research design. This research investigates four cases of newly formed networks that emerged in four different countries – Colombia, Italy, the United States and the United Kingdom–in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Findings
These four networks in the investigation share common characteristics in terms of motivation and approach, creating patterns from which theoretical generalizations are developed into a series of propositions regarding the process of network-level resource orchestration under extreme uncertainty.
Practical implications
The research shows how networks and the organizations within them can streamline processes, swiftly build new relationships and develop a balanced risk management approach to extreme uncertainty.
Originality/value
This research contributes to theory by extending the resource orchestration model to a network level and showing how extreme uncertainty can lead to the emergence of networks and alter the motivations and goals of the member organizations, allowing them to be more responsive.
Purpose
Although supply chain collaboration (SCC) theoretically boosts the adoption of supply chain finance (SCF) through information sharing and cost savings, many companies with good supply chain partnerships still hesitate to engage in SCF. To disentangle this puzzle, this study aims to explore how two dimensions of information transparency (i.e. information quantity and information quality) and two types of transaction dependence (i.e. dependence on suppliers and dependence on customers) influence the relationship between SCC and SCF adoption.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses secondary survey data from a Chinese bank, including 464 Chinese companies that have adopted SCF to varying degrees. This study then performs the logistic regression analysis to test the hypotheses.
Findings
This study empirically confirms that SCC shows a positive relationship with SCF adoption. More interestingly, information quantity negatively moderates this positive relationship, whereas information quality positively moderates this positive relationship. Most surprisingly, dependence on customers rather than dependence on suppliers strengthens this positive relationship.
Originality/value
This study makes theoretical contributions to the SCF literature by demonstrating the distinct moderating mechanisms regarding the relationship between SCC and SCF adoption. The findings also help companies reexamine their interactions with supply chain members.
Drawing upon resource orchestration theory, we argue that deploying digitally-driven business capability aligned with supply chain governance may improve supply chain resilience. Using a sample of Chinese agriculture firms, the empirical analysis verified three fit mechanisms (complementing fit, balancing fit, and configuring fit) between digitally-driven business capability and supply chain governance and their effects on supply chain resilience. This research offers novel insights into the specific actualization mechanisms by which digitally-driven business capability and supply chain governance jointly improve supply chain resilience. Implications for management and future Information Systems (IS) research are provided.
In order to improve the evaluation effect of the supply chain financial credit evaluation mechanism, this paper, with the support of big data technology, combines the intelligent evaluation algorithm to analyze the supply chain financial evaluation mechanism, and analyzes the effect of the supply chain financial credit evaluation mechanism by constructing an intelligent evaluation model. Moreover, this paper adopts AHP improved by OWA operator to determine the model weight, and adopts gray aggregation method improved by similar summary method to establish an evaluation model. By expounding the data flow problem and logical calculation problem of the model in detail, this paper finally established a supply chain financial credit evaluation system and model serving practical applications. The research results show that the supply chain financial credit evaluation system proposed in this paper has good effects in supply chain financial credit evaluation.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine how the quality management of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) impacts their supply chain financing performance (SCFP). This study also investigates the mediating roles of organisational dependence between quality management and the SCFP of SMEs, as well as the moderating role of environmental dynamics.
Design/methodology/approach
Questionnaires were administered to 248 financial managers responsible for supply chain finance (SCF) in SMEs in China. Data analysis techniques used include necessary condition analysis and multiple regression analysis.
Findings
Research findings show that, in SCF, the quality management of SMEs positively predicts their SCFP through the mediation of the organisational dependence of the focal enterprises in the supply chain network. Environmental dynamics are also found to moderate the relationship between quality management and SCFP through the organisational dependence of capital providers.
Originality/value
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the relationships between SMEs' quality management and their SCFP. Also, this study provides a new theoretical lens through which to study SCF by introducing signalling theory.
Drawing on organizational information processing theory, this study suggests a moderated mediation model that demonstrates how a buyer firm's digital capability advantage can reduce the unethical behavior of its suppliers. We collected two-wave survey data from 223 Chinese manufacturing firms and applied ordinary least squares regressions and the PROCESS macro model to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings reveal that a buyer firm's digital capability advantage indirectly decreases supplier unethical behavior through enhancing relationship transparency. In addition, this indirect effect is weaker when the level of relational capital is high. By examining the conditional indirect relationship between digital capability advantage and relational capital, this study provides valuable insights into how a buyer firm may effectively utilize digital capability advantage to improve relationship transparency and thereby reduce suppliers' unethical behavior.
Based on the resource orchestration perspective, this study attempts to explain the mechanisms underlying the “capabilities-advantages” causality. This is achieved by identifying the effects of different capabilities on small and medium suppliers’ (SMSs) supply chain financing. Based on a dataset of 418 vendors for three Chinese manufacturers, we tested the hypotheses and found that: (a) operational capabilities, including improvement capability and innovation capability, have positive effects, while the effects of digitalization capabilities are complex. This is because the positive effect of information interaction capability is partially mediated by digital technology adoption. (b) Those positive effects of improvement, digital technology adoption and information interaction capability will be stronger under a low level of supply risk. This is the first study to employ the resource orchestration perspective into exploring how to improve the supply chain financing of SMSs. This study also contributes to the research on SMSs’ financing and digitalization.
Although many firms are aggressively deploying diverse digital technologies (DTs) at inter- and intra-organizational levels, not all firms have achieved the anticipated resilience, especially in the face of supply chain disruptions caused by “black swan” events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. To demystify this phenomenon, we draw on the asset orchestration perspective to investigate how breadth (i.e., the scope) and depth (i.e., the scale) of DT deployment influence a firm's resilience to supply chain disruptions. Survey data from 162 Chinese manufacturing firms show that the depth of DT deployment exerts a positive effect on firm resilience. Interestingly, the breadth has a non-significant effect on firm resilience. Moreover, while the breadth and depth of DT deployment both enhance supply chain coordination, supply chain coordination mediates only the relationship between DT deployment depth and firm resilience. Finally, market acuity positively moderates the relationship between supply chain coordination and firm resilience. We contribute to the literature by providing new theoretical explanations for the inconsistency in the reported relationship between technology deployment and resilience. Our study also helps firms reevaluate their DT deployment.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions to global operations and supply chains. While the huge impact of the pandemic has nurtured important literature over the last couple of years, little is being said about the role of resource orchestration in supporting resilience in highly disruptive contexts. Thus, this study aims to this knowledge gap by proposing an original model to explore supply chain resilience (SCRE) antecedents, considering supply chain alertness (SCAL) as a central point to support resilience. This study focuses on the resource orchestration theory (ROT) to design a conceptual model. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) served to validate the model, exploring data from the UK supply chain decision-makers. The study reveals a number of both expected and unexpected findings. These include the evidence that supply chain disruption orientation (SCDO) has a strong positive effect on the SCAL. In addition, SCAL plays a strong positive effect in resource reconfiguration (RREC), supply chain efficiency (SCEF) and SCRE. We further identified a partial mediation effect of RREC on the relationship between SCAL and SCRE. Surprisingly, it appeared that SCAL strongly influences SCEF, while SCEF itself does not create any significant effect on SCRE. For managers and practitioners, the importance of resource orchestration as a decisive approach to adequately respond to huge disruptions is clearly highlighted by our results. Finally, this paper helps to grasp better how important resource orchestration in operations and supply chains remains for appropriate responses to high disruptions such as the COVID-19 impacts.
Although many firms are actively deploying various digital technology (DT) assets across their supply chains to mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on operations, whether these DT assets are truly helpful remains unclear. To disentangle this puzzle, we investigate whether firms that have higher levels of DT asset deployment achieve better supply chain performance in the COVID-19 crisis than firms with lower levels. From an asset orchestration perspective, we focus on two dimensions of DT asset deployment: breadth and depth, which reflect the scope and scale of DT assets, respectively. The empirical results from 175 Chinese firms that have deployed DT assets to varying degrees reveal that both the breadth and the depth of DT asset deployment show positive relationships with supply chain visibility. In contrast, the depth but not the breadth of DT asset deployment poses a positive relationship with supply chain agility. Most importantly, high levels of supply chain visibility and supply chain agility were prerequisites for excellent supply chain performance in the COVID-19 crisis. We contribute to the digital supply chain management literature by uncovering the mechanism through which DT asset deployment generates impacts on supply chain performance from an asset orchestration perspective. Our study also assists firms in improving their digital transformation strategies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the big data era, managing data-driven hospital operations have become one of the most important tasks for healthcare executives, increasing responsiveness to exceptional disruptions such as those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they are still facing the challenges of how best to orchestrate the digital medical resources for improving operational performance such as cost, delivery, and quality. Therefore, drawing upon resource orchestration theory, this article investigates how hospitals orchestrate data-driven culture (DDC) and digital technology orientation (DTO) to develop big data analytics capability (BDAC) for operational performance improvement. Survey data were collected from 105 hospitals in China and analyzed using structural equation modeling and ordinary least square regression. The results show that DDC has a significant positive impact on DTO. More interestingly, there is no significant interaction effect between DDC and DTO, indicating that DDC and DTO affect BDAC independently, and not synergistically. The results further reveal that BDAC fully mediates the DTO–operational performance relationship. The findings offer useful and timely guidance on how healthcare executives can manage data-driven hospital operations to improve operational performance during and post the COVID-19 pandemic.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine how cloud computing assimilation reduces supply chain financing (SCF) risks of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This study also investigated the mediating roles of internal and external supply chain integration between cloud computing assimilation and the SCF risks of SMEs, as well as the moderating role of environmental competitiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected from surveys of SMEs located in China. Multiple regression analysis was used to validate the proposed theoretical model and research hypotheses.
Findings
The findings show that cloud computing assimilation could reduce the SCF risks of SMEs directly. The results also indicate that both internal and external supply chain integration mediate the relationship between cloud computing assimilation and SCF risks. Furthermore, environmental competitiveness inhibits the effects of cloud computing assimilation on SCF risks.
Originality/value
To our best knowledge, this is the preliminary study to explore the role of cloud computing assimilation in reducing the SCF risks of SMEs. Also, this study attempted to investigate the process by which cloud computing assimilation affects the SCF risks of SMEs.
The Covid-19 pandemic created a financial disruption within supply chains, which is destabilizing especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and could be devastating for the global economy. Supply chain finance (SCF) was an answer to the 2008 financial crisis and could help facing the new challenge, but new paradigms are necessary, to become an effective mitigation strategy. Through the support of empirical data collected through a focus group with industry experts, this note presents new research directions in the SCF domain, based on Contingency Theory and Resource Orchestration Theory, including new solutions, actors, collaborations, technologies, regulations, and performance.
The literature has mostly examined supply chain (SC) traceability and SC transparency separately, ignoring the mutually constitutive relationship of these two related constructs. We draw on the resource orchestration theory and the causal complexity perspective to conceptualize and validate SC traceability and SC transparency as interrelated organizational capabilities that may mutually enhance or compensate each other for competitive advantage. We constructed an original sample from two sources to empirically test this conceptualization using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Our empirical results reveal that the ability of firms to leverage SC traceability for a high financial performance is contingent upon creating a transparency perception of SC with a wide range of stakeholders. Our results also identified the firm size and its international presence, as having a significant bearing on the ability of firms to leverage SC traceability and SC transparency capabilities for a competitive advantage.
Purpose
Reverse factoring (RF)–a form of supply chain finance (SCF)–is widely recognised as a win-win for both buyers and suppliers. Still, there is evidence that suppliers are often hesitant to join RF programmes initiated by their buyers. This study advances our understanding of how suppliers assess the importance of various attributes of a buyer's offer to join RF and discusses the role of programme configuration and digital technology in overcoming impediments to RF adoption.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a choice-based conjoint experimental design validated by experts, we isolate and manipulate the main attributes of a RF programme offer. This enables us to estimate the attributes' importance and to examine suppliers' trade-off behaviour. The authors complement the experimental study with content analysis of respondents' comments.
Findings
This study reveals the importance of behavioural considerations in RF adoption. The main findings are (1) suppliers are willing to reject offers that they perceive to be unfair even if these offers benefit them financially, (2) suppliers are willing to trade-off their financial benefit for non-financial reasons–most notably attributes that relate to trustworthiness of the buyer–and (3) suppliers expect technologies to increase transparency and reduce variability in trade processes.
Research limitations/implications
Non-financial attributes that influence supplier perception need to be considered in the programme configuration. Technologies that reduce information asymmetry, increase trust and transparency, increase the speed of execution and reduce process inefficiencies will have a positive impact on RF offer acceptance.
Originality/value
This research opens new lines of inquiry on the role of digital technologies in influencing behavioural operations management specifically suppliers' adoption of digital SCF solutions.
Many organizations are confronted with the challenge of improving supply chain transparency not only to meet regulatory requirements, but also to optimize operations, guarantee the quality of outputs, and ensure the sustainability of processes. As this topic has garnered significant interest across a wide range of academic disciplines, there is a need to synthesize and categorize these diverse contributions to inspire future investigations of emerging or under-researched substantive areas. This article addresses this need by reviewing existing research on supply chain transparency and offers an integrated understanding of this growing literature. By analyzing a sample of over 300 peer-reviewed articles through bibliometric and automated text mining methods, we identify six distinct clusters that represent substantive literature subdomains: transparency technologies, knowledge integration, governance, sustainability, traceability, and resilience. Building on these structured analyses, we develop a literature framework to comprehensively organize insights from these clusters and illustrate the conceptual relationships between transparency management systems, transparency vehicles, and transparency outcomes. By providing a holistic examination of how supply chain transparency is enabled, our framework aids researchers’ future studies and guides practitioners’ strategies to identify, diagnose, and address modern challenges that face supply chains (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic, workplace exploitation, increased third-party scrutiny).
The role of big data in implementing supply chain finance (SCF) initiatives lacks empirical study. There is little guidance available for managers on developing an integrated SCF process in the era of big data. Using organizational information processing theory, this study develops and empirically tests a theoretical framework that investigates the effect of big data analytics capability (BDAC) on SCF Integration, and the moderating effect of data-driven culture. The hypothesized relationships were tested using structural equation modelling and moderated regression analysis, with primary survey data collected from a sample of 307 manufacturing firms in China. The results indicate that BDAC has a significant positive effect on internal SCF Integration, and internal SCF Integration fully mediates the relationships between BDAC and SCF Integration with customers and suppliers. Data-driven culture significantly moderates the effect of BDAC on internal SCF Integration. These empirical findings provide timely and useful guidance for managers on using big data analytics and data-driven culture to implement integrated SCF practices to survive in today's data-rich and uncertain environment.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to bridge the gap in the literature on supply chain finance (SCF) by exploring the relationship between network capabilities and corporate financial performance (CFP) in financial supply chains (FSCs).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collect panel data and adopt regression analysis to analyse the joint investment activities among 1359 manufacturing firms and 289 financial service providers in China to explore how network capabilities, both network power and network centrality, improve CFP in the FSCs.
Findings
Under the FSCs environments, network centrality (i.e. eigenvector centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality) raises CFP (ROA, ROE and Tobin's Q) and network power (node degree, clustering coefficient) also improves CFP. However, node strength from the network power stream has a negative effect on Tobin's Q, indicating that when the partner of a firm has an extremely strong influence in FSCs; this weakens the bargaining ability and flexibility of the focal firm, thus reducing its long-term financial performance.
Practical implications
The joint investment activities among supply chain partners and financial service providers help managers understand the advanced financing solutions generated by internal and external network organisations as well as be aware of network capabilities' impact on CFP in FSCs.
Originality/value
This study answers the call for more empirical research on SCF to provide a broader sample to examine financial supply chain management. This is one of the earliest studies to shed light on a new perspective – how network capabilities improve CFP in the FSCs.
This study aims to explore the influence of supplier-buyer cooperation (contract governance and relationship governance) on supply chain financing availability from the bilateral perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises and their suppliers (or buyers) based on the transaction cost theory. A total of 248 valid paired questionnaires were received from small and medium enterprises and their suppliers (or buyers). Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. The results show that: (1) contract governance is more effective than relationship governance on supply chain financing availability, and the two forms of governance have a positive interaction effect. (2) Opportunism plays a mediating role between supplier-buyer cooperation and supply chain financing availability. Contract governance improves supply chain financing availability more strongly than relationship governance, by reducing supply chain financing risks. (3) Financing alignment has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between opportunism and supply chain financing availability.
Traceability can be referred to as the ability to track and trace information. Application of traceability can create transparency in supply chains. Conventionally available, centralized traceability solutions are not preferable for supply chains as they are exposed to many problems such as data manipulations, single point of failure, etc. Blockchain, the recently emerged distributed ledger technology, is gaining popularity with its tremendous applications in various fields, particularly in supply chain management. Technically, blockchain is a decentralized and distributed database where information can be securely recorded. Blockchain-based traceability solutions can tackle the shortcomings of centralized traceability solutions. Firms have already started incorporating blockchain into their supply chain activities in order to improve the transparency through tracking and tracing the events. This paper ultimately aims to present an overview of the various blockchain-based traceability solutions reported in the literature. Primarily, this work provides an insight on the possibilities of blockchain traceability solutions in making a supply chain transparent. Apart from this, it analyses how blockchain traceability solutions affect the visibility of various supply chain distribution network designs, and gives an outline on how technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), and smart contracts elevate the opportunities of blockchain. In order to demonstrate how blockchain traceability solutions improve supply chain transparency, a Proof of Concept (PoC) for a cold chain scenario is presented using Microsoft Azure Blockchain Workbench.
The financial supply chain is affected by many factors, so an artificial intelligence model is needed to identify supply chain risk factors. This article combines the actual situation of the financial supply chain, improves the traditional machine learning algorithm, and takes the actual company as an example to build a corresponding risk factor recognition model. From the perspective of optimizing the supply chain financial model, this paper combines the functions of the Internet of Things technology and the characteristics of the supply chain financial inventory pledge financing model to design a new type of inventory pledge financing model. The new model makes up for the defects of the original model through the functions of intelligent identification, visual tracking and cloud computing big data processing of the Internet of Things technology. In addition, this study verifies the performance of the system, uses a large amount of data in Internet finance as an object, and obtains the corresponding results through mathematical statistical analysis. The research results show that the model proposed in this paper has a certain effect on the identification and analysis of financial supply chain risk factors.
Traceability is the ability to follow a product along its lifecycle. It ensures product safety and quality along the supply chain, managing information generated by several players. Even though regulations establish the information that has to be traced, each player generates much more product (and process) information, which could be used to add value to products, with respect to, not only traceability, but also the lifecycle approach. However, the concepts do not appear to be immediately related in scientific panorama. This paper aims to explore the relationship between traceability and lifecycle through a systematic literature review. Six industries (Software, Manufacturing, Automotive, Automation, Aircraft, and Aerospace) and seven subject areas (Software engineering; System engineering; Industry 4.0; New product development; Process management; Data Management; and Environmental sustainability) were identified through bibliometric analysis. To better explore this relationship in the context of the food industry, a content analysis on lead papers’ sample was performed to identify traceability and lifecycle definitions, methodologies and technologies and their relation. The results of the work, synthetised in a proposed research map, will be of interest to those who are approaching the subject for the first time, and for companies involved in product lifecycle management and food traceability.
Using a process component lens, this paper decomposes an e-business process into technical, relational, and business components. We then draw on resource orchestration theory to identify two managerial actions, resources structuring and capabilities leveraging in using e-business process components, to explain how these three components work together to improve competitive performance in supply chain operations. Two interesting insights emerge from our empirical research corresponds to value creation mechanisms. First, we identify the critical three portfolio effects to promote platform architecture flexibility and partner engagement to develop e-business operations capabilities (EBOCs) in three major e-business processes. Second, we reveal the transformation effect of EBOCs in different e-business processes in obtaining competitive performance. The notion of portfolio and transformation mechanisms of e-business process components offers theoretical and practical implications for developing successful digital supply chain platform.