Predicting firm performance through supply chain finance: a moderated and mediated model link

A systematic literature review on supply chain resilience in SMEs: learnings from COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose

The study aims to review state-of-art literature on supply chain resilience in SMEs in the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and provides a comprehensive view of insights gained, gaps identified and suggests potential areas of future research.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a thorough search strategy, 46 articles were found relevant for this study. Each of these articles was further reviewed, classified and analysed to highlight the development of literature in this field and identify the significant focal area of research in this domain.

Findings

The classification of studies indicates a growing number of articles in the last two years with a significant focus on multiple industries and survey-based research design. The study's findings suggest that literature on supply chain resilience in SMEs falls into four categories: supply chain resilience principle, impact of COVID-19 pandemic on SMEs, strategies for developing supply chain resilience and role of Industry 4.0 technologies in supply chain resilience. We also identified knowledge gaps and suggested directions for future research to catalyse studies at the interface of supply chain resilience, SMEs and COVID-19 pandemic.

Research limitations/implications

The generalisability of this study can be limited to a specific population of online databases and selected time periods chosen for a particular period.

Originality/value

The study provides a structured literature review on studies published between 2012 and 2022 for the use of academicians and practitioners. Findings will be of great value for SMEs to improve their resilience during the uncertain business environment.

Social support and perceived uncertainties during COVID-19: Consequences for employees' wellbeing

The COVID-19 crisis has drastically affected organizations worldwide, thereby influencing the employees’ psychological wellbeing. Since it is a new pandemic, research is sparse in the domain of employees’ psychological wellbeing in relation to the phenomenon. Drawing on social support and job demand-resource perspectives, this research adds to the factors affecting employees’ wellbeing due to the coronavirus outbreak. Specifically, this study is an investigation of co-workers’ instrumental support in predicting employees’ emotional exhaustion via employees’ perceived uncertainties experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, we tested for the contextual specificity of family support on uncertainties and its link with employees’ emotional exhaustion. With data drawn from two universities (n = 275), the findings reveal a negative association between co-worker task support and an employee’s emotional exhaustion, and an employee’s perceived uncertainties mediate this relationship. Moreover, the moderating analysis exhibits that family support mitigates the negative effect of uncertainty perception on emotional exhaustion. Our study reveals that coworker and family support are extremely important during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings are equally valuable for organizations and society to mitigate the detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on employees’ wellbeing.

The impacts of supply chain finance initiatives on firm risk: evidence from service providers listed in the US

Purpose

This study empirically investigates how supply chain finance (SCF) initiatives together with different firm capabilities and resources (i.e. information technology (IT) capability, operational slack and political connections) affect the financial risk of service providers.

Design/methodology/approach

This study collects secondary longitudinal data to test for a direct impact of SCF initiatives on service providers' financial risk. It further investigates the moderating effects of the service provider's IT capability, operational slack and political connections. Additional tests and analytical strategies are performed to ensure the robustness of the results.

Findings

The findings indicate that SCF initiatives help service providers mitigate financial risk. The risk reduction is greater for service providers with higher IT capability, operational slack and political connections, but the last factor applies only to multinational corporations, not domestic companies.

Research limitations/implications

The data used in this research is limited to SCF service providers publicly listed in the United States, which may restrict the generalisability of the findings. Nonetheless, the research urges scholars to focus more on the financial risk implications of SCF in different market contexts.

Practical implications

This study encourages service providers to embrace the power of SCF initiatives for mitigating financial risk and allows them to evaluate their SCF investments in light of different firm capabilities and resources.

Originality/value

This is the first study investigating the impacts of SCF initiatives and various firm capabilities and resources on service providers' financial risk. The empirical findings provide important implications for future research and practices.

Measuring career shocks: A study of scale development and validation in the Chinese context

The emergence of self-career management has pushed individuals to manage their careers proactively and evade unexpected events. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a career shocks scale for use in Chinese organizations. In doing so, we developed a comprehensive scale of career shocks to cover a significant gray area of career management and enhance a deeper understanding of the emergence of career shocks among Chinese employees. Using the mixed-method approach, we recruited multiple samples to validate the item structure and assess construct validity and internal consistency of the career shocks scale. The findings of a confirmatory factor analysis suggested two dimensions of career shocks (positive and negative), having nine items. Moreover, a strong inter-item structure indicated that this research measure would be valuable for future research endeavors in the domain of career management.