Managing environmental uncertainty for improved firm financial performance: the moderating role of supply chain risk management practices on managerial decision making

The nonlinear impact of financial flexibility on corporate sustainability: Empirical evidence from the Chinese manufacturing industry

In the face of challenges ushered in by globalization and technological advancements, financial flexibility has emerged as a pivotal strategy for attaining sustainable development in China's manufacturing sector. Financial flexibility allows firms to manage internal cash flows, alleviate external financing constraints, and augment their capability to absorb risks. Using the framework of Financial Flexibility Theory and Institutional Theory, this study examines data from A-share listed manufacturing firms on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2011 to 2021. The research aims to investigate the nexus between financial flexibility and sustainable performance, while also probing the moderating roles of environmental uncertainty and governmental grants. The key findings of the study unveil an inverted U-shaped relationship between financial flexibility and sustainable performance. Moreover, environmental uncertainty exerts a significant negative influence on sustainable performance. When both environmental uncertainty and governmental grants are substantial, the inverted U-shaped correlation between financial flexibility and sustainable performance intensifies. The innovation of this study lies in revealing the optimal zone of financial flexibility for enterprises under the influence of environmental uncertainty and government grants. Amidst an increasingly intricate macro-environment, this research furnishes pragmatic insights for optimizing sustainable performance in manufacturing enterprises and offers a series of empirically grounded suggestions for enterprise managers, government departments, and investors, guiding them to enhance sustainable performance through judicious calibration of financial flexibility levels.

A responsiveness metric for the design and planning of resilient supply chains

Supply Chain Management is in constant evolution, and Supply Chain Resilience (SCR) appears as a recent offspring result of changes in how companies do business. Research efforts on the topic have led to a focus on the basic concepts of SCR, leaving a relevant research gap on the modelling and quantification of the SCR behaviour. In fact, there is not yet a consensus on SCR metrics or on how to quantify SCR. Most SCR models fail to incorporate relevant characteristics of the supply chain's performance, as are the impacts perceived by downstream customers. This work addresses such gaps, and a new resilient SC metric is proposed, which is incorporated into a developed optimisation model, where economic and responsiveness objectives are maximised when designing and planning resilient SC considering all SC entities. The model is applied to a case study that shows that decision-makers should avoid adopting universal strategies when managing their SC and instead should define the best plan for their SC operation. The impacts perceived by downstream customers are analysed. Moreover, it can be concluded that there is a correlation between the SC performance and the new SCR metric, easing the process of designing and planning the SC when resilience concerns are at stake.

Is there a theory of supply chain resilience? A bibliometric analysis of the literature

Purpose

This study aims to identify the past, present and future lines of research in the supply chain resilience (SCRES) literature and to answer the question of whether resilience is “just another” supply chain (SC) concept or if it constitutes its own theory.

Design/methodology/approach

This study involves a bibliometric analysis of 1,596 research articles published in the Web of Science Core Collection™ database between 2004 and 2021, with a focus on: publications and citations per year, co-citations of articles and authors, co-occurrences of the keywords used and thematic development. Seven SCRES experts have also analysed and discussed the research results.

Findings

The results show how resilience has become one of the main thematic blocks of SC research in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a 62.04% increase in academic publications. Despite the abundant literature, there is still no overarching theory of SCRES. One possible hindrance to the creation of such a theory is the variety of existing definitions and models of SCRES. This research identifies this as a shortcoming that future studies should address. As the results show, the combination of SCRES with other fields, such as engineering and ecology, can help in constructing a global theory of SCRES.

Originality/value

Bibliometric analysis is used to confirm the SCRES literature gap in the development of an overarching theory, although resilience constitutes one of the main thematic blocks of the SC literature.

Introduction of a Corporate Security Risk Management System: The Experience of Poland

To ensure the economic security of companies, it is necessary to introduce a risk management system based on the use of various tools, especially financial ones. The purpose of the article is to scientifically substantiate the paradigm of integration of the risk management mechanism into the system of economic security in companies on the basis of risk-oriented management. The main study method was an online survey of 50 Polish companies in January–April 2021 using a developed questionnaire consisting of 40 questions. According to the results of the expert survey, it is determined that regardless of the type of economic activity of the enterprise, the main goal of introducing risk-oriented management is to preserve assets and increase the efficiency of financial and economic processes. The introduction of risk-oriented management is perceived as a tool to increase the value of the company and ensure the achievement of strategic goals. Fraud is a significant risk to the state of economic security for modern enterprises. To prevent the fact of fraud, taking into account the specifics of the operation of companies, it is suggested to conduct an annual examination. As a result, the suggested procedure should include an audit (audit of financial statements, forensics, transition to international financial reporting standards, audit of systems and processes), assessment (assessment for audit and reporting in accordance with international financial reporting standards, risk management assessment in accordance with international standards, assessment of the effectiveness of economic security), tax analytics (identification of tax risks, analysis of compliance with tax legislation, tax audit), and a due diligence procedure for investment objects.

Predicting supply chain risks through big data analytics: role of risk alert tool in mitigating business disruption

Purpose

As organizations globalize, they are facing twin challenges of (1) how to develop actionable intelligence from the vast amount of data flowing into their organization and (2) how to effectively manage the increasing risks to their supply chain. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to bring these two issues on a single platform to understand how firms can effectively predict supply chain risk by developing and using BDA capabilities, through an automated risk alert tool.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used a questionnaire-based survey methodology supported by secondary data to collect information related to managerial perceptions on how firms can develop a risk alert tool by improving BDA capabilities. A database of 213 senior and middle-level managers was developed and used to test the proposed hypothesis. Using econometric techniques, the authors identify the conditions necessary for such an automated risk management tool to be effective.

Findings

The results suggest that if organizations focus on developing an effective IT infrastructure supported by a strong BDA capability, they will be able to leverage these capabilities to develop an effective risk management tool. Moderating influences of Upstream and Downstream Supply Chain IT Infrastructure capabilities were also observed on different types of BDA capabilities within a firm. In conclusion, it was argued that the effectiveness of a risk alert tool is dependent on how well firms harness big data analytics capability.

Originality/value

The value of the research stems from the fact that it uses managerial surveys to identify specific BDA capabilities that can enable firms to develop risk resilience capabilities. In addition, the article is one of the few empirical studies that aims to identify how firms can use BDA capabilities within a supply chain context to develop an automated risk alert tool. The article, therefore, contributes to the literature that identifies the value of BDA capabilities within the context of supply chain risk management.

How Do Green Innovation Strategies Contribute to Firm Performance Under Supply Chain Risk? Evidence From China's Manufacturing Sector

With environmental issues increasingly becoming prominent in today's business world, firms may need to pay extra attention to developing their environmental strategies and capabilities in response to environmental concerns and achieving sustainable growth. While a broad consensus exists on the value of green innovation, current empirical research on how different types of green innovation strategies may account for the international performance of a firm remains scant. Addressing this gap is important because determining how to better manage a firm's green innovation strategies nowadays has become increasingly important for firms hoping to achieve and maintain their sustainable performance advantages. This study aims to bridge this gap by systematically examining how various types of green innovation strategies (i.e., green product, green process, and green service innovations) can be beneficial to firms in an emerging market economy. This study also examined the important role that potential risks of supply chain play in shaping the relationships between various types of green innovation strategies and firm performance. This study proposes that the effective management of supply chain risks may be important to the successful implementation of green innovation strategies because green innovation has increasingly become a collaborative effort. This study empirically tested the hypotheses by gathering survey data from a sample of 337 firms in China's manufacturing industries. Results demonstrate that the green innovation strategies of firms are positively related to their firm performance. Additionally, the potential risks faced by the firms in efficiently and effectively managing their supply chain significantly moderate the impact of green product innovation and green process innovation strategies on their firm performance. This study not only offers useful theoretical implications for the green innovation strategy research and for better and effective supply chain risk management. It also provides important practical guidelines and managerial actions that practicing managers can implement to accelerate their green innovation strategy, assess the effect of supply chain risks, and thus improve firm performance in the post-pandemic era.

Managing the adverse effect of supply chain risk on corporate reputation: The mediating role of corporate social responsibility practices

Within the last decade, research has focussed on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices as a strategic tool that enables firms to improve stakeholder perception, brand image and corporate reputation. However, one area that remains understudied is the role played by CSR practices in managing corporate reputation under conditions of supply chain risk. To answer this research question, we conduct a literature review and develop the corresponding hypothesis. We test our hypothesis using quantitative analysis of both primary and secondary data collected from organizations dispersed globally. The results highlight that under conditions of supply chain network disruption risk, CSR practices play an important role in enabling firms to manage the negative impact of such risk drivers on corporate reputation. The study further suggests that CSR practices positively impact supply chain risk management (SCRM) practices and are a necessary condition for SCRM practices to be effective in improving corporate reputation of organizations.

Sustainable Supply Chains with Blockchain, IoT and RFID: A Simulation on Order Management

The digital transformation of supply chains should revolutionize entire management processes and improve various aspects of sustainability. In particular, the plans of Industry 4.0 aim towards a digitization of several procedures by exploiting emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, RFID and blockchain. The purpose of this study is to highlight how order and disruption events processes can be improved with the adoption of emerging technologies and how this reflects on the improvement of sustainability aspects. The study is based on the comparison of two simulation scenarios between three actors in the cheese supply chain. In particular, a first traditional scenario “as is” is simulated without the use of new technologies and is compared to a second scenario “to be” that adopts IoT, RFID and blockchain. The results show an improvement in time performance for managing both perfect and non-compliant orders. The developed framework highlights the impact of new technologies on sustainability aspects, showing further managerial implications.

The impact of information technology usage on supply chain resilience and performance: An ambidexterous view

Scholars and practitioners have recognized the importance of supply chain (SC) resilience. However, it remains unclear how to build SC resilience and whether SC resilience can enhance firm performance and bring values to customers. By analyzing data collected from 206 manufacturers in China, this study empirically examines how firms implement different information technology (IT) patterns (exploitative versus explorative) with SC partners to achieve supplier and customer resilience from information processing theory, and examines the performance implications of these two dimensions of SC resilience. In addition, this study also investigates how IT ambidexterity reconciles the paradox between IT exploitation and IT exploration in enhancing SC resilience. The results show that both supplier and customer resilience could improve SC performance. To achieve the two aspects of SC resilience, only explorative use of IT with suppliers and customers have significant effects. The results also show that the ambidextrous use of IT on the customer side takes effect. The exploitative and explorative use of IT complement each other to improve customer resilience. The findings of this study contribute to IT and SC resilience literature.

Exploring potential implications of Belt and Road Initiative for supply chain resilience: a comparative study of five South Asian countries

Purpose

This paper explores the potential opportunities and challenges that Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) may bring for resilient supply chains.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs multiple case study methodology by considering five south Asian countries. Overall, 36 semi-structured interviews with supply chain managers from three supplying firms, two transportation centers and four buying firms are undertaken. Three supplying firms were based in Pakistan, providing cement and steel products. Simultaneously, two transportation centers were located in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, mainly engaged in cargo and freight handling. Finally, the buying firms were located in Mainland China and India, mainly constructing road and rail networks.

Findings

Our findings reveal both challenges and opportunities for supply chain resilience within the context of BRI. In particular, findings suggest that BRI can improve quality infrastructure, greater connectivity for logistics firms and enhance consumer markets. Conversely, BRI also poses challenges to supply chain resilience in managing large-scale logistics infrastructure and the potential conflicts between countries participating in BRI.

Research limitations/implications

As this study attempts to build a theory, its result should not be generalized to a broader population. Second, this study only explores BRI's implications for resilient supply chains within five South Asian countries.

Practical implications

Firms can use our study results to understand BRI’s implications for resilient supply chains. Particularly, it presents firms with the potential opportunities and challenges that BRI brings for resilient supply chains.

Originality/value

BRI has been the subject of much research in domains like political science, economics and law but its application to the supply chain resilience is rather scant. Our study, therefore, contributes to the emergent literature on supply chain resilience within the context of BRI by exploring its potential opportunities and challenges.