The impact of supply chain integration on performance: A contingency and configuration approach

Information technology and the Internet have had a dramatic effect on business operations. Companies are making large investments in e-commerce applications but are hard pressed to evaluate the success of their e-commerce systems. The DeLone & McLean Information Systems Success Model can be adapted to the measurement challenges of the new e-commerce world. The six dimensions of the updated model are a parsimonious framework for organizing the e-commerce success metrics identified in the literature. Two case examples demonstrate how the model can be used to guide the identification and specification of e-commerce success metrics.

Measuring e-Commerce Success: Applying the DeLone & McLean Information Systems Success Model

Purpose – In the emerging disciplines of risk management and supply chain management, resilience is a relatively undefined concept. The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated perspective on resilience through an extensive review of the literature in a number of disciplines including developmental psychology and ecosystems. In addition, the paper identifies and addresses some of the current theoretical gaps in the existing research.Design/methodology/approach – Supply chain resilience has been defined by a number of disciplines. An integrative literature review is conducted in an attempt to integrate existing perspectives. This review also serves as the basis for the development of a conceptual model.Findings – The key elements of supply chain resilience and the relationships among them, the links between risks and implications for supply chain management, and the methodologies for managing these key issues are poorly understood. Implications for future research advocate testing the proposed mod...

Understanding the concept of supply chain resilience

The service experience in tourism

To managers of companies with a Web presence, an awareness of how customers perceive service quality is essential to understanding what customers value in an online service transaction. Previous research in e-service quality has primarily focused on the interaction of the consumer and the Web site while missing the big picture that e-service quality is composed of more than Web site interactivity. The goal of this article is to extend the work on e-service quality to encompass not only Web site interactivity or process quality but also outcome quality and recovery quality. A conceptual framework of e-service quality is proposed and empirically tested that combines process, outcome, and recovery dimensions. Contrary to previous service quality studies, formative instead of reflective indicators are used to conceptualize e-service quality. This study found empirical support for the use of formative indicators and the three-dimensional approach to conceptualizing e-service quality.

Measuring Service Quality in E-Retailing

Strategic logistics capabilities for competitive advantage and firm success

The choice of a supply chain strategy and value focus should be supported by specific enterprise capabilities and ultimately result in intended logistical performance. For excellent firms, a demand focus on customer service and proactive quality is more apparent at both the capability and performance levels than a supply focus on cost, productivity, distribution, and speed. Reasons are offered. Strategic intent and normative value congruency for competitive advantage also mean that customer closeness strategies such as customized logistics and agility tend to be supported particularly by demand-side capabilities, while operational excellence strategies such as time-based strategies (e.g., JIT) or lean networks tend to be supported more by supply-side capabilities. While on-time performance and absence of loss-and-damage are minimum order qualifiers, other logistical performance outcomes are order winners depending on the chosen value discipline. Doing it right the first time is more important than problem recovery, yet service failures do provide valuable information for problem diagnosis, organizational learning, and future improvements. Similarly, advanced notification of problems to customers and total performance measurement like overall customer satisfaction are also characteristic of best-in-class firms.

Supply chain strategies, capabilities, and performance

In a global and competitive environment, supply chain relationships and processes must be continuously integrated and aligned with strategy. The objective should be to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of supply supply chains to create value for final consumers. The present reseach investigates and compares three major forms of supply chain integration of approximately two thousand global firms. The three forms of supply chain integration include intra-organizational process integration, inter-organizational collaborative integration including strategic alliances, and operational excellence. Significant firm and country differences as to value chain integration are identified which appear to relate to cost reduction versus differentiation strategies.

Supply Chain Integration: Customer Value through Collaborative Closeness versus Operational Excellence

Investigates performance relationships for interfunctional process integration and specific logistics interface capabilities. The results indicate that competitive advantage is more likely to emanate from interfunctional process integration rather than individual function (sub) optimization. Logistics’ unique role as a boundary spanning interface between marketing, production, and new product development, is also identified as a potential source of competitive advantage. In terms of overall business performance, logistics followed by new product development are shown to have the greatest impact on profitability and growth. Further, logistics interface capabilities of customer service and logistics quality have the greatest independent impacts on business performance. In total, these results imply that logistics, new product development, and demand‐management capabilities may provide firms with that extra competitive edge which shows up in “bottom‐line” performance. States that the relatively neglected areas of logistics boundary spanning and production customer service also deserve attention.

Boundary spanning interfaces between logistics, production, marketing and new product development

Although definitions vary, supply chain structure is often considered to represent the organizational efforts by three or more firms to manage and integrate material and related information flows in order to get closer to customers. To minimize total costs and maximize customer value, transportation integration is essential within the supply chain. In general, integrative transportation involves getting the right assortments to the right place in perfect condition at the right time throughout the supply chain. Specifically, the supply chain structure defines and drives the transportation capabilities of time compression, reliability, standardization, just-in-time delivery, information systems support, flexibility, and customization. In this paper, each of these operational transportation capabilities is briefly discussed along with internal and external structural integration. This is followed by a description of the methodology used in this study to compare the supply chain structures and capabilities of about 2,000 firms from four industrialized nations: Australia, Japan, Korea, and the U.S.

Edward A. Morash

Papers

Strategic logistics capabilities for competitive advantage and firm success

Supply chain strategies, capabilities, and performance

Supply Chain Integration: Customer Value through Collaborative Closeness versus Operational Excellence

Boundary spanning interfaces between logistics, production, marketing and new product development

The role of transportation capabilities in international supply chain management