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The purpose of this paper is to identify drivers and barriers for adopting Social Accountability 8000 (SA8000), a leading global social management standard.

The approach involves combining insights from Institutional Theory with a focus on economic performance to study SA8000 adoption by suppliers operating in a developing economy (i.e. India). Data collection involves interviews with adopters and non-adopters, social standard experts and auditors, and archival data on local working conditions.

This study confirms that customer requests are the major reason for adopting SA8000 in order to avoid loss of business. It is noteworthy, however, that those customer requests to adopt SA8000 are often symbolic in nature, which, in combination with the lack of a positive business case, hinders effective implementation.

The findings imply that symbolic customer requests for SA8000 adoption induce symbolic implementation by suppliers, a “supply chain effect” in the symbolic approach. Substantive requests in contrast lead to more substantive implementation and require customer investment in the form of active support and an interest in the standard’s implementation, context and effects.

This study is original in that it addresses social sustainability from a supplier’s perspective, using the lens of Institutional Theory. The value lies in demonstrating the “supply chain effects” that arise from the “quality” of customer requests: a purely symbolic approach by customers leading to symbolic implementation vs the merits of substantive customer requests which stimulate substantive implementation.

This paper aims to explore the interdisciplinary nature of coordination challenges in the logistic response to food safety incidents while distinguishing the food supply chain positions involved.

This adopts an exploratory qualitative research approach over a period of 11 years. Multiple research periods generated 38 semi-structured interviews and 2 focus groups. All data is analysed by a thematic analysis.

The authors identified four key coordination challenges in the logistics response to food safety incidents: first, information quality (sharing information and the applied technology) appears to be seen as the biggest challenge for the response; second, more emphasis on external coordination focus is required; third, more extensive emphasis is needed on the proactive phase in the logistic response; fourth, a distinct difference exists in the position’s views on coordination in the food supply chain. Furthermore, the data supports the interdisciplinary nature as disciplines such as operations management, strategy and organisation but also food safety and risk management, have to work together to align a rapid response, depending on the incident’s specifics.

The paper shows the need for comprehensively reviewing and elaborating on the research gap in coordination decisions for the logistic response to food safety incidents while using the views of the different supply chain positions. The empirical data indicates the interdisciplinary nature of these coordination decisions, supporting the need for more attention to the interdisciplinary food research agenda. The findings also indicate the need for more attention to organisational learning, and an open and active debate on exploratory qualitative research approaches over a long period of time, as this is not widely used in supply chain management studies.

The results of this paper do not present a managerial blueprint but can be helpful for practitioners dealing with aspects of decision-making by the food supply chain positions. The findings help practitioners to systematically go through all phases of the decision-making process for designing an effective logistic response to food safety incidents. Furthermore, the results provide insight into the distinct differences in views of the supply chain positions on the coordination decision-making process, which is helpful for managers to better understand in what phase(s) and why other positions might make different decisions.

The findings add value for the general public, as an effective logistic response contributes to consumer’s trust in food safety by creating more transparency in the decisions made during a food safety incident. As food sources are and will remain essential for human existence, the need to contribute to knowledge related to aspects of food safety is evident because it will be impossible to prevent all food safety incidents.

As the main contribution, this study provides a systematic and interdisciplinary understanding of the coordination decision-making process for the logistic response to food safety incidents while distinguishing the views of the supply chain positions.

States that determining the configuration of a company’s facilities has become a complex issue in today’s globalizing business environment. Existing allocation models often fail to address developments over time and “soft” issues. Therefore, an existing design method to support decision making on strategic allocation issues was extended with a system dynamics component. This extension allows decision makers to capture the inherent dynamics of allocation decisions. In addition, it becomes possible to incorporate “soft” variables in predominantly quantitative models. Applies the extended design method in a case study involving a relocation problem of a mid‐sized company in the Dutch metal working industry. Demonstrates the value of this method in terms of managerial decision support, not only for this specific problem, but also for future strategic allocation issues.

Allocating the operations of multinational enterprises to geographic locations where performance can be optimized has become an important strategic issue. In view of the continuing growth of international trade and foreign direct investment, managers need systematic procedures to determine global allocation strategies. Available frameworks on global business strategy are typically abstract and generalized, making them less suited for the development of tailor‐made allocation strategies. Quantitative allocation models in operations research tend to be biased towards optimizing mathematical algorithms, making them less suited to support managerial decision making. This paper bridges the gap between generic strategy frameworks and highly quantitative operations research models by presenting a scanning tool to support decision making on strategic allocation issues. An important feature of this tool is to systematically filter available data, intended to quality and quantify critical product, process and market characteristics for specific product classes. The scanning tool has been applied in two cases, involving allocation decisions of a European multinational in the fast moving consumer goods industry.

An increasing number of companies claim to pursue international supply chain management (ISCM), but the empirical evidence of successful implementation programs is still scarce. This paper aims to contribute to theory‐building in this area by presenting an exploratory causal model of goals, barriers, and enablers on the road towards effective ISCM. The model was established in a workshop with a panel of content matter experts. The results point at a disturbingly gloomy picture of vicious cycles frustrating the implementation of effective ISCM strategies. Fortunately, it appears that it is possible to apply the same generic mechanisms to create a virtuous cycle, for instance by promoting cross‐functional careers and by actively responding to demanding customer needs. The challenge ahead is to test the model’s content and validity.

Questions on configuration and co‐ordination are seldom integrated in research on international manufacturing and location decisions. Suggests a way in which these two aspects can be linked by combining concepts from international business and manufacturing strategy. Elaborates the practical relevance of this integration in the experiences of Dutch investors locating plants in Thailand. Simultaneous attention to configuration and co‐ordination enhances the understanding of the functioning of foreign plants in international networks and yields some important implications for managers responsible for international location issues.

Presents a design method aimed at supporting managers in decisions regarding the (re)design of international manufacturing and logistics structures. The heart of this method consists of analyses to determine the combined impact of changes in the location and annual capacity of a multinational’s manufacturing plants. The proposed design method was applied in five case studies, covering various problem types in the field of international manufacturing and logistics. Reveals that the participating managers appreciated the results obtained by the systematic, mainly quantitative, analyses of variations of both plant location and annual plant capacity. These results provided valuable insights into the participating firms’ sensitivity to international competition. Concludes that the design method is a useful tool to support strategic decision making on international manufacturing and logistics issues.

Research results concerning the cost‐saving potential of international sourcing have been ambiguous and the topic has been covered in isolation without accounting for influences of alternative cost‐saving approaches. This paper aims to analyze the expected financial impact of international sourcing in relation to savings potential attributed to other sourcing tactics, such as, e.g. collaborative product improvement. Furthermore, the paper tests for potential trade‐offs between different levers.

Data stem from results of 134 cross‐functional cost‐saving workshops using an identical methodology. Workshop participants identified and estimated cost‐saving projects considering seven sourcing levers. Results were recorded in a standardized way and analyzed scrutinizing secondary data.

Contrary to other studies, data revealed that international sourcing projects averaged 3.4 percent savings expectations. More than 80 percent of total savings potential was attributed to other sourcing levers, such as pooling of demand or process improvement. Results highlight possible trade‐offs between international sourcing and, e.g. joint product optimization.

A rigorous and strict, highly standardized method was employed and data were validated via cross‐functional team discussions, however, ex ante expectations instead of ex post realized savings are analyzed.

Findings give guidance on the importance of international sourcing compared to other levers and help to correct the misconception of international sourcing as a “purchasing panacea.” The findings highlight the need to develop a coherent sourcing strategy for specific commodity groups, including reinforcing tactics and avoiding trade‐offs.

For the first time, explicitly cost‐savings expectations from international sourcing have been analyzed together with other cost‐saving levers concerning relative importance and possible trade‐offs among them.

Prime contractors spent a substantial part of their turnover on purchasing. The management of the purchasing function therefore has a large influence on the overall performance of a prime contractor. The more developed the purchasing function is, the greater its contribution to success of the companies. The purpose of this paper is to measure and explain the development in maturity of the purchasing function in construction firms.

Based on a literature review, a theoretical framework for the assessment of purchasing maturity is provided first. Then a longitudinal multiple case study is executed in order to assess the maturity development of the purchasing function in seven construction companies. Results are compared with a historical baseline assessment.

The results demonstrate an increase in the maturity of the purchasing function in general and in particular in the management of strategic relations. The case companies have reached a maturity in which they start to coordinate activities in their supply chains. Increased use of IT solutions enables a more integrated approach of the construction process.

IT and in particular Building Information Modelling pave the path towards an integrated supply chain, which in turn enables the reduction of waste in the processes. Nevertheless, companies still struggle with the tension between project-based flexibility and long-term relations with suppliers.

The development of purchasing maturity was measured in a baseline measurement and in a second assessment performed five years later by using the exact same model and exact same case companies.

Recent developments in the construction industry resulted in an increased importance of collaboration with and managing of suppliers by prime contractors. The focus of this study is on getting insights into existing knowledge on this topic and the gaps in this knowledge base. The goals of this study are threefold: to verify the current state of, to gain insights into, and to provide suggestions for supplier‐contractor research.

The current state of supplier‐contractor research in the construction industry is verified through a taxonomic approach to the literature on buyer‐supplier research over the last decade (2000‐2009). The method followed consists of the following three steps: journal selection, initial article selection and final article selection.

Supplier‐contractor research in the construction industry is still a relatively under‐researched phenomenon. The major topics discussed in the identified articles are aspects of partnering (conditions, characteristics and barriers/obstacles) and (sub)contracting/procurement issues (practices, selection criteria, performance and characteristics).

This study concludes that future research should focus on longitudinal studies, testing organisational barriers to partnering, the benefits of partnering in practice, conditions under which the formation of collaborative relationships between suppliers and contractors takes place, and experiences with this formation process.

In practice, contractors do see a need to develop closer and more collaborative relationships with their suppliers. This study highlights the topics that need to be addressed to achieve these goals.

This study is a literature overview of relatively scarce research on collaborative relationships between suppliers and contractors in the construction industry.