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Major crises such as the global financial crisis 2007–08 or the COVID-19 crisis increase the level and likelihood of supplier financial distress. This research expands the understanding of how cooperatively, respectively, uncooperatively buying firms might respond to suppliers who suffer from financial distress in the course of major crises.

The authors build on a collaborative project with a German automotive OEM, analyze OEM internal “financial quick check data”, questionnaire data and longitudinal supplier financial data and apply regression, mediation and difference-in-difference estimation analyses.

The results show that the stronger the dependence on the distressed supplier, the more cooperative the buying firm's response. Furthermore, a more cooperative response of the buying firm has a strong positive influence on the suppliers' financial performance and hence recovery from the distress situation. Insights from supplier financial distress in the course of the financial crisis 2007–2008 can serve as learnings for the COVID-19 crisis.

The study fills a gap in the scholarly literature on “response to risk incidents” and response formation. Resource dependence theory and resource dependence dynamics offer a strong rationale for the type of response buying firms are likely to choose.

Besides offering the first menu of response options, this study can help practitioners in figuring out the most appropriate response to distressed suppliers. The findings can assist buying firms in their decisions how to deal with suppliers during major economic and financial crises.

This research is the first to conceptualize buying firms' response options to financially distressed suppliers, to investigate the influence of dependence on buying firm's response and to reveal the consequences of the buying firm's response for the supplier's financial recovery.

While anecdotal evidence suggests that performance-based contracts (PBCs) may foster innovation in buyer-supplier relationships, the understanding of the underlying mechanisms is limited to date. The purpose of this paper is to draw on transaction cost economics and agency theory to develop a theoretical model that explains how PBCs may lead to innovation.

Using data on 106 inter-organizational relationships from the Dutch maintenance industry, the authors investigate how the two main features of PBCs – low-term specificity and performance-based rewards – affect incremental and radical innovation.

The authors find that term specificity has an inverse-U-shaped effect on incremental innovation and a non-significant negative effect on radical innovation. Furthermore, pay-for-performance has a stronger positive effect on radical innovation than on incremental innovation. The findings suggest that in pursuit of incremental innovation, organizations should draft contracts with low, but not too low, term specificity and incorporate performance-based rewards. Radical innovation may be achieved by rewarding suppliers for their performance only.

The findings suggest that in pursuit of incremental innovation, organizations should draft contracts with low, but not too low, term specificity and incorporate performance-based rewards. Radical innovation requires rewarding suppliers for their performance only.

Social risk management is vital for growth and business continuity. This study investigates the social risk shift in supply chain management during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Data were retrieved from Bloomberg between 2010 and 2021 regarding all supply chain enterprises from nine countries. The authors undertake a confirmatory examination of formulated hypotheses. Social supply chain risk (SSCR) refers to “firms that took the necessary steps to decrease social risks in their supply chain. Social risks involve the child or forced labor, poor working conditions, lack of a living and fair or minimum wage”. The authors complement the analysis and address the endogeneity issue using the dynamic generalized moments method (GMM).

A significant positive relationship between COVID-19 and SSCR was discovered in this study. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain firms faced supply chain social risk. Notably, SSCR policies differ from one country to another during this period.

The research has some limitations. The sample data are limited to 9 countries. Furthermore, it was somewhat difficult to determine the country-wise difference using COVID-19 as a dummy variable. Future research may adopt qualitative approaches, such as structural or semi-structural interviews.

The results have important implications for supply chain practitioners to consider the critical role of social risk in their operations. COVID-19 has exposed the new political economy and re-centered governments as the key actors in tackling grand challenges to safeguard workers, produce socially useful products and protect their stakeholders. Also, the study highlights the importance of governments and policymakers having a well-structured regulatory framework and environment for firms to comply with the social norms in their supply chain management. Finally, the study's findings should encourage supply chain managers to adopt a proactive mechanism that reduces the social risk impacts of pandemics.

Considering the historical backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study is unique in measuring the SSCR of enterprises from a worldwide viewpoint.

Humanitarian organizations are responsible for delivering aid under diverse circumstances in various contexts. We argue that humanitarian organizations face specific challenges in their logistics and operations. Thus, adequate supply chain risk management is required to facilitate effective and efficient humanitarian aid delivery.

We first identify potential supply chain risks in humanitarian aid delivery from the literature. We then utilize an expert survey to determine the probability and impact ratings of the identified risks, assessing the importance of six aggregated risk categories. To examine the influence of contingencies on a country, organization, and crisis level, we investigate the effect of ten contextual factors on the importance of different supply chain risks in humanitarian aid delivery.

We derive six relevant risk categories for humanitarian aid delivery and develop five propositions concerning criticality, context-sensitivity, relevant contingencies, and risk management approaches. Findings and propositions encourage and guide future research on the topic.

Risk identification and assessment support mission-specific decision-making. Our findings encourage and foster organizational learning between missions. A differentiated view of risk types allows for stronger inter-organizational collaboration within the sector and beyond.

This study is among the first to derive supply chain risks and categories specific to humanitarian aid delivery. Contingency analysis on a country, organization, and crisis level offers unique insights into risk management in humanitarian aid delivery.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to current hospitality and tourism research on the sharing economy by studying the under-researched aspects of regulatory desirability, moral legitimacy and fairness in the context of home-sharing platforms (e.g. Airbnb).

Three separate 2×1 between-subjects experimental vignette surveys are used to test the effects of three types of fairness (procedural, interpersonal and informational) on two outcomes: moral legitimacy and regulatory desirability.

The results of the research show that high perceived fairness across all three types increases moral legitimacy and reduces regulatory desirability. Respondents who perceive a fictional home-sharing platform to be fair consider it to be more legitimate and want it to be less regulated.

Following established practices and reducing external validity, the study uses a fictional scenario and a fictional company for the experimental vignette. The data collection took place in the UK, prohibiting cultural comparisons.

The research is useful for home-sharing platform managers by showing how they can boost moral legitimacy and decrease regulatory desirability through a strong focus on fairness. It can also help policymakers and consumer protection advocates by providing evidence about regulatory desirability and how it is affected by fairness perceptions.

The study adds to hospitality and tourism research by offering theoretically meaningful and practically relevant conclusions about the importance of fairness in driving stakeholder opinions about home-sharing platforms.

This multi-method paper investigates the impact factors of process responsiveness, operationalized as process duration, in the bread-and-butter business of German banks, i.e. the private mortgage loan application evaluation process. The tested predictors refer to process design, process execution, business process management (BPM)'s relevance and information technology (IT) support.

In a sequential research design, a total of 296 useable responses of 1,228 contacted German banks are collected using a questionnaire built from both industry insights gained through 43 expert interviews and theoretical knowledge. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression is used to determine the relevant impact factors and moderation effects, and a theoretical framework is proposed.

Proper process documentation moderated by bank size is most influential for process speed, and smaller banks benefit more from it. Automation appears to have a prolonging effect on the process. Although surprising, this finding may be explained through correlation analysis of the data and studies on the Solow’ paradox in the literature.

The models only partially explain process responsiveness. A moderate adjusted R² and several interaction effects indicate the complexity of the presented research question. Still, several hypotheses can be confirmed, leading back to the roots of process improvement and the long-lasting question of the binary impact nature of automation.

Valuable insights for both researchers in service operations and bank practitioners are outlined, shedding light onto responsiveness as still empirically under-researched operational capability. Thereby, the authors also contribute to the superior question of strategic fit.

The purpose of this research is to explore the resilience domain, which is important in the field of supply chain management; it investigates the effects relational competencies have for resilience and the effect resilience, in turn, has on a supply chain ' s customer value.

The research is empirical in nature and employs a confirmatory approach that builds on the relational view as a primary theoretical foundation. It utilizes survey data collected from manufacturing firms from three countries, which is analyzed using structural equation modeling.

It is found that communicative and cooperative relationships have a positive effect on resilience, while integration does not have a significant effect. It is also found that improved resilience, obtained by investing in agility and robustness, enhances a supply chain ' s customer value.

Some findings contrast the expectations derived from theory. Particularly, practitioners can learn that integration has a limited role in enhancing resilience.

The study distinguishes between a proactive and reactive dimension of resilience: robustness and agility. The relational view serves as the theoretical basis to explain the effects between three types of relational competencies (communication, cooperation, and integration) and the above-mentioned two dimensions of resilience.

Manufacturers seek to innovate and improve processes using new digital technologies. However, knowledge about these new technologies often resides outside a firm's boundaries. The authors draw on the concept of absorptive capacity and the literature on open innovation to explore the role of external search in the digitization of manufacturing.

The authors developed and distributed a survey to manufacturing firms in Switzerland, for which 151 complete responses were received from senior managers. The authors used multiple linear regressions to study the relations among the breadth and depth of external search, firms' adoption of digital technologies and operational performance outcomes.

External search depth was found to relate positively to higher adoption of computing technologies and shop floor connectivity technologies. No significant correlation was found between external search breadth and firms' adoption of digital technologies. Regarding performance outcomes, there is some evidence that increased adoption of digital technologies relates positively to higher volume flexibility, but not to increased production cost competitiveness.

Manufacturing firms that aim to digitize their processes can benefit from inbound open process innovation, but its utility varies for different clusters of digital technologies. Generally, the findings suggest that firms should build strong ties with a few external knowledge partners rather than surface relations with many.

This study contributes to the growing literature on the digitization of manufacturing with an analysis of the relation between firms' external search and their adoption of digital technologies. It adds early empirical insights to the literature on open process innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why some service ecosystems are more resilient and, consequently, more sustainable than others during turbulent times, and how resilience can be cultivated to enable pathways to service ecosystem sustainability.

This work integrates disparate literature from multiple service and sustainability literature streams, iterating through constant comparison with findings from 44 semistructured interviews conducted in the context of primary health care clinic service ecosystems.

The authors offer a novel conceptual framework comprising pillars (shared worldview, individual actor well-being and multiactor interactions), changing practices to cultivate resilience through resilience levers (orchestrators, individual actor effort, actor inclusivity and digitaltech–humanness approach), and pathways to service ecosystem sustainability (volume vs value, volume to value, volume and value). The authors demonstrate that service ecosystems need to change practices, integrating resources differently in response to the turbulent environment, emphasizing the importance of a shared worldview across the ecosystem and assessing different pathways to sustainability.

This paper offers new insights into the important intersection of service marketing, sustainability and health care. The authors provide guidance to practitioners aiming to cultivate resilience in service ecosystems to achieve pathways to sustainability in primary health care clinics. Finally, implications for theory are discussed, and directions to guide future service research offered.

This paper aims to reflect on the future of critical perspectives on international business (cpoib) by considering some key developments in the international business (IB) context since the Journal’s launch in 2005. The Journal’s mission and scope is refreshed in light of these developments. Changes to the editorial team and editorial advisory board are also announced.

A review of some of the key developments in the IB context provides the background and justification for a revised editorial mission and scope.

Given changes in the IB environment, the need for a journal that takes a critically reflexive view on the activities of IB and issues of relevance to IB is found to be of increasing importance. This finding underlines the need for scholars to undertake empirical and conceptual studies that adopt critical perspectives to identify IB practices that are detrimental to stakeholders broadly defined and to offer alternatives.

This is the first effort to reassess and renew cpoib’s mission and scope in the light of the changes in the IB context since the Journal’s launch in 2005.