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The purpose of this paper is to explore factors influencing the effectiveness of buyer initiated behavioral-based governance methods (BBGMs). The ability of BBGMs to improve supplier performance is assessed considering power imbalances and the resource intensiveness of the BBGM. Agency Theory is used as an interpretive lens.

An explorative multiple case study approach is used to collect qualitative and quantitative data from buying companies involved in 13 BBGMs.

Drawing on Agency Theory several factors are identified which can explain BBGM effectiveness considering power differences and the resource intensiveness of the BBGM. The data show that even high resource intensive BBGMs can be implemented effectively if there are benefits for a powerful supplier. Cultural influences and uncertainty of the business environment also play a role.

This study develops a series of propositions indicating that Agency Theory can provide valuable guidance on how to better understand the effectiveness of BBGMs. Underlying mechanisms are identified that explain how power imbalance does not necessarily make improvement initiatives unsuccessful.

Social media communications on platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn can allow managers to interact cost effectively with trading partners. However, although most firms have an online presence on multiple social media platforms, the question remains as to whether marketers’ widespread social media investments are beneficial for firms. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This paper presents competing hypotheses to explore how firms’ investment in one form of social media impacts activity on another form of social media. To do so, the authors draw on a data set of 208 large Australian organizations using objective social media activity metrics that measure business-to-business (B2B) audience engagement.

The findings suggest that widespread social media activity on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube negatively affects a firm’s marketing activity on Facebook. The results indicate that having a social media preference whereby firms focus on a specific social media platform is more effective in forming successful inter-organizational relationships than a multiplatform approach.

The study contributes to the sparse research that seeks to leverage social media for audience engagement beyond a business-to-consumer context. The study’s findings provide insights into the key mechanisms that underlie firms’ B2B social media strategies, and in so doing, offer a fresh perspective on the importance of interactive marketing communication.

This paper aims to review analogical reasoning work to distil and apply procedural guidelines that aid theoreticians to develop novel analogies.

The authors reviewed 189 studies from 1980 to 2020 to identify analogical reasoning guidelines.

Results revealed four procedural steps for the introduction of novel analogies: target and source domain selection; domain image mapping; relevance assessment; and proposition drafting. […] shallow lakes constitute the source domain and sustainable supply chain management represents the target domain.

The identified procedural guidelines can help future scholars to develop novel analogies with rigor and structure. The paper provides an agenda for new research that addresses gaps in current studies that reason by analogy.

This paper distils and applies analogical reasoning guidelines for the development of novel analogies, extending and complementing much existing theorizing on reasoning by analogy. Additionally, disjointed and fragmented research findings are synthesized to yield a comprehensive understanding of analogical reasoning, which can serve as a foundation for future theorizing in sustainable supply chain management and beyond.

To be able to continuously provide affordable services to consumers, managers of critical infrastructure (CI) maintenance supply networks have to balance investments in resilience with costs. At the same time, CI providers need to consider factors that influence resilience such as the geographical spread or the location of the network. This study aims to contextualize supply chain resilience knowledge by exploring how maintenance resource configurations impact resilience and costs in CI supply networks.

An in-depth longitudinal single case study of a representative CI provider that has centralized its maintenance supply network is used. Data were collected before and after the change to evaluate the effect of the changes on the maintenance supply network.

This study shows that in this specific CI maintenance context, structural resource choices such as the quantity or location of spare parts and tools, the creation and exploitation of tacit knowledge and staff motivation impact both resilience and costs due to geographical spread, network location and other network properties.

This study extends general supply chain resilience knowledge to a new setting (i.e. CI) and shows how existing insights apply in this context. More specifically, it is shown that even in engineered supply networks there is a need to consider the effect of human agency on resilience as the creation and exploitation of tacit knowledge are of immense importance in managing the network. In addition, the relationship between normal accidents theory and high reliability theory (HRT) is revisited as findings indicate that HRT is also important after a disruption has taken place.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how information sharing practices influenced inter-firm relationships. This was done specifically in relation to bulk commodity supply chains, due to the pre-existing power asymmetries in the system.

This research was conducted using an interpretivist, inductive approach. The intention was to gather a wide range of data and then explore the data to see which themes emerged, rather than focusing on collecting data relevant only to specific themes.

The key findings of this research focused around the difference between creating situations of compliance or collaboration in a supply chain context. This suggests that by understanding the relationships that exist between organisations, those in procurement and supply chain management roles will be able to better understand and manage the nuances of their supplier relationships.

The study is focused on a supply network specifically configured to facilitate sourcing and distribution of bulk grain. As such the findings need to be understood within the constraints of this context.

Reliance on coercive power in an institutional change process is shown in our study to create a situation of compliance rather than of collaboration. Reliance on a different type of power, such as referent power, would be more successful in creating a situation of collaboration.

The sourcing and distribution of bulk grain is fundamental to food distribution in a developed economy. Our study provides a set of propositions indicating where managers can focus to more effectively manage these flows.

The definition of the “agent” also provided an interesting point of comparison. This research found that the ultimate definition of the “agent” changes and can be linked to the institutional differences in ownership within a supply chain. This suggests the potential to redefine the way that Agency theory is discussed. The notion that the “agent” is dynamic and is likely to be the “agent”, “caretaker” and more at the same time suggests the potential for the traditional definition of the agent to be challenged.

The purpose of this paper is to throw light on both motivation for adoption of innovative technologies, as well as identifying critical organisational factors influencing effective implementation.

Three case studies have been conducted in Australian companies involved in the use of business‐to‐business enabling technologies. The multiple design approach was chosen in order to provide robust findings across a group of similar sites, with the possibility of replicated and comparative results providing extra clarity and insight.

These three cases provide evidence to suggest that at the same time the three theoretical approaches examined – organisational innovativeness, diffusion of innovations and process theory – are found to be individually and collectively present as explanatory models of innovation adoption.

This paper is limited to Australian firms using technologies for the management of their supply chains. The number of firms studied also represents a limitation and generalization of findings therefore needs to be approached with caution.

The practical implication is that adoption and use of innovations is highly situational, and therefore needs to be researched using methods that enable the context to be incorporated and understood.

The evidence indicates that the innovation adoption puzzle can be explained less by a single theory generalised across broad populations of organisations, than perhaps by the complex interplay of all three theories in the context of an individual organisation.

This chapter explores the role that social media can play to support entrepreneurs in managing complex interfirm communities. As companies increasingly operate in highly connected environments, it is important to move beyond corporate networks, and understand and build corporate social communities (CSCs) that underpin organizations.

The authors conducted 14 case studies at member firms of GS1 Australia — a not-for-profit association dedicated to the development, implementation, and promotion of information technology standards to improve supply chain management.

The gathered data illustrate a number of common challenges managers typically encounter in their supply chain operations. In response to these challenges, the authors propose distinct ways in which CSCs can leverage and transform interfirm relationships and support operational goals.

The empirical investigations were limited to the supply chain context, and Australian companies. The benefits pertinent to CSCs were only explored conceptually. Further studies should address these limitations.

We provide empirical evidence supported by theoretical insights that CSCs are powerful tools that community designers and managers can leverage to transform business-to-business (B2B) relationships.

The originality of this study resides in advancing theoretical understanding and providing practical managerial guidance on how to best deploy CSCs in a supply chain context. Additionally, we consider the role CSCs play in different stages of B2B relationships, and the reasons why most managers are hesitant to adopt CSCs.

Seeks to test the relative importance of various drivers of information‐technology‐related performance, and compare these drivers in the context of using established and emerging technologies. Established technologies include those generally promoted as the European Article Numbering (EAN) system (electronic data interchange (EDI), barcoding, etc.), while the emerging ones are based on the use of the internet.

A survey was designed based on previous research and a series of case studies conducted within the membership of EAN Australia. The method of analysis employed was structural equation modelling based on data collected from 553 members of the EAN organisation in Australia.

Use of technology enabling business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐commerce was found to provide a potential source of performance improvement, but such improvement is shown to be more a function of the process by which strategy is formulated, and organisational capability, than of the technologies per se. The adoption and use of emerging technologies (such as the internet) are not subject to the same restrictions and impediments traditionally associated with established technologies. Therefore, organisations will find emerging internet‐based technologies easier to implement and to use, but this will not necessarily mean that they will improve performance as a result. Performance will still be determined by effective strategy formulation, a clear understanding and knowledge of the technologies, appropriate application, and prudent change management.

This research has been conducted in Australia, and restricted to the membership of the EAN organisation. This membership is largely representative of the fast‐moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry. Whether such results would be consistent in other countries and industries would need to be verified through further research.

Develops and tests an integrated model linking strategy formulation, knowledge, capability, use of technology and performance. Provides valuable insight into why and how technology implementations can be configured for success.

This study seeks to explore the moderating impact of relationship conditions existing between a customer and its suppliers on the uptake and effectiveness of the customer's environmental performance requirements (otherwise known as “green‐supply”).

The study assesses the extent to which a supplier's environmental performance is influenced by its customer's environmental performance requirements when specific relationship conditions (investment, contracting and monitoring routines) are taken into account. Data were collected through a survey of first and second tier component manufacturers in the Australian automotive industry and analysed using linear regression and MMR.

Suppliers were found to be more responsive to their customers' environmental performance requirements where increasing levels of relationship‐specific investment occurred. As the level of investment in the customer‐supplier relationship increased, suppliers become less likely to believe that they would be penalized for non‐compliance with the customer's environmental performance requirements.

Survey data were collected in 2004 and are limited to the Australian automotive industry. The sample size available for the regression analysis also precluded the use of more comprehensive analytic techniques.

The research offers new insight into the issue of how firms might improve the environmental performance of suppliers and the sustainability of their supply chain.

Virtually no research exists on the actual effectiveness of green supply requirements when placed in context with the realities of inter‐organizational dynamics. The findings suggest that traditional operations theory on inter‐organizational performance improvement is just as relevant to the use of environmental performance requirements.

This paper aims to examine the direct and indirect effects of the use of electronic markets (e‐markets), access to online data and trading partner collaboration on operational performance.

This study involved survey data from 233 Australian firms. Data were provided by members of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Australia, who reflected upon relevant practices and performances of their firms. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

The results show that whilst all three direct effects are non‐significant, when the indirect effects are taken into account, the total effects are significant in strength. This suggests that use of e‐markets, access to online data and collaboration with trading partners, when taken in isolation, are not as effective as could be expected. However, when these factors are implemented together, their value and impact becomes significant.

The study is limited to Australian firms.

The results highlight that investments in information and communication technology must be deployed in an holistic manner, for example, by combining use of web‐based applications and market mechanisms with effective data sharing and collaboration, if they are to produce significant improvements in operations.

While e‐markets may have been viewed as a mechanism for reducing the costs of inputs and/or as a new demand channel, this study establishes that more value can be extracted when this technology is viewed and exploited in a more strategic manner. E‐markets should be used in concert with access to data and collaboration with trading partners who are able to exploit the opportunities for mutual benefit.