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Occasionally, a new idea will burst upon the world of work with such a force that it commands the attention of researchers and practitioners alike. It generates excitement, perhaps even a certain vogue, as active minds attempt to exploit it. Of course, the courtship eventually ends and a general consensus emerges as to just how seminal the idea was to begin with. Most likely it will come to occupy a niche in the prevailing scheme of industrial and organisational thought. Some—very few—pass into that select company of honoured concepts which have established new schemes for research and practice.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

The purpose of this paper is to show that e‐procurement provides manufacturing firms with new and efficient solutions to drive significant value into their business, yet generally the use of internet technologies to accommodate e‐procurement systems remains in a formative stage. Previous research tends to focus on larger economies, so this paper provides a new perspective by presenting evidence from the Irish ICT manufacturing industry.

The research locale is justified on the basis that the ICT manufacturing sector has a greater propensity to adopt technologies such as e‐procurement. In addition, by conducting the research in a small peripheral economy, a gap in the knowledge base is being addressed. The exploratory research adopted a quantitative methodology with a questionnaire instrument being employed to investigate various e‐procurement activities within a sample of top performing ICT manufacturing firms.

Findings show that e‐procurement is developing as a function. Significant benefits are reported, including streamlined business processes and reduced business costs. Difficulties associated with implementation are minimal, but focus on integration issues.

Limitations of small sample size negate the ability to generalise. Thus a larger scale comparative study has been initiated to investigate e‐procurement more extensively in the ICT and other industry settings in Ireland.

It is concluded that to further the integration of e‐procurement, organisations should develop a dual focus on technical and people issues to instil a culture of staff development and continuous improvement.

This paper addresses a gap in knowledge by investigating e‐procurement in the top performing firms in Ireland's ICT manufacturing sector. A picture is provided of e‐procurement development in a peripheral economy and the foundation has been laid for more extensive research in the future.

While humanitarian supply chains (HSCs) inherently contribute to social sustainability by alleviating the suffering of afflicted communities, their unintended adverse environmental impact has been overlooked hitherto. This paper draws upon contingency theory to synthesize green practices for HSCs, identify the contingency factors that impact on greening HSCs and explore how focal humanitarian organizations (HOs) can cope with such contingency factors.

Deploying an action research methodology, two-and-a-half cycles of collaboration between researchers and a United Nations agency were completed. The first half-cycle developed a deductive greening framework, synthesizing extant green practices from the literature. In the second and third cycles, green practices were adopted/customized/developed reflecting organizational and contextual contingency factors. Action steps were implemented in the HSC for prophylactics, involving an operational mix of disaster relief and development programs.

First, the study presents a greening framework that synthesizes extant green practices in a suitable form for HOs. Second, it identifies the contingency factors associated with greening HSCs regarding funding environment, stakeholders, field of activity and organizational management. Third, it outlines the mechanisms for coping with the contingency factors identified, inter alia, improving the visibility of headquarters over field operations, promoting collaboration and resource sharing with other HOs as well as among different implementing partners in each country, and working with suppliers for greener packaging. The study advances a set of actionable propositions for greening HSCs.

Using an action research methodology, the study makes strong practical contributions. Humanitarian practitioners can adopt the greening framework and the lessons learnt from the implementation cycles presented in this study.

This is one of the first empirical studies to integrate environmental sustainability and HSCs using an action research methodology.

In this paper, we investigate the coevolution of the supply network and procurement strategies in the context of semiconductors and electronics for the automotive industry over 3 decades. We aim to explain how procurement strategy interrelates with changes in supply network structure and what the implications of a hub-centric structure network structure are for procurement in supply.

We collected in-depth primary and secondary data that stretched back to 1996 from a leading automotive European original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and its network. Using social network analysis (SNA), we identified OEMs’ procurement focus and mapped the evolution of the supply network, the links in the network, and the environmental forces impacting the strategies and the network.

Our findings describe the supply network for semiconductor and electronic components to the automotive industry. The findings suggest that a focus on cost can lead to a Tier 1-centric network structure with many tiers that can fail to assure supply or capture innovation when the external environment is marked by high uncertainty. In such situations, increasing complexity by creating more links in the network can improve transparency and contribute to supply assurance and innovation.

The findings indicate that managers should consider the role of the supply network in selecting their strategy to attain objectives of cost, innovation, and supply assurance.

This paper presents empirical-based insights into the automotive semiconductor and electronic component supply chain (SC), the unexpected implications of hub-centric supply networks, and the use of SNA in the SC in context.

The objective of this paper is to study the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in supporting the supplier scouting process, considering the information and the capabilities required to do so.

Twelve cases of IT and information providers offering AI-based scouting solutions were studied. The unit of analysis was the AI-based scouting solution, specifically the relationship between the provider and the buyer. Information processing theory (IPT) was adopted to address information processing needs (IPNs) and capabilities (IPCs).

Among buyers, IPNs in supplier scouting are high. IT and information providers can meet the needs of buyers through IPCs enabled by AI-based solutions. In this way, the fit between needs and capabilities can be reached.

The investigation of the role of AI in supplier scouting is original. The application of IPT to study the impact of AI in business processes is also novel. This paper contributes by investigating a phenomenon that is still unexplored and unconsolidated in a business context.

Recently, in response to the credit crunch and the increased costs of financing, new solutions for supporting the financial management of supply chains, known as supply chain finance (SCF), have been developed. They exploit the strengths of supply chain links to optimise working capital. The purpose of this paper is to provide a reference framework that links together the objectives leading to the adoption of SCF solutions and several moderating variables.

This paper adopts a multiple case study methodology, analysing 14 cases of the application of SCF solutions among Italian companies.

The main findings are the identification of the different objectives leading to the adoption of SCF; the analysis of the impact of moderating variables (the level of inter- and intra-firm collaboration, the level of the trade process digitalisation and the bargaining power and financial strength of the leading firm) on SCF adoption; and the formulation of a reference framework supporting the effective adoption of SCF solutions.

This contribution is exploratory in nature; theory-testing contributions should be the focus of further research. Also, the sample is limited to Italian companies. Finally, the service provider’s point of view has been marginally taken into consideration in this study.

The article addresses the need for more empirical research on SCF. It provides a reference framework focused on the objectives and moderating variables leading to effective SCF adoption, providing a theory-building contribution on the general topic of SCF and on the specific topic of the adoption process of different SCF solutions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework of the supply chain performance measurement system (SCPMS) lifecycle (highlighting key activities of the design, implementation, use and review phases) and to investigate how the different actors involved in the SCPMS perceive the system and can act to allow for an effective adoption.

The SCPMS lifecycle framework is developed grounding on performance measurement and supply chain (SC) management literature. To answer the two theory-building research questions, an in-depth case study involving seven firms across three tiers of the mass retail SC has been conducted.

The empirical evidence highlighted potential SCPMS benefits (including operational performance improvement, higher control, lower information overloading and higher SC integration) and criticalities/barriers to an effective adoption (lack of industry standards, lack of trust regarding data reliability, SCPMS as a tool of power, lack of interest in the system and the performance metrics). Several elements characterizing the SCPMS lifecycle could increase its effective adoption: engaging SC partners in the design phase; relying on a rigorous primary data collection and performance measures calculation; and actively exploiting the tool through a systematic discussion on performance and establishing incentive/disincentives plans.

The paper contributes to the conceptualization of SCPMSs and to clarify how to ensure an effective SCPMS adoption: apart from relationship-specific attributes, SCPMS lifecycle phases are suggested to have a key role.

The authors empirically examine purchasing strategy typologies based on strategic intent (i.e. competitive priorities) and practices used to achieve these priorities. The authors further investigate the implementation conditions of such strategies based on perceived uncertainty and strategic purchasing.

The authors utilize case study data from 11 international service and manufacturing firms with global supply chains. Each company was profiled based on the level of perceived environmental uncertainty, the characteristics of strategic purchasing, the use of relevant purchasing practices and its ability to create value through purchasing.

The study findings show that four purchasing strategy types exist: Purchasing Rationalization, Supply Base Optimization, Purchasing as a Service and World-Class Supply Base Management. Lower levels of perceived environmental uncertainty favor the adoption of rationalization strategies (i.e. Purchasing Rationalization and Supply Base Optimization), while increased uncertainty leads companies to switch to relationship-focused strategies (i.e. Purchasing as a Service and World-Class Supply Base Management). Further, that specific components of strategic purchasing (i.e. strategic planning, maturity, status and report level) enable the successful implementation of different strategy types.

This research contributes to the existing literature by outlining the different types of purchasing strategies and the external and internal factors that need to be considered to achieve strategic alignment and value creation in purchasing, and by classifying purchasing strategy types at the functional level based on empirical evidence.

This study aimed to understand adolescents’ experiences, negative feelings and coping mechanisms associated with the major disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to develop a baseline for understanding adolescents and their environment to assist future developments of technological and other solutions to mitigate adolescents’ loneliness, improve their wellbeing and strengthen their resilience.

The data about adolescents’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic was collected through virtual interviews conducted via Zoom. A total of 39 adolescents (aged 12 through 18 years) primarily from the North East of the USA participated in the study. The transcripts of the interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis.

This study found evidence of negative disruptions to adolescents’ social, learning and emotional routines. This study also found that in dealing with the effects of COVID-19 disruption, most of the participants exhibited five key attributes of individual resilience, including social competence, problem-solving, critical consciousness, autonomy and a sense of purpose. External factors supporting resilience were also mentioned, including technology resources, family, school and broader community.

This study relied on first-hand adolescents’ reports of their experiences, feelings and coping strategies during the pandemic. This study applied a resilience framework to interpret the findings and translate them into recommendations for further development of support systems for adolescents.