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Although there have been considerable discussions on the business value of adopting blockchain in supply chains, it is unclear whether such blockchain-enabled supply chains (BESCs) can help firms mitigate the negative impact resulting from the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to answer this important question.

The authors conduct an event study to quantify the financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and compare the differences in such effects between treatment firms that have adopted BESCs and matched control firms that have not adopted BESCs. The authors also perform a regression analysis to examine how the role of BESCs in mitigating COVID-19's negative impact varies across firms with different levels of supply chain leanness and complexity. The analysis is based on 88 treatment firms and 88 matched control firms, all of which are publicly listed on the US stock markets.

The test results suggest that although both the treatment and control firms are negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the effect is less negative for the treatment firms compared to the control firms, demonstrating the role of BESCs in mitigating the negative impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the mitigating role of BESCs is more pronounced for firms with lean and complex supply chains.

This study is among the first to provide empirical evidence on the mitigating role of BESCs during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the importance of adopting blockchain in supply chains with high uncertainties and disruption risks.

This study empirically investigates how supply chain finance (SCF) initiatives together with different firm capabilities and resources (i.e. information technology (IT) capability, operational slack and political connections) affect the financial risk of service providers.

This study collects secondary longitudinal data to test for a direct impact of SCF initiatives on service providers' financial risk. It further investigates the moderating effects of the service provider's IT capability, operational slack and political connections. Additional tests and analytical strategies are performed to ensure the robustness of the results.

The findings indicate that SCF initiatives help service providers mitigate financial risk. The risk reduction is greater for service providers with higher IT capability, operational slack and political connections, but the last factor applies only to multinational corporations, not domestic companies.

The data used in this research is limited to SCF service providers publicly listed in the United States, which may restrict the generalisability of the findings. Nonetheless, the research urges scholars to focus more on the financial risk implications of SCF in different market contexts.

This study encourages service providers to embrace the power of SCF initiatives for mitigating financial risk and allows them to evaluate their SCF investments in light of different firm capabilities and resources.

This is the first study investigating the impacts of SCF initiatives and various firm capabilities and resources on service providers' financial risk. The empirical findings provide important implications for future research and practices.

There is still significant variation in firms' efforts to address modern slavery issues in supply chains despite the importance of this grand challenge. This research adopts the awareness-motivation-capability (AMC) framework to investigate AMC-related factors that help to explain this variation.

The authors hypothesize how AMC-related factors, including media coverage of modern slavery issues, slavery risks in supply chains and corporate sustainability performance, are related to firms' efforts to address modern slavery in supply chains. The proposed hypotheses are tested based on 201 UK firms' modern slavery statements and additional secondary data collected from Factiva, Factset Revere, The Global Slavery Index, Worldscope and Sustainalytics.

Consistent with the AMC perspective, the test results show that firms put more effort into addressing supply chain modern slavery issues when there is greater media coverage of these issues, when firms source from countries with higher slavery risks, and when firms have better corporate sustainability performance. Additional analysis further suggests that firms' financial performance is not related to their efforts to address modern slavery issues.

This is the first study adopting the AMC framework to investigate firms' efforts to address modern slavery in supply chains. This investigation provides important implications for researchers studying firm behaviors related to modern slavery issues and for policymakers designing policies that enable firms to address these issues, in view of their awareness, motivation and capability.

Although the value of artificial intelligence (AI) has been acknowledged by companies, the literature shows challenges concerning AI-enabled business-to-business (B2B) marketing innovation, as well as the diversity of roles AI can play in this regard. Accordingly, this study investigates the approaches that AI can be used for enabling B2B marketing innovation.

Applying a bibliometric research method, this study systematically investigates the literature regarding AI-enabled B2B marketing. It synthesises state-of-the-art knowledge from 221 journal articles published between 1990 and 2021.

Apart from offering specific information regarding the most influential authors and most frequently cited articles, the study further categorises the use of AI for innovation in B2B marketing into five domains, identifying the main trends in the literature and suggesting directions for future research.

Through the five identified domains, practitioners can assess their current use of AI and identify their future needs in the relevant domains in order to make appropriate decisions on how to invest in AI. Thus, the research enables companies to realise their digital marketing innovation strategies through AI.

The research represents one of the first large-scale reviews of relevant literature on AI in B2B marketing by (1) obtaining and comparing the most influential works based on a series of analyses; (2) identifying five domains of research into how AI can be used for facilitating B2B marketing innovation and (3) classifying relevant articles into five different time periods in order to identify both past trends and future directions in this specific field.

This study aims to investigate the impact of geopolitical risk (GPR) on supply chain concentration (SCC) and the roles of operational capabilities and resources in this relationship.

Secondary longitudinal data from multiple sources is collected and combined to test for a direct impact of GPR on SCC. We further examine the moderating effects of firms’ operational capabilities and resources (i.e. firm resilience, operational slack and cash holding). Fixed-effect regression models are applied to test the hypotheses, followed by a series of robustness tests to check the consistency of the results.

Consistent with the tenets of resource dependence theory, our analysis reveals a significant negative impact of GPR on SCC. Moreover, we find that this adverse effect is attenuated for firms with higher levels of resilience, more operational slack and greater cash holdings. Further analysis suggests that maintaining a diversified supply chain base during heightened GPR is associated with a firm’s improved financial performance.

This study contributes to the supply chain management (SCM) literature by integrating GPR into the supply chain risk management framework. Additionally, it demonstrates the roles of diversification and operational resources in addressing GPR-induced challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to theoretically hypothesize and empirically test the impact of 3D printing (3DP) implementation on stock returns. It further explores how the stock returns due to 3DP implementation vary across different industry environments.

This paper integrates the dynamic capabilities view with contingency theory to provide a contingent dynamic capabilities (CDC) perspective on 3DP implementation. It argues that implementing 3DP enables firms to enhance their manufacturing capabilities and gain a competitive advantage, but the extent to which the competitive advantage can be realized is contingent on the fit between 3DP-enhanced manufacturing capabilities and firms’ operating environments. Those arguments are tested based on an event study of 232 announcements of 3DP implementation made by US publicly listed firms between 2010 and 2017.

The event study results show that firms implementing 3DP gain higher stock returns compared with their non-implementation industry peers over two years after the implementation. Such stock returns due to 3DP implementation are more pronounced for firms operating in more munificent, more dynamic and less competitive industry environments. Those findings are consistent with the CDC perspective.

This is the first research empirically examining the impact of 3DP implementation on stock returns. It provides important implications for managers to implement 3DP to enhance firms’ manufacturing capabilities and for researchers to study 3DP implementation from the CDC perspective.

This study aims to explore the spillover effects of supply chain corruption practices (SCCPs) on stock returns along the supply chain and within the industry. Specifically, it investigates how SCCPs affect the stock returns of corrupt firms' bystander supply chain partners and industry peers, both of which are not involved in the SCCPs.

The authors employ the event study methodology to quantify SCCPs' spillover effects in terms of abnormal stock returns. The analysis is based on 117 SCCPs occurring in China between 2014 and 2021.

The event study results show that SCCPs have negative effects on the stock returns of corrupt firms' bystander supply chain partners. Such negative effects are more pronounced for bystander buyers than bystander suppliers. However, SCCPs do not have a significant impact on the stock returns of corrupt firms' industry peers. Additional analysis further suggests that SCCPs are more likely to affect the stock returns of domestic rather than overseas bystander supply chain partners.

This study is the first attempt to thoroughly examine the spillover effects of SCCPs along the supply chain and within the industry, advancing the understanding of the financial consequences of SCCPs and providing important implications for future research and practices related to supply chain corruption.

The purpose of this paper is to theoretically hypothesise and empirically test the impact of sustainable supply chain practices (SSCPs) on firms’ financial risk.

This research adopts signalling theory to explain the signalling role of SSCPs and the moderating role of the signalling environment in terms of supply chain characteristics. It collects and combines longitudinal secondary data from multiple sources to test the direct impact of SSCPs on firms’ financial risk and the moderating role of supply chain complexity and efficiency. It conducts various additional tests to check the robustness of the findings and to account for alternative explanations.

This research shows that SSCPs help firms reduce financial risk but do not affect their returns. Moreover, the risk reduction of SSCPs is greater for firms with more complex and efficient supply chains. The findings are robust to alternative variable measurements and analysing strategies.

This research reveals the role of SSCPs in reducing financial risk, urging researchers to pay more attention to the financial risk implications of supply chain practices in general and SSCPs in particular.

This research encourages firms to engage in SSCPs to reduce financial risk and enables them to assess the urgency of their SSCPs investments in view of the complexity and efficiency of their supply chains.

This is the first research examining the impact of SSCPs on financial risk, based on longitudinal secondary data and signalling theory. The empirical evidence documented and the theoretical perspective adopted offer important implications for future practice and research on SSCPs.

Current literature provides limited insights into the supply chain contexts within which e-commerce can create higher value for firms. To address this literature gap, this research explores the value potential, and thus value creation process, of e-commerce initiatives for supply chain distribution channel expansions.

Using secondary data collected from multiple sources, this research conducted an event study to examine the stock market reactions to the announcements of e-commerce initiatives of Chinese firms.

The results indicate that the e-commerce initiatives increase average firm value by CNY 295.29 million in a three-day window around the initiative's announcement date. Moreover, we find that such stock market reactions are more positive for firms with poor operating performance, and more negative when firms deploy initiatives on their own (rather than third-party) platforms. Further, companies that integrate or complement their online sales with an offline sales channel experience more positive stock market reactions.

This study provides new insights into the value creation process of e-commerce from an operation and supply chain process perspective.