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There is a growing body of conceptual work considering the potential of AI in supply chain and procurement, and there is great interest in AI among managers. But, according to a recent study, digital strategies for procurement are often missing or not satisfactory. Literature offers conflicting guidance on possible adoption areas for AI in core procurement processes. Given the need for better digital strategies for procurement and the need to further develop the understanding of adoption potential, the purpose of this paper is to explore actual adoption levels, experienced benefits, readiness levels and barriers to implementation in industry. This informs nuanced, not hyped, managerial consideration and identifies further research opportunities.

Leveraging items used in literature to study adoption of other technologies, the authors conduct the first empirical exploration of actual adoption levels of AI in procurement. The authors do so by collecting survey responses in three manager workshops, and the authors use the workshops to seek manager input in the interpretation of findings and the identification of implications for managers and researchers.

There appears to be less consideration given to AI in procurement than interest in the topic might imply. Adoption levels are generally low, implying that there is a lot of room for the development of consideration, use cases and possible pilots by managers and researchers. The authors find procurement benefits of AI adoption to be broader than costs and productivity alone, including visibility and innovation. But, readiness appears to be at relatively low levels with factors commonly considered in literature, such as executive support and willingness to invest, less relevant than less widely considered elements such as human sense making and supplier readiness.

This first empirical exploration moves past conceptualization and the study of potential adoption into the study of actual adoption levels in different procurement core processes. The authors expand the consideration of readiness by including additional items of human sense making as called for in literature. The authors also include and develop supplier readiness consideration, which is often missing from research. With the help of participating managers, the authors are able to develop a more comprehensive framework for the consideration of AI adoption. This can help bring nuance, not hype, to consideration and provides a rich portfolio of research items and constructs to further explore.

This paper offers a novel approach for conducting impactful research on emerging topics or practices. This method is particularly relevant in the face of emerging phenomena and new dynamics, such as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply chain risks. Because these new phenomena and dynamics are relatively unexplored, little prior knowledge exists in literature and industry, and they represent a large opportunity and/or challenge to practitioners.

The action principles research (APR) approach, as a newer version of critically engaged research (CER), offers comparison against more traditional empirical or intervention-based research. The authors illustrate the approach with a pandemic risk-management study.

The APR approach originated in the information technology field. It is highly applicable for researchers who are seeking to more expeditiously support decision making and actioning on new dynamics and emerging topics and practice in supply chain management than is allowed by traditional methods and longitudinal CER.

In the context of ongoing calls for relevance, impact and actionable findings on pandemic risk management, this paper describes an approach to developing timely findings that are actionable for practitioners and that advance science around dynamic and emerging topics or practices. We hope this will grow societal value of research, particularly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and the new dynamics and uncertainties that managers face in modern supply chains.

Both postponement and outsourcing have been identified as important characteristics of modern and competitive supply chains. The implementation of postponement may require extensive (spatial) reconfiguration of the supply chain. Presents findings from interviews with managers of food, electronics, automotive and clothing manufacturers in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Findings reveal that in food supply chains both postponement and outsourcing are applied to a lesser extent than in other industries. Reasons, which refer to the industry‐specific characteristics, are given. Ways for food companies to assure competitiveness are then described on the dimensions of postponement, outsourcing and spatial reconfiguration. A framework is developed to position chains in terms of degree of outsourcing, level of postponement and spatial configuration. The framework can help managers diagnosing and repositioning their organizations, along the dimensions mentioned.

While there is a rich body of risk management literature and while there have been valuable theoretical advancements on the specific impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on risks, this paper aims to posit that at least four more advancements are needed.

The co-author from Rolls Royce (RR) illustrates the risks experienced and risk management approaches taken in its manufacturing and supply chain operations both in the earlier stages of the pandemic as well as after the first year of the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique risk scenario that is beyond the scope of most existing risk management literature. The impact of the pandemic is very multi-faceted, not location specific but very global and experienced throughout the entire supply chain, across industries and over a much extended timeline with multiple time horizons. In manufacturing operations, there have been major instances of supply chain heroism in the first year of the pandemic and there is a lot more work ahead.

The authors' co-created paper enriches the perspective on COVID-19 research in manufacturing and supply chain operations by pointing at empirical opportunities, the need for more inter disciplinary research and the need to consider multiple time horizons.

The supply chain concept fundamentally changes the nature of organizations; control is no longer based on direct ownership and control, but rather based on integration across interfaces between functions and companies. This has consequences for the measurement of performance. Traditional measurement approaches may have to be abolished and a supply chain measurement system developed. Traditional performance measures may limit the possibilities to optimize supply chains as management does not “see” supply chain wide areas for improvement. This note raises issues critical to measuring supply chain performance. A new measurement approach should lead the way for supply chain competitiveness and should direct management attention to areas for supply chain optimization. A preliminary framework for measuring unmeasurable performance is developed.

Supplier codes of conduct are amongst the most widely used practices in sustainable procurement programs. While there are limitations and risks involved in using supplier codes of conduct (including the risk of greenwashing, a weak link to action and the inability of supplier to comply), there is only a modest amount of research on the topic, other than content analysis. We aim to contribute to research both lessons learned, over a two-decade period, about the implementation and use of a supplier code of conduct from a case study, as well as, to suggest further research that can support the industry and enrich insight into the effective adoption of supply codes of conduct.

Thanks to the support of our co-author from Bayer we are able to share lessons learned by the global procurement team of Bayer and use these as a basis for suggesting questions for further research. The approach of this paper centres on the adoption and implementation of the supplier code of conduct in an effort to complement existing research on supplier codes of conduct that is largely focused on code of conduct content, less on the implementation of codes of conduct. The collaboration with our co-author from Bayer enables direct access to experiences and managerial perspectives. By considering the two-decade journey towards more sustainable supply chain management at Bayer, we are able to achieve a longitudinal perspective on adoption and implementation aspects.

Bayer ensures personal and community engagement in its sustainable procurement program in order to drive action and improve decision making along the value chains. The company regularly updates its code of conduct to stay aligned with its maturity and complements the code of conduct with a continuous improvement focus, supported by both generic and industry-specific consortia. The company has not yet been able to establish direct visibility into the conduct of tier 2 and up suppliers.

This paper helps close a gap in the literature and provides input into industry efforts in one of the most widely used practices in sustainable procurement. We hope that the research questions that we developed based on the first 20+ years of Bayer’s learning journey towards sustainable procurement will inspire research that can impact industry efforts towards creating a more sustainable future.

This paper aims to fill a void in existing research by focusing on in-company efforts to develop supply chain (SC) talent, with a specific focus on the role that executives can play in this process. This study uses the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and theory of training motivation as theoretical background for the exploration. In addition to that, this paper provides meaningful information for executives aspiring to contribute to the development of supply chain management (SCM) talent including the primary drivers, benefits, barriers and bridges (Fawcett et al., 2008). Using this framework will lead to the development of a conceptual model to facilitate future research efforts.

This paper studies three case companies where there was an active executive engagement in the recruiting, on-boarding and ongoing development of SC talent.

In all three case companies’ executive engagement was high and the executives acted as champions of the SC talent development program including designing and stewardship of the program. They also got personally involved in recruiting, training and mentoring. In alignment with the RBV of the firm, all three case companies were strongly driven by a need to improve the competitive advantage of their firm through the SC competencies and capabilities. This strategic directive is driven by the executive suite and typically involved a combination of goals including improving functional capability development, internal stakeholder relationships and growth in business value contributions. This leads to the need for attracting new talent, due to talent shortages and developing more future-proof capabilities of the SC talent. Talent that is future-proof can effectively handle the current scope of work and successfully implement changes that the SCM strategy aspires to. Hence, the executive ownership is very much driven by a strategic imperative to improve the knowledge, skills and abilities and critical realization of the importance of talent recruitment and development. This study also finds that there are very specific SCM drivers, benefits, barriers and bridges in play making it important for SCM executives and teams to engage and not rely on generic human resource (HR) processes and frameworks only.

We found that in the three case companies’ executive engagement in talent development had a positive impact. We also identified specific roles of the executives such as, the benefit of engagement across multiple hierarchical layers of the organization and, the risk of programs being shorter lived when focused on a narrower talent issue. Our research focus contributes to the existing supply chain literature involving talent management. It also suggests actions for supply chain executives, for the educational provision of universities and multiple research opportunities.

There is no evidence of prior research in fields of HR management, talent development or SCM related to the impact of executive engagement in this process. This paper studies three case companies where there was an active executive engagement in the recruiting, on-boarding and ongoing development of SC talent. Findings show the critical impact of personal and extended engagement of senior-level executives and their leadership teams, in SC talent development. This paper offers specific techniques and approaches, generates suggestions for further research, managerial action and university implications.

There is great interest in blockchain in the supply chain yet there is little empirical research to support the consideration of the technology. Ferdows (2018) calls for research aimed at learning from pioneers in the field and Gartner points out that the interest in blockchain holds similarities to the interest surrounding RFID 15 years ago. As a result, there may be opportunities to leverage insights from RFID research to inform the consideration of blockchain. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the Reyes et al. (2016) framework for the implementation of RFID may inform the consideration of blockchain in the supply chain.

A two-stage approach is used to explore RFID implementation considerations from the Reyes et al. (2016) RFID implementation framework, using an initial exploration of managers interested in blockchain using a focus group and a survey and to more in depth explore three case companies pioneering blockchain.

Several RFID implementation considerations can inform the consideration of blockchain but there are also differences in considering blockchain. A framework is developed that details considerations found to be relevant by implementation stage.

This paper adds to the limited amount of empirical research on blockchain in the supply chain and advances research beyond the consideration of use cases into the exploration of actual implementation of blockchain in the supply chain. The decision framework developed both leverages and nuances findings from RFID research and can inform managerial decision making. It also adds to research a multi-stage approach to implementation and uncovers rich opportunity to further learn from pioneers.