Sara Hajmohammad, Robert D. Klassen and Stephan Vachon
Buying firms are increasingly exposed to sustainability risk arising from negative conditions or potential events in their supply base that might provoke adverse stakeholder…
Abstract
Purpose
Buying firms are increasingly exposed to sustainability risk arising from negative conditions or potential events in their supply base that might provoke adverse stakeholder reactions. Procurement managers at these firms can pursue multiple strategies to address this risk with suppliers, including acceptance, monitoring-based mitigation, avoidance and collaboration-based mitigation. This study aims to investigate how perceived risk, supplier dependence and financial slack resources contribute to the strategic preferences of these managers.
Design/methodology/approach
A vignette-based experiment with procurement managers is used to examine the factors affecting the managers’ strategic preferences in managing supplier sustainability risk.
Findings
The empirical results revealed that the procurement managers’ preference for avoidance or collaboration strategies was stronger when they perceived higher risk, but their preference varied based on the degree of supplier dependence. Specifically, when they perceived a high level of risk, procurement managers were more inclined toward a monitoring strategy with dependent suppliers and preferred an avoidance strategy when they dealt with independent ones. Financial slack was also an influential factor: managers with more slack at their disposal preferred to collaborate with suppliers to address the risk; on the other hand, limited slack shifted their preference toward an acceptance strategy, regardless of the level of risk.
Originality/value
This study helps to develop a more nuanced picture of how procurement managers make challenging and complex trade-offs when responding to supplier sustainability risk.
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Sara Hajmohammad, Anton Shevchenko and Stephan Vachon
Firms are increasingly accountable for their suppliers' social and environmental practices. Nonmarket stakeholders nowadays do not hesitate to confront buying firms for their…
Abstract
Purpose
Firms are increasingly accountable for their suppliers' social and environmental practices. Nonmarket stakeholders nowadays do not hesitate to confront buying firms for their suppliers' misconducts by mobilizing demonstrations, social media campaigns and boycotts. This paper aims to develop a typology of response strategies by targeted firms when they face such contentions and to empirically investigate why these strategies vary among those firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on social movement and stakeholder salience theories, the authors develop a set of hypotheses linking their typology of four response strategies to three key contextual factors – nonmarket stakeholder salience, nonmarket stakeholder ideology and the target firm reputation – and examine them using a vignette-based experiment methodology.
Findings
The results suggest that nonmarket stakeholder salience significantly impacts the nature of response (reject or concede), whereas the nonmarket stakeholder ideology is significantly related to the intensity of response (trivial or vigorous). Interestingly, the firms' reputation was found to have no significant effect on their response strategy when they faced stakeholder contentions.
Originality/value
This paper adds both theoretical and methodological value to the existing literature. Theoretically, the study develops and tests a comprehensive typology of response strategies to nonmarket stakeholder contentions. Methodologically, this study is original in leveraging a vignette-based experiment that allows establishing causal factors of response strategies following a supplier sustainability misconduct.
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Sara Hajmohammad and Anton Shevchenko
Many modern firms strive to become sustainable. To this end, they are required to improve not only their own environmental and social performance but also the performance of their…
Abstract
Purpose
Many modern firms strive to become sustainable. To this end, they are required to improve not only their own environmental and social performance but also the performance of their suppliers. Building on population ecology theory, we explore how buyers' exposure to supplier sustainability risk and their subsequent risk management strategies at the buyer–supplier dyad level can lead to adherence to sustainability by the supplier populations.
Design/methodology/approach
We rely on a bottom-up research design, in which the actions of buyers within buyer–supplier dyads lead to population-wide changes on the supplier side. Specifically, we use experimental data on managing sustainability risk to build an agent-based simulation model and assess the effect of evolutionary processes on the presence of sustainable/unsustainable business practices in the supplier population.
Findings
Our findings suggest that buyers' cumulative actions in managing sustainability risk do not necessarily result in effective population-wide improvements (i.e. at a high rate and to a high degree). For example, in high risk impact conditions, the buyer population is usually able to decrease the population level risk in a long run, but they would need both power and resources for quickly achieving such improved outcomes. Importantly, this positive change, in most cases, is due to the fact that the buyer population selects out the suppliers with high probability of misconduct (i.e. decreased supplier population density).
Originality/value
Drawing on the organizational population ecology theory, we explore when, to what degree and how quickly the buyers' cumulative efforts can lead to population-wide changes in the level of supplier sustainability risk, as well as the composition and density of supplier population. Methodologically, this paper is one of the first studies which use a combination of experimental data and agent-based modeling to offer more valuable insights on supply networks.
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Robert Klassen and Sara Hajmohammad
In operations and supply chain management, time is largely one-dimensional – less is better – with much effort devoted to compressing, efficiently using, and competitively…
Abstract
Purpose
In operations and supply chain management, time is largely one-dimensional – less is better – with much effort devoted to compressing, efficiently using, and competitively exploiting clock-time. However, by drawing on other literatures, the purpose of this paper is to understand implications for the field of operations management if we also emphasize how humans and organizations experience time, termed process-time, which is chronicled by events and stages of change.
Design/methodology/approach
After a brief review, the limitations of the recurrent time-oriented themes in operations management and the resulting short-termism are summarized. Next, sustainability is offered as an important starting point to explore the concept of temporality, including both clock- and process-time, as well as the implications of temporal orientation and temporal conflict in supply chains.
Findings
A framework that includes both management and stakeholder behavior is offered to illustrate how multiple temporal perspectives might be leveraged as a basis for an expanded and enriched understanding of more sustainable competitiveness in operations.
Social implications
Research by others emphasizes the importance of stakeholders to competitiveness. By recognizing that different stakeholder groups have varying temporal orientations and temporality, managers can establish objectives and systems that better reflect time-based diversity and diffuse temporal conflict.
Originality/value
This paper summarizes how time has been incorporated in operations management, as well as the challenges of short-termism. Sustainability forms the basis for exploring multiple perspectives of time and three key constructs: temporal orientation, temporality, and temporal conflict. A framework is proposed to better incorporate temporal perspectives as a basis for competitiveness in operations and supply chain management.
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Anton Shevchenko, Sara Hajmohammad and Mark Pagell
People donate to charities with the aim of improving society. Yet, many charities fail to use donations efficiently or have ineffective interventions. The authors explore the…
Abstract
Purpose
People donate to charities with the aim of improving society. Yet, many charities fail to use donations efficiently or have ineffective interventions. The authors explore the strategic operational priorities and processes that enable charities to efficiently implement their interventions and have a positive impact on society.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors first review the literature on charities to gain a deeper understanding of the current state of knowledge on charity operations. The authors then employ the lens of paradox theory and perform a qualitative investigation of six case studies to explore various aspects of the operations of charities that are known for being cost-effective.
Findings
The authors reveal how the strategic operational decisions of charities, as well as the processes they implement, help them resolve the tensions arising from the cost-effectiveness paradox. The authors show that cost-effective charities make strategic operational decisions that help maintain two diverging priorities: prioritizing the status quo and prioritizing change in how they deliver value. Another set of strategic decisions helps balance these two diverging priorities. The authors then show how these charities create and then maintain cost-effective operations.
Originality/value
The authors address recent calls for research on non-profit organizations in the field of operations management. To authors’ knowledge, it is the first in-depth study of exemplary charity operations. The results can be used by charity executives as a benchmarking tool when they develop and implement their charitable interventions and by government agencies and potential donors when they select charities for their donations. Finally, the results should have implications for other organizations trying to have a positive societal impact.
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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
Procurement managers tend to look towards collaboration to help supply chain firms during periods of high turmoil and risk. Financial slack moderates these attempts at collaboration.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.