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The purpose of this paper is to describe the role and characteristics of the summer internship program (Digital Summer Clinic) delivered by Eastern Michigan University. The authors report the results of an exploratory study of interns participating in the Digital Summer Clinic over a five-year time period. The study captures and analyzes the experiences of interns as expressed in structured interviews and blog posts.

The study data were text from structured interviews and blog posts capturing the “voice” of the interns. A natural language processing (NLP) analysis of the text corpus, consisting of 43 interviews and blog posts, resulted in the identification of 242 unique stem-terms used by interns in describing the internship experiences. The authors used the JMP Pro 15.2 Text Explorer algorithm (It is defined as a suite of computer programs for statistical analysis developed by the JMP business unit of SAS Institute) to extract the terms that were subsequently transformed and analyzed with factor analysis and regression to address the research questions.

The factor analysis results found six dimensions or themes, defined by the stem-terms used by student interns, best described the internship experience. The authors then explored the relationship between the six themes and the umbrella term “internship” with multiple regression analysis. The regression findings suggest a hierarchy of effects with the theme “Introducing Professional Opportunities” being the theme most predictive of the umbrella term.

The methodology used within the paper is unique in several ways when compared to other research investigating internship programs. First, it uses NLP analysis for the qualitative analysis of text-based descriptions of student experiences over a five-year time horizon. Second, the data analysis uses transformed text to quantitatively determine the major dimensions or themes expressed by the interns about their experiences in the Summer Clinic program. Finally, the relative importance of the themes identified provided direction for future program development.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the themes and direction of supply chain mitigation and resilience research during the COVID-19 pandemic by conducting a systematic literature review (SLR) of supply chain mitigation literature since pandemic.

This study uses the Web of Science (WoS) Database to analyze the contribution in supply chain mitigation literature by authors, themes in supply chain mitigation and the citing articles. An investigation based on bibliometric approach for the SLR represents the bibliographic data of over 530 publications between the years 2020–2021. Additionally, the article also develops graphical visualizations of the bibliographic data analyzed using the R-program Bibliometrix to ascertain the top sources, authors, keywords and conceptual themes.

Most strategies in the existing literature focused on reactive approaches to supply chain disruption and current mitigation literature has not evolved in parallel to the changing macro environment leaving a wide gap in considering vaccines as a supply chain mitigation strategy. Hence, this study identifies the potential need to focus on building proactive supply chain mitigation strategies preferably by studying the role of vaccines in mitigating supply chains.

This article helps the reader to understand the scientific research in terms of contributions in supply chain mitigation research since pandemic. Though, the time frame considered limits the connection the findings to previous work on supply chain disruptions and mitigation, it offers an understanding of the various mitigation themes evolved in light of mitigating the supply chain disruptions as one caused by the current pandemic. Further, this research helps us understand how businesses can help reduce the social consequences by preventing the disruptions and helping life normalize during this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

This is the first of its kind contribution offering a SLR of supply chain mitigation strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic identifying the focal themes in current literature and establishing the need for future venues of research studying the role of vaccines in supply chain mitigation strategies.

The purpose of this study is to examine alignment between supplier management practices and information systems (IS) strategies (i.e. particular IS applications portfolios), and its effects on supply chain integration and supply chain flexibility.

The paper develops a model and hypotheses suggesting that “lean” supplier practices, when aligned with the “IS for Efficiency” IS strategy, have a positive association with supply chain integration. Similarly, “agile” supplier practices when aligned with the “IS for Flexibility” IS strategy, have a positive association with supply chain flexibility. The paper empirically validates the model using survey data from directors and senior managers in purchasing and supply chain functions from 205 manufacturing firms in the USA. Factor analysis was conducted to test convergent and discriminant validity. Hypotheses testing was done via structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis using SMART Partial Least Square (PLS) software.

The study finds that lean (agile) supplier management practices are positively associated with supply chain integration (flexibility). Further, alignment of lean supplier practices and IS for Efficiency enhances supply chain integration, as assessed by a positive moderating effect of IS for Efficiency on the relationship between lean supplier practices and supply chain integration.

The study contributes to the supply chain – IS interface literature by developing a theoretical basis for analyzing the benefits of different types of IS applications to particular types of supplier management practices. Limitations are that it considers primarily internal supply chain integration as a representative of the entire supply chain's integration (internal and external), and that it relies on data from one person from each organization responding to the survey.

The paper theoretically develops and empirically examines a framework proposing that the respective fit or alignment between lean and agile supplier practices with efficient and flexible IS application portfolios has implications for the integration and flexibility of the particular supply chain.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of strategic supplier partnership and postponement respectively, on the relation between lean and agile supply chain strategy and supply chain responsiveness. Also, the authors look at the relation between supply chain responsiveness and firm performance.

Applying the strategic-choice theory and the resource-based view of firms to the supply chain, the authors develop a research model to demonstrate the premise that implementing proper supply chain practices to support and execute supply chain strategy will enhance the responsiveness of the supply chain and the performance of the focal firm. The study utilizes survey data from 205 senior executives and managers in the purchasing and supply chain functions from manufacturing firms in the USA. The results are based on covariance-based analysis and structural equation modeling using AMOS software.

The study finds that strategic supplier partnership fully mediates the relationship between a lean supply chain strategy and supply chain responsiveness, and that postponement partially mediates the relationship between an agile supply chain strategy and supply chain responsiveness. It is also shown that supply chain responsiveness is associated with enhanced firm performance.

For supply chain practitioners, the results indicate that firms benefit greatly if they consider the resources of their supply chain, such as postponement and strategic supplier partnership in conjunction with their supply chain strategy and that such a matching yields improved supply chain responsiveness and firm performance.

The paper theoretically develops logic for and empirically shows that strategic supplier partnership and postponement are appropriate practices for mediating the impact of lean and agile supply chain strategies, respectively, on supply chain responsiveness. Considered at a higher level of abstraction, these relationships indicate a contribution to theory that explains how supply chain strategy can beget supply chain responsiveness, through the concurrent deployment of appropriately matched supply chain practices.

To enhance the transparency of the supply chain and ensure proper dissemination of information among the supply chain members in a timely manner, more and more companies are implementing supply chain information system (SCIS). Often the challenge among the organizations is how to go for a proper SCIS implementation and to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the SCIS. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework to evaluate the KPIs for SCIS of SCISs implementation from user’s perspectives.

In this paper, 16 KPIs were identified based on extensive literature survey. A fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model is constructed to measure the users’ perceived importance and satisfaction for the KPIs. Subsequently, based on these two measurements, an importance-performance analysis (IPA) model along with a customer satisfaction attitude (SA) index is developed to categorize and prioritize the KPIs. As an empirical study, SCIS users across five industries belonging to different sectors were investigated to validate the model.

An IPA model along with a customer SA index is developed based on a fuzzy AHP model to evaluate the KPIs and provide the priorities of their improvement. Based on this result, some management implications and suggestions are proposed.

The study was limited to five organizations. More representative samples which can be sector specific can ensure better confirmation of the empirical results.

The KPIs identified in the research indicate the nature and dynamics of a complex SCIS implementation. It can serve as a checklist of areas that require attention when implementing a SCIS. The KPIs are presented through grouping in a systemic way. The development of the SAs in IPA model using fuzzy AHP is a novel approach.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the causal linkages among supply chain practices, effectiveness of supply chain performance (SCP) and organizational performance (OP) in Indian healthcare industries.

This paper is helpful in developing a framework for linking a healthcare supply chain practice to its OP, and thus identifies how such a linkage can be connected to the effectiveness of SCP. Such effort also enables the authors to derive a set of recommended supply chain practices for SC performance.

From the literature review, this paper finds that, in the context of Indian healthcare industries, efficient SC performance may play a critical role for overall OP improvement, as there is a close interrelationship between supply chain management (SCM) practices and SCP that may have a more significant effect on OP improvement.

The principle limitation of the paper is that it is performed only in a particular industry and with a questionnaire survey which could be extended in future for other industries also. Another limitation of the paper is that it is focused only on the SCP of medical device and equipment supply chain which is a small portion of the whole healthcare supply chain, and therefore requires further research covering various other domains of healthcare supply chain. Another limitation of the study is that the sample survey has been taken from only one respondent per company at one point of time which may create biasness in the results. Thus, future research should collect data through multiple members from the organization.

This study contributes to know the effect of SCM practices on healthcare SCP and provides a practical and useful tool to evaluate the extent of effectiveness of SCP and finally their impact on the healthcare OP. Finally, this study provides conceptual and descriptive literature regarding SCM practices that leads to improvement in healthcare performance.

This study adds to the knowledge on healthcare SCM performance by exploring the relationship between supply chain practices, healthcare SCP and healthcare OP and by developing and testing a research framework thus help in improving patient satisfaction.

This study attempts to show how the potential benefits of supply chain practices can no longer be ignored in healthcare supply chain.