Supply chain technology (SCT) facilitates information transfer within and across firm boundaries. However, institutional environments in emerging markets give rise to challenges that inhibit the implementation of SCT and the consequent realization of its benefits. Unfortunately, there is a lack of understanding as to the nature or the extent of these implementation challenges. We undertook a grounded theory study in the emerging market of India to investigate how SCT is implemented when subjected to prevailing institutional pressures. Based on an analysis of interviews with 50 supply chain managers, we find that early adopters of SCT experience significant and numerous unmet expectations associated with SCT implementation. These unmet expectations arise from competing institutional logics with the resultant isomorphic pressure causing the juxtaposition of two incompatible supply chains in India. A key finding of this study contradicts extant research, supporting recent work in emerging markets, to suggest a need to reassess our mental models developed in the West and conceptualize de novo models that are sensitive to the institutional environments of emerging markets.
Conditions experienced in developing countries are characterized by high levels of uncertainty and differ considerably from those encountered in developed countries. Specifically, operational environments in developing countries constrain the supply chain technology (SCT) used by firms to manage supply chain operations. Hence, it is reasonable to conjecture that firm's operating in these types of environments might rely on and use SCT and the information they provide to manage their supply chain operations differently from firms in less constraining environments. To explore this phenomenon we conducted a grounded theory study collecting interview data from 46 logistics and supply chain managers at 16 firms across India, one of the largest and most dynamic of the developing countries. Our analysis of the data establishes that SCT constraints arise from external, internal, and relationship conditions. Emerging from the data we observed managerial emphasis on a phenomenon whereby management utilizes coping strategies to relax constraints that adversely affect their use of SCT. While our findings also revealed human intervention as a negative externality arising from the use of coping strategies, we found that management were aware of this externality and were actively addressing it as part of their efforts to relax the constraints on SCT.
State road transport undertakings (SRTUs) in India presently
operate around 110,000 passenger buses with a total investment of about
Rs60 billion. Criticism of SRTUs has become more transparent with the
recent policy changes. One of the major criticisms is that they are, by
and large, operations‐oriented rather than strategy‐oriented. Attempts
to assess the present strategic position of the SRTUs through an
elaborate SWOT analysis and to chalk out the strategic options for them
in the present emerging environment of changing needs and attitudes. The
diagnosis shows that the SRTUs in India are not really competing well in
an industry which is becoming more and more unstable. Suggests
competitive types of strategies emphasizing the importance of service
marketing approach.
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