Organizations' competitiveness and success are no longer dependent solely on their own performance, but rather are dependent on the competitiveness of the supply chains in which they participate. Increasingly, these supply chains are globally distributed introducing the possibility of greater benefits, as well as greater risk. This study examines the countervailing impact of a global supply chain partner's business-to-business e-commerce business risk and absorptive capacity on an organization's willingness to commit to and share information with that supply chain partner. We survey 207 organizations on their perceptions of specific offshore outsourcing and supply chain partners across dimensions of risk, absorptive capacity, commitment, and information sharing. The results support the theorized relationships indicating that a supply chain partner's increased levels of perceived risk has a strong negative effect on an organization's commitment and information sharing; conjointly, increases in a supply chain partner's absorptive capacity has a strong positive effect on commitment and information sharing. For both risk and absorptive capacity, commitment partially mediates the relationship with information sharing. Testing for systemic effects from geographical/cultural location on the relationship factors provides no evidence of a regional effect on measured items.
As organizations increasingly face the need to compete for market share by building highly integrated global supply chains, governance of these complex relationships becomes a major strategic challenge. Research reporting high failure rates for collaborative alliances with supply chain partners makes formation of global supply chains a high-risk venture. This study examines the influence of strategic enterprise risk management (ERM) processes on improving supply chain capability while mitigating risks. ERM has become a major strategic management focus, and researchers suggest this momentum arises from the need for governance mechanisms that counter the ineffectiveness of government intervention and cooperation in cross-border relationships. We survey 207 organizations on their perceptions of their own ERM processes and a specific supply chain partner's absorptive capacity, B2B e-commerce business risk, and the global business risk associated with that partner relationship. The results support theorized relationships positing that stronger ERM promotes higher levels of partner absorptive capacity, lower B2B risk, and lower associated global business risk. Results further show that associated global business risk is reduced through managing and controlling partner absorptive capacity and B2B risk. Additional analyses show that stronger ERM is associated with partners being from countries with cultural traits conducive to strong supply chain performance.
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