Strategic supply chain management: Improving performance through a culture of competitiveness and knowledge development

Abstract

For many firms, using their supply chains as competitive weapons has become a central element of the strategic management process in recent years. Drawing on the resource‐based view and theory from the organizational learning and information‐processing literatures, this study uses a sample of 201 firms to examine the influence of a culture of competitiveness and knowledge development on supply chain performance in varied market turbulence conditions. We found that synergies exist between a culture of competitiveness and knowledge development: their interaction has a positive association with performance. In addition, based on behavioral and contingency theories, we found that market turbulence moderates these relationships, having a positive influence on the knowledge development–performance link and a negative influence on the culture of competitiveness–performance link. Managers who are confident about the level of market turbulence they will face can use this sense to decide whether to emphasize developing either a culture of competitiveness or knowledge development in their supply chains. For those firms whose managers are unlikely to be able to predict the degree of turbulence they will face over time, a focus on both a culture of competitiveness and knowledge development is critical to ensuring success. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Use of Business Processes as a Source of Competitive Advantage: Evidence from a High Velocity Market

“…Three construct categories that are, business processes, reputational resources and firm performance constructs along with an additional control variable category was used as the measurement instrument. The questionnaire was consisted of a total number of 27 items: 9 items to measure the effects of business processes that include the questions with regard to intranet, EDI, ERP, SCM, and CRM [25,16,17], 8 items to measure the effects of reputational resources that include the questions with regard to brand name, corporate image, customer service reputation, and product/service reputation [12,36,13], 5 questions to control the effects of industry structure factors [37], 3 questions to measure market and financial performance [38], and 2 questions for the demographics (age and size).…”

Improving cycle time performance: the role of market turbulence and cultural competitiveness

“…Representation on the resource-based view (Wernerfelt, 1984), CC is conceptualized as an intangible hidden element (Godfrey & Hill, 1995) which is revealed in three different orientations -learning (LO), innovativeness (IO), and entrepreneurial (EO) -which increases the likelihood of firm performance. The learning orientation is a critical factor that assists the association of KD and CC (Hult et al, 2007). Particularly, learning orientation emphasizes on the beliefs and values that lead supply chains' actions necessary for the development of knowledge.…”

“…The firms failed to assure their supply chains agile, thus confronting a situation where they could neither establish a sustainable competitive advantage over their competitors. Thus, as advocated by Hult, Ketchen, and Arrfelt (2007) and from a discussion above, the crucial role of 'time' in success or failure of firms' supply chain cannot be denied. Following Hult, Ketchen, and Nichols (2002, 2007, we emphasize on cycle time of order fulfillment -the time period spent after receiving the order from customer to deliver the required product to customer.…”

“…Thus, as advocated by Hult, Ketchen, and Arrfelt (2007) and from a discussion above, the crucial role of 'time' in success or failure of firms' supply chain cannot be denied. Following Hult, Ketchen, and Nichols (2002, 2007, we emphasize on cycle time of order fulfillment -the time period spent after receiving the order from customer to deliver the required product to customer. Cycle time is the key element to directly assess the functioning of supply chain (Nichols, Retzlaff-Roberts, & Frolick, 1996) and more significantly it is central to strategic success of firm.…”

“…Costs of inventory and overhead controlled market share increases because of new products introduced early, and move to the leadership position in industry. In comparison to studies of Hult et al (2002Hult et al ( , 2004Hult et al ( , 2007, we focus to examine multiple firms. In particular, focusing on subjective approach of CTP, this will help us for knowing the reason to outclass performance of some firms relative to others.…”