The triple-As supply chain competitive advantage

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to draw on resource orchestration theory (ROT) and resource advantage theory (RAT) to develop a measurement scale for supply chain competitive advantage (SCCA) as a second-order construct with the dimensions of agility, adaptability and alignment (triple-A). Design/methodology/approach A survey research design is adopted to collect primary and secondary data from 182 international firms. The paper utilizes a scale development procedure to develop a measurement instrument and assess its psychometric properties. The scale’s predictive validity is tested using both subjective and objective data. Additionally, the simultaneous effect of triple-A is tested using latent congruent modeling. Findings Drawing upon ROT and RAT, this study introduces SCCA as a second-order construct composed of SC agility, adaptability and alignment. In addition, the findings show that an SCCA has a direct and positive impact on firms’ financial and market performance. Originality/value Existing literature indicates that competition has shifted from inter-firm to inter-SC. To account for this change in competition level, past studies have suggested various capabilities that SCs must possess to offer a competitive advantage, such as triple-As. However, drawing upon RAT and ROT, the authors argue that the SCCA construct accounts for sources of advantage in both the resource side and the demand side. The authors further assert that possessing supply chain resources (i.e. agility, adaptability, alignment as disparate resources) is not sufficient to create advantage but the resources must be orchestrated to create SCCA (i.e. the combination of agility, adaptability and alignment).

Examining the synergistic effect of supply chain agility, adaptability and alignment: a complementarity perspective

“…Supply chain adaptability has been defined as a firm's ability to reconfigure its supply chain resources to respond to long-term changes in supply and demand (Feizabadi et al, 2019a(Feizabadi et al, , 2019b. As such, supply chain adaptability is different from supply chain agility, which focuses on the ability to quickly respond to short-term changes in supply and demand.…”

“…financial, quality, delivery, flexibility), the integration of the triple-A components enhances performance across all performance dimensions. Similarly, Feizabadi et al (2019a) linked the integrated A's to financial and market performance.…”

“…We further assume the firm's supply chain cycle time, marketing performance, and financial performance are super-modular functions in the three As. A function is super-modular as long as the mixed partial derivative is positive Lee's (2004) seminal article, several empirical studies have investigated the simultaneous implementation of the three As' in supply chains as a source of desirable performance outcomes (Feizabadi et al, 2019a(Feizabadi et al, , 2019bMarin-Garcia et al, 2018). In Feizabadi et al (2019a), the concurrency of the three As was studied using latent congruent modeling while Marin-Garcia et al (2018) used structural equation modeling.…”

“…A function is super-modular as long as the mixed partial derivative is positive Lee's (2004) seminal article, several empirical studies have investigated the simultaneous implementation of the three As' in supply chains as a source of desirable performance outcomes (Feizabadi et al, 2019a(Feizabadi et al, , 2019bMarin-Garcia et al, 2018). In Feizabadi et al (2019a), the concurrency of the three As was studied using latent congruent modeling while Marin-Garcia et al (2018) used structural equation modeling. Some empirical evidence was found for the complementarity effect of the three As on firm performance.…”

“…On the other hand, adaptability addresses long-term changes so we define supply chain adaptability as ability to respond to long-term and structural changes to supply, demand and business environment. Finally, we define supply chain alignment as and aligning the incentives of supply chain partners by sharing the risk and rewards inducing the supply chain partners for entire chain performance outcomes (Feizabadi et al, 2019a;Lee, 2004). Subsequent studies have built on Lee's (2004) seminal work and empirically linked Triple-A to various aspects of firm performance (Attia, 2015;Feizabadi et al, 2019a;Marin-Garcia et al, 2018;Whitten et al, 2012).…”