Agility and Resilience as Sources of Competitive Advantages a Theoretical and Empirical Investigation

Today’s hypercompetitive global climate makes lasting competitive edge unsuitable. Firms face increasing complexity due to the rapid entry and growth of internationalizing firms from emerging markets, technological breakthroughs, discontinuous innovation, and the uncertainties surrounding unexpected shocks transmitted across world markets, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. In this research, I examine how firms have built and applied two adaptive abilities (agility and resilience) to respond to environmental changes and disruptions to create sustainable competitive advantage. An agile organization is simultaneously a resilient organization. Despite agility’s increased relevance in the academy and practitioners\u27 publications, its epistemological and ontological analyses are superficial at best. Specifically, supported by inductive and deductive analysis, I bring clarity to agility’s concept and its boundary conditions. Thus, I propose an integrative multilevel framework of the antecedents, the enablers, and the outcomes of the process of agility performance. Moreover, through in-depth interviews with executives, I explore how agility and resilience manifested in emerging market multinational firms (EMNEs) enhance their competitiveness by using both adaptive abilities in their international operations. The findings reveal that all organizations possess some degrees of agility and resilience simultaneously as two faces of the same coin. Furthermore, agility and resilience are interdependent, comprising five common domains

Supply-chain evolution: Knowledge-based perpectives

This paper aims to go some way to answering the question: "Where are we now in the evolution of supply chains and what has to occur to advance along the continuum?" (Bowersox et al., 2000) by undertaking a conceptual synthesis of relevant literatures relating to the increasing importance of managing knowledge in supply chains. These issues are developed through a synthesis of the supply chain literature, and analysed through adopting perspectives from knowledge management research streams. A consensus is emerging from the supply chain literature that to advance along the evolutionary continuum supply chains must become more integrated, and with increased levels of collaboration between upstream and downstream partners. Yet, the majority of existing supply chain literature still focuses on asset, data and information elements of exchange between supply chain partners. This is despite the fact that increased integration and collaboration clearly require the exchange of more complex elements at the expertise and knowledge levels. Within supply chain contexts the exchange and management of knowledge dimensions is not so well understood despite their increasing importance as more complex business dynamics shift towards competing supply chains. This paper proposes that several knowledge management concepts and frameworks are relevant and useful to supply chain academics and practitioners. It contributes to a gap in the literature relating to the exchange and development of knowledge in supply chains, which has been identified as an important area relating to the continued evolution of supply chain theory and practice.Knowledge Management; Supply Chains; Integration; Collaboration;

How do IT Competence, Organizational Agility and Entrepreneurial Actions Coevolve: The Case of Entrepreneurial Etailers on Ecommerce Platforms

Internet and IT have re-shaped the strategy logic of contemporary organizations. The new logic emphasizes business opportunity leveraging through constantly evolving entrepreneurial actions. The required business capabilities underlying such strategic logic, including organizational agility and IT competence, have also to be built and co-evolved. Based on Sambamurthy et al. [1] conceptual framework and ten case studies of Small and Medium sized etailers on third party platform, this research explains what are entrepreneurial actions, enablers of organizational capabilities and IT competence (including IT capability and digital options) for SME etailers, as well as their evolution path and coevolution mechanisms. This research advances the literature by providing empirical evidence of the new strategic logic of internet firms as suggested by Sambamurthy et al.[1], and systematically addresses the adaptive co-evolutionary mechanisms through real options and adaptive learning perspectives

Innovation, agile project management and firm performance: empirical evidence from high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises in China

While agile project management has become increasingly important for high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), each firm's performance varies greatly, due to different degrees of innovation capability and to the dynamics of the internal and external environments. Drawing on theories of resource-based view, innovation capability and agile project management, and equipped with a comparative analysis of two high-tech SMEs, we developed a theoretical model with six hypotheses. We then carried out empirical research, including the measurement of key variables, data collection and analysis, validity and reliability tests, regression analysis, and structural equation modeling, confirming five of the six hypotheses initially presented. The model developed in this study includes the different roles of innovation capability, considers project agility in promoting firm performance, and takes into account interactions with the innovation atmosphere and environmental dynamics. The results contribute to the development and refinement of the theory of project agility by presenting new findings in the field of innovation and environmental dynamics. The results also provide guidance to project agility practices of high-tech SMEs in China, improving those firms’ performance. The implications and limitations of this study are also discussed.Embora a gestão ágil de projetos esteja a ganhar importância para as pequenas e médias empresas (PMEs) de tecnologia de ponta, o desempenho de diferentes empresas varia consoante a sua capacidade de inovação e depende da dinâmica dos ambientes interno e externo em que elas se inserem. Recorrendo a teorias relacionadas com a visão baseada nos recursos, capacidades de inovação e gestão ágil de projetos, assim como com recurso à análise comparativa de duas PMEs de tecnologia de ponta, desenvolvemos um modelo teórico com seis hipóteses. Posteriormente, levámos a cabo investigação empírica, incluindo a medição de variáveis-chave, recolha e análise de dados e testes de validação e fiabilidade. Procedemos, ainda, a análises de regressão e à modelação de equações estruturais, confirmando cinco das seis hipóteses inicialmente estabelecidas. O modelo desenvolvido inclui diferentes funções da capacidade de inovação, considera a contribuição da agilidade de projeto para a melhoria do desempenho da empresa e tem em conta as interações com a envolvente de inovação e com as dinâmicas do ambiente. Os resultados alcançados permitem desenvolver a teoria da agilidade de projeto, apresentando contributos valiosos no campo da inovação e das dinâmicas do ambiente empresarial. Esta contribuição pode servir de guia às práticas de gestão ágil de projetos de PMEs de tecnologia de ponta na China, melhorando o seu desempenho organizacional. As implicações e limitações deste estudo são também apresentadas

Behavioral analyses of retailers’ ordering decisions

The main objective I pursue in this thesis is to better understand how different factors may independently and in combination influence retailers' ordering decisions under different supply chain structures (single agent and multi agent), different demand uncertainty (deterministic and stochastic), and different interaction among retailers (no interaction, competition and cooperation). I developed three different studies where I build on different formal management model and then run multiple behavioral studies to better understand subjects’ behavior. The first study analyzes order amplification in a single-supplier single-retailer supply chain. I used a behavioral experiment to test retailers’ orders under different ordering delays and different times to build supplier’s capacity. Results provide (i) a better understanding of the endogenous dynamics leading to retailers’ ordering amplification, and (ii) a description of subjects’ biases and deviation from optimal trajectories; despite subjects have full information about the system structure. The second study analyzes how order amplification can also take place when there is fierce retailer competition and limited supplier capacity. I study how different factors (different time to build supplier capacity, different levels of competition among retailers, different magnitudes of supply shortage and different allocation mechanisms) may independently and in combination influence retailers’ order in a system with two retailers under supply competition. Results show that (i) the bullwhip effect persists even when subjects do not have incentives to deviate, (ii) subjects amplify their orders in an attempt to build an unnecessary safety stock to respond to potential deviations from the other retailers, and (iii) retailers’ underperformance varies with the allocation mechanism used by the supplier. In the last study, I analyze retailers’ orders in a system where there is uncertainty in the final customer demand. I experimentally explore the effect of transshipments among retailers in a single-supplier multi-retailer supply chain. Specifically, I explore retailers’ orders under different profit and communication conditions. In addition, I integrate analytical and behavioral models to improve supply chain performance. Results show that (i) the persistence of common biases in a newsvendor problem (pull-to-center, demand chasing, loss aversion, psychological disutility), (ii) communication could improve coordination and may reduce demand chasing behavior, (iii) supply chain performance increases with the use of behavioral strategies embedded within a traditional optimization model, and (iv) dynamic heuristics improve overall coordination, outperforming a simple Nash Equilibrium strategy

Confronting the grand challenge of environmental sustainability within supply chains: How can organizational strategic agility drive environmental innovation?

Supply chains are interconnected, globally distributed, and complex systems that significantly impact the environment and human civilization. Achieving environmental sustainability in supply chains is a grand challenge that requires collaboration and innovation among multiple stakeholders. In this study, we combine the natural-resource-based view and the stakeholder-resource-based view (SRBV) to examine how organizational strategic agility can foster collaborative environmental innovation and enhance environmental sustainability in supply chains. We use data from 758 managers from 185 firms in Turkey, an emerging economy context. We find that organizational strategic agility, enabled by organic organizational structures and regional innovation initiatives, leads to more collaborative environmental innovation with supply partners and higher environmental sustainability performance. Our study contributes to the literature on grand challenges, organizational strategic agility, and innovation management by showing how for-profit firms can leverage their strategic agility to address the grand challenge of environmental sustainability in supply chains. We also find two interventions to promote this form of environmental innovation: developing organizational strategic agility and organic structures within firms and involvement in regional innovation initiatives to stimulate collaborative innovation for environmental sustainability among supply partners

Digitally Enhancing Customer Agility and Competitive Activity: How Firms Use Information Technology to Sense and Respond to Market Opportunities in Hypercompetitive Environments

This dissertation studies how information technology (IT) facilitates customer agility and, in turn, competitive activity. Customer agility refers to the extent to which a firm is able to sense and respond quickly to customer-based opportunities for innovation and competitive action. As such, customer agility consists of two key dimensions: sensing and responding. We propose that IT plays a critical role in facilitating a firm\u27s customer agility - in particular, its sensing and responding components. The Internet has spawned a rich set of tools that allow firms to engage in rich, interactive dialogues with a broad and diverse customer base, thereby enhancing firms\u27 ability to sense and respond to shifting customer needs and preferences. Although academics and practitioners suggest that IT is a key enabler of customer agility, we know little concerning how IT facilitates customer agility. Building on the dynamic capability literature, we propose that the \u27knowledge creating\u27 synergy derived from the interaction between a firm\u27s web-based infrastructure and its analytical ability will enhance the firm\u27s ability to sense customer-based opportunities, and the \u27process enhancing\u27 synergy obtained from the interaction between a firm\u27s coordination efforts and its level of IT integration will facilitate the firm\u27s ability to respond to those opportunities. Finally, we propose that the alignment between customer sensing capability and customer responding capability will impact the firm\u27s competitive activity. We test our model with a two-stage longitudinal research design in which we survey marketing executives of high-tech firms. Our results find that web-based (resource and user) infrastructure has a significant effect on customer sensing capability. Moreover, analytical ability positively moderates these relationships. We also find that interfunctional coordination and channel coordination both have a significant impact on customer responding capability. Furthermore, internal information systems (IS) integration positively moderates the interfunctional-response relationship, yet external IS integration does not moderate the channel-response relationship. Our results also show that varying types of alignment between customer sensing capability and customer responding capability are related to different types of competitive activity. Specifically, a higher \u27match\u27 between sensing and responding results in actions which effectively meet or address customer needs. Furthermore, customer responding capability mediates the relationship between customer sensing capability and 1) number of actions executed and 2) the speed at which firms respond to changing customer needs. Finally, we also find that agility alignment is not related to action repertoire complexity. Our results have implications for both research and practice. To our knowledge, it is the first study to conceptualize and test a comprehensive yet parsimonious research model which includes the role of IT, customer agility and competitive activity. In doing so, we contribute to the IT business value literature, dynamic capabilities research, competitive dynamics literature, and organizational innovation research. We also give managers greater insight into how they can effectively leverage IT resources when sensing and responding to their customers in turbulent environments

Evaluating drivers impacting buyer-supplier relationships in agile supply chain / Nazura Mohamed Sayuti … [et al.]

This study identifies the critical drivers of buyer-supplier relationships in the context of agile supply chains. It develops a conceptual framework consisted of three higher level constructs and eleven determinants of buyer-supplier relationship. Data and information were collected through in-depth interviews from senior managers of six MNC’s (buyers) and six local SMEs (suppliers) operating in electrical and electronics industry in Malaysia. AHP, a multi-criteria-decision-making methodology, was used to analyze data and access the criticality of determinants. The results indicate that SMEs regard partner’s characteristics capability as the most important construct, whereas MNCs consider process capability as most important construct in building a buyer supplier relationship. The results also indicate that the determinants such as resources complementarities and partner capabilities are more important for SMEs, whereas flexibility proficiency and information technology determinants are more important for MNCs. The findings of this study may generate ideas to manufacturers in agile environment to focus on partner’s expectations in developing a mutually beneficial relationship

Cross-collaborative supply chains: serious gaming via a case study

Collaboration currently is crucial for stakeholders operating in the supply chain. Nevertheless effective and sustainable forms of inter- and intra-supply-chain collaboration are scarce in practice. Often this is caused by the false interpretation of conflicts of interest on sharing benefits or sensitive data about sales and orders. Serious gaming has shown its contributions to make stakeholders aware of such phenomena in different domains than the logistics domain. In this paper we show the development of a serious game based on extensive case study material on different logistic service suppliers (LSP) in Europe. After interviewing experts and collecting requirements we use a SCRUM agile setup to create a multiplayer serious game that has a game play with increasing complexity. The game starts with a “classical” single LSP level that offers order acceptance, truck -and resource planning and routing. In the final gaming level players experience the benefits of sharing orders and collaborative planning, but still with a competitive and realistic set-up. Players report this gradual gameplay show the positive effects and possibilities of collaborative planning