Best Management Practices in Sri Lanka: Manufacturing Sector

This paper describes and analyzes the best management practices of a few selected firms in Sri Lanka's manufacturing sector, and compares these practices with those found in subsidiaries of major multinational corporations operating in Sri Lanka

The value chain approach imposes increased expectations on logistics management

As business organisations move toward network structures, and virtual models replace vertical organisations (or begin to become part of them), it is time to consider the role of logistics management in light of these developments. The value chain / value creation system (VCS) has introduced a radical view concerning the ownership and use of assets, processes and capabilities; ownership has been replaced by access and collaboration. This working paper considers the challenges confronting logistics management and explores the ways in which logistics management may become involved in these developments

An Institutional Theory perspective on sustainable practices across the dairy supply chain

AbstractThe need for sustainable practices in the food supply chain, particularly in the area of energy reduction, is becoming acute. The food industry currently has to contend with multiple competing pressures alongside the new challenges of sustainable production. We applied Institutional Theory to explore the role of supermarkets in the development of legitimate sustainable practices across the dairy supply chains. The paper focuses on dairy supply chain organizations and their consumption of energy. We conducted 70 semi-structured telephone interviews with various stakeholders across the supply chain. Findings revealed that the majority of actors in the supply chain identified supermarkets as the dominant player, and that the supermarkets exert pressure on other smaller organizations across the supply chain. Although some organizations wished to pursue a sustainable agenda through integrating new rules and legitimate practices within their own organization, the dominant logic appeared to be one of cost reduction and profit maximization. There was also evidence that supermarkets and other large organizations attempt to replicate publicly available information on green successes for image purposes. We conclude that the dominant logic of cost reduction is so well established that challenging the dominant logic may prove difficult. The challenge is therefore to complement the dominant logic with sustainable practices across the whole supply chain, a role Government needs to play. This will require a broader more systemic approach to encouraging sustainable practices including investment and financing practices, so that all members of the dairy supply chain can co-operate and contribute to energy reduction

Exploring Hopes And Fears From Supply Chain Innovations: An Analysis Of Antecedents And Consequences Of Supply Chain Knowledge Exchanges

This dissertation sheds light on severalhopes and fears from supply chain innovation in three distinct papers. Paper one introduces the concept of Process Innovation Propagation as an appropriation technique helping to extract the most returns out of a process innovation by exporting to supply chain partners. Paper two devises and empirically tests knowledge properties that best lead to radical and incremental supply chain innovative capabilities. Lastly, paper three conducts an exploratory study that introduces factors affecting a firm’s optimum supply chain innovation strategy. The dissertation makes a strong argument that supply chain innovation is most prominently governed by power asymmetry that may either help or hurt innovative performance

Myopic Versus Farsighted Behaviors in a Low-Carbon Supply Chain with Reference Emission Effects

The increased carbon emissions cause relatively climate deterioration and attract more attention of governments, consumers, and enterprises to the low-carbon manufacturing. This paper considers a dynamic supply chain, which is composed of a manufacturer and a retailer, in the presence of the cap-and-trade regulation and the consumers’ reference emission effects. To investigate the manufacturer’s behavior choice and its impacts on the emission reduction and pricing strategies together with the profits of both the channel members, we develop a Stackelberg differential game model in which the manufacturer acts in both myopic and farsighted manners. By comparing the equilibrium strategies, it can be found that the farsighted manufacturer always prefers to keep a lower level of emission reduction. When the emission permit price is relatively high, the wholesale/retail price is lower if the manufacturer is myopic and hence benefits consumers. In addition, there exists a dilemma that the manufacturer is willing to act in a farsighted manner but the retailer looks forward to a partnership with the myopic manufacturer. For a relatively high price of emission permit, adopting myopic strategies results in a better performance of the whole supply chain