The impact of buyer-supplier relationships’ social capital on bi-directional information sharing in the supply chain

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how the development of social capital can promote buyer’s bi-directional (inflow and outflow) information sharing. The authors examined buyers’ perceptional differences in information sharing: when they receive information from suppliers and when they provide information to suppliers, and how such inequivalent perception in information sharing can be resolved by the level of social capital and its’ sub-dimensions. Design/methodology/approach Theoretical model and the hypotheses were developed through literature review. Data were collected from Korean manufacturers in supply chains and structural equation modelling was used for analysis. Findings The results show that each dimension of social capital has a different effect on bi-directional information sharing. For the information inflow, all of the facets of social capital were significant; for the information outflow, however, only relational capital was significant. That is, with cognitive and structural capital, buyers perceive that they can receive appropriate information from suppliers yet be reluctant to provide information to suppliers. Practical implications Given that relational capital is essential for the balanced information sharing in buyer-supplier relationship, firms should pay attention to having social interactions with partners to promote trust in the relationship for efficacy in information sharing. Originality/value This is one of the first studies to explore the role of social capital in facilitating equivalent information sharing. This study develops a framework that social capital can provide valuable guidance in achieving equivalency of bi-directional information sharing

Variation block-based genomics method for crop plants

BACKGROUND: In contrast with wild species, cultivated crop genomes consist of reshuffled recombination blocks, which occurred by crossing and selection processes. Accordingly, recombination block-based genomics analysis can be an effective approach for the screening of target loci for agricultural traits. RESULTS: We propose the variation block method, which is a three-step process for recombination block detection and comparison. The first step is to detect variations by comparing the short-read DNA sequences of the cultivar to the reference genome of the target crop. Next, sequence blocks with variation patterns are examined and defined. The boundaries between the variation-containing sequence blocks are regarded as recombination sites. All the assumed recombination sites in the cultivar set are used to split the genomes, and the resulting sequence regions are termed variation blocks. Finally, the genomes are compared using the variation blocks. The variation block method identified recurring recombination blocks accurately and successfully represented block-level diversities in the publicly available genomes of 31 soybean and 23 rice accessions. The practicality of this approach was demonstrated by the identification of a putative locus determining soybean hilum color. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that the variation block method is an efficient genomics method for the recombination block-level comparison of crop genomes. We expect that this method will facilitate the development of crop genomics by bringing genomics technologies to the field of crop breeding

Variation block-based genomics method for crop plants

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.Abstract Background In contrast with wild species, cultivated crop genomes consist of reshuffled recombination blocks, which occurred by crossing and selection processes. Accordingly, recombination block-based genomics analysis can be an effective approach for the screening of target loci for agricultural traits. Results We propose the variation block method, which is a three-step process for recombination block detection and comparison. The first step is to detect variations by comparing the short-read DNA sequences of the cultivar to the reference genome of the target crop. Next, sequence blocks with variation patterns are examined and defined. The boundaries between the variation-containing sequence blocks are regarded as recombination sites. All the assumed recombination sites in the cultivar set are used to split the genomes, and the resulting sequence regions are termed variation blocks. Finally, the genomes are compared using the variation blocks. The variation block method identified recurring recombination blocks accurately and successfully represented block-level diversities in the publicly available genomes of 31 soybean and 23 rice accessions. The practicality of this approach was demonstrated by the identification of a putative locus determining soybean hilum color. Conclusions We suggest that the variation block method is an efficient genomics method for the recombination block-level comparison of crop genomes. We expect that this method will facilitate the development of crop genomics by bringing genomics technologies to the field of crop breeding

Interactional Justice, Informational Quality, and Sustainable Supply Chain Management: A Comparison of Domestic and Multinational Pharmaceutical Companies

As the business environment gradually intensifies, interest in building efficient supply chain relationships is growing. The basic principle of supply chain management (SCM) is to enhance efficiency by maintaining sustainable relationships between companies in the supply chain. This study classifies interactional justice into interpersonal justice and informational justice and examines their effects on informational quality and sustainable SCM by comparing Korean pharmaceutical companies with multinationals. The study used a theoretical structural model to investigate the causal impact of interactional justice on informational quality and sustainable SCM. The results indicated that interpersonal justice showed a significant positive relationship with informational justice. Further, interpersonal justice and informational justice had a significant positive effect on informational quality in Korean pharmaceutical companies but not in multinationals. Finally, informational quality had a positive effect on sustainable SCM performance regardless of the company’s nationality. This study is important because it identified the influence of interactional justice on informational quality and sustainable SCM by comparing Korean with multinational pharmaceutical companies. The study also highlighted the necessity of interpersonal justice and informational justice in the pharmaceutical industry. Lastly, the study suggests a useful method for the literature to investigate pharmaceutical companies

Supply Chain Integration in Europe: A Status Report

In an effort to understand the status of integration in supply chains in European firms, this paper attempts to identify the significant factors that define supply chain integration, how these factors affect supply chain performance and the extent European firms involve key suppliers and customers in decision-making. Based on a survey with 149 European firms, exploratory factor analysis provides four significant factors from 21 essential indicators of supply chain integration with suppliers and customers including collaboration in supply chain design and operations with key customers, collaboration in supply chain design and operation with key suppliers, relationship quality monitoring, and maturity of relationship with key supply chain partners. Using path analysis with the se factors and performance improvement indicators, collaboration in supply chain design and operations with key suppliers and length of relationship with key supply chain partners were found out to be important factors in supply chain integration that positively affect performance improvement.