Preparing supply chain for the next disruption beyond COVID-19: managerial antecedents of supply chain resilience

PurposeCOVID-19 once again showed the importance of building resilience in supply chains. Extant research on supply chain resilience management has successfully identified a set of organizational antecedents that contribute to supply chain resilience. However, little is known about the mechanisms by which these antecedents are developed within a firm. Drawing on the dynamic managerial capabilities theory, the current study aims to investigate the critical role that supply chain managers play in developing the organizational antecedents. Specifically, this study shows that supply chain managers' social capital, human capital and cognition are instrumental to the development of three organizational supply chain resilience antecedents: visibility, responsiveness and flexibility, which subsequently enhance the firm's supply chain resilience.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ survey data collected from 598 manufacturing firms in Australia, and Hayes and Preacher's (2014) parallel multiple mediator model to empirically test the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings of the study establish that supply chain managers' social capital, human capital and cognition indeed have implications for developing supply chain resilience. Furthermore, the mediators through which managers' social capital, human capital and cognition improve supply chain resilience are identified in the current study.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the extant literature on supply chain resilience, investigating the role that supply chain managers play in developing the resilience of their firm.

Organizational antecedents model of sustainable entrepreneurial orientation: multi-case study of Iranian firms

Purpose In this paper, the authors have tried to propose an organizational antecedent’s model of sustainable entrepreneurial orientation. It is believed that firms with high degree of entrepreneurial orientation are more plausible to prosper. Therefore, the authors are looking on how they can use organization factor to achieve sustainable entrepreneurial orientation. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a multiple case-study approach while incorporating content analysis and interpretive structural modeling. After reviewing previous studies on entrepreneurial orientation and corporate entrepreneurship, multiple case study including six firms from different industries in Iranian economic context were studied to discover the main organizational antecedents of sustainable entrepreneurial orientation using content analysis. Furthermore, interpretive structural modeling methods were used to determine the relationship between realized antecedents. Findings The findings show that the organizational antecedents of sustainable entrepreneurial orientation are coaching, succession plans, organizational learning, chief executive office, professional staff, organizational alignment and key resources and capabilities. The proposed structural model shows the relationship between organizational antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation and coaching is determined as the building stone of sustainable entrepreneurial orientation. Practical implications Researchers believe that findings will help managers and practitioners on how to design organizational factors in their organization. Hence, they can strengthen factors that promote entrepreneurial orientation and make it sustainable to enhance organizational performance. Originality/value While entrepreneurial orientation construct is a well-recognized concept in the previous studies, little is known about its organizational antecedents. Current research identified model organizational antecedents to achieve sustainable entrepreneurial orientation.

Knowledge management capability, environmental dynamism and innovation strategy in Malaysian firms

PurposeThe objectives of this study is first to assess the effect of organizational antecedents on knowledge management capability and its effect on innovation strategy through the moderating effect of environmental dynamism.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from SMEs in central region of Malaysia through a cross-sectional survey of 202 owners and analyzed through structural equation modeling using SmartPLS software.FindingsThe results show that while formal structure, selection policies, incentives and training and development policies have positive affect on knowledge management capability, there is no effect of innovation culture on knowledge management capability. Knowledge management capability has a positive and significant effect on innovation strategy. Interestingly, the findings show that environmental dynamism strengthens the positive effect of knowledge management capability on innovation strategy.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study emphasize on the potential of collaboration among people for creating effective knowledge sharing in organizations and modalities in order to successfully design a collaborative knowledge-based work environment.Originality/valueThe model links organizational antecedents with knowledge management capability and the critical role of knowledge management capability on innovation strategy of SMEs considering environmental dynamism.

Organizational antecedents of exploration and exploitation in SMEs

Purpose Scholars have recognized that formal hierarchical structures and slack resources are at the core of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) attainment of ambidexterity. Surprisingly, few studies on SMEs have analyzed the extent to which these structural and resource attributes are associated with exploration and exploitation. This study aims to examine how two structural attributes, formalization and structural empowerment, and two resource attributes, financial slack and human resource slack, affect exploration and exploitation in SMEs. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered from a survey administered to the chief executive officers of 522 French SMEs. The research hypotheses were then tested using seemingly unrelated regressions to investigate the contrasts between the two components of ambidexterity. Findings The results show that structural empowerment and financial slack may be conducive to exploration and exploitation at the same time. By contrast, formalization and human resource slack impact only one of these two ambidexterity components in significant ways: the former may be a powerful lever for exploitation, while the latter may be a powerful lever for exploration. Originality/value Relying on a dual structure–resource perspective, this study allows us to discuss the distinct impacts that several organizational antecedents have on exploration and exploitation in the specific context of SMEs. It thus addresses the recent call to identify which antecedents are integrating and which are differentiating to help firms deal with ambidexterity.