Supply Management Research

Die kumulative Dissertation befasst sich mit der digitalen Transformation in der Logistik unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Auswirkungen des Transformationsprozesses auf die Beschäftigten in dieser Branche.

Hierfür wird im ersten Teil der Dissertation der Begriff Logistik 4.0 definiert, bevor im zweiten Teil empirisch die Auswirkungen der Entwicklung zu Logistik 4.0 auf Arbeitsplatzmerkmale untersucht werden. Anschließend wird ein Analysewerkzeug vorgestellt, das es ermöglicht, die Auswirkungen der Einführung von Logistik-4.0-Elementen auf die involvierten Menschen zu untersuchen.

Fürderhin wird die Kommissionierung 4.0 strukturiert und untersucht, welche technischen und prozessualen Lösungen eine gleichermaßen menschengerechte und ökonomische Kommissionierung ermöglichen. Es zeigt sich mittels Simulation, dass ein kollaboratives, hybrides Kommissioniersystem ein vielversprechender Ansatz ist, in dem Menschen und autonome Roboter gemeinsam Aufträge kommissionieren.

The thesis takes a starting point in the challenges of managing operational disruptions in intermodal freight transport and their impact on operational efficiency. The purpose of the thesis was to contribute to the understanding of the importance of real-time information for disruption management in intermodal freight transport. This thesis draws its results from the qualitative exploration of three cases regarding real-time information for disruption management, in four different studies. A fifth quantitative study was performed via discrete event simulation. The thesis contributes to intermodal freight transport by conceptualizing the role of real-time information for disruption management at the operational level and its effects. The connections of real-time information to actions made before or after impacts made in the thesis contribute to the developing hinterland freight transport literature to not be limited towards actions that react on an impact. The highlighted real-time information for recovery provides practical contributions as tools for transport managers to understand and evaluate their processes and available information when managing operational disruptions.

The thesis includes 5 papers, which are all published in academic journals. Additionally, the previous version of the third paper received the Best Doctoral Paper NOFOMA 2019 award at the 31st Annual NOFOMA Conference, 13-14 June 2019, Oslo, Norway.

Innovation is a buzzword and strategic focus area in almost all scientific disciplines of business studies; this also applies to supply management, public management as well as strategic management, while for the latter there is even a dedicated sub-discipline called innovation management. Innovative Public Procurement (IPP) is an integrative concept on the intersection of the stated disciplines that draws from these conceptual foundations and is primarily targeted on promoting innovations in national economies as well as innovating public service in itself. Various political initiatives can be found that aim to transfer this concept into practice as well as scientific studies that confirm the advantageousness. But it widely remains a theoretic concept that lacks broad and purposive implementation within the numerous public procurement offices. This article is a condensed overview on the findings, methodology used and the IPP conception in general that is outlined in detail in the author’s doctoral thesis (Schaupp 2022). In essence, this study develops an actionable guideline for the management of public procurement functions in order to tackle the restraints and minimize the resistance within the organizations with an efficient and effective implementation process.

While the complexity of supply chains increases, market power is more often centralized to a few players within the chains. As an amorphously constructed term, the concept of power has become a research objective in certain areas. Nevertheless, there need to be more empirical improvements in the research area of supply chain management (SCM). This research aims to close the gap by using qualitative data and developing a literature-based, empirically proven model assumption about how digitalization influences the mechanisms of power in SCM. A category system and theoretical assumptions are proposed based on a qualitative study comprising 15 expert interviews with senior supply chain managers and executive managers. This paper provides an overview to establish a more profound understanding of how the power mechanisms are substantiated in the supply chains and points out different influence strategies in SCM concerning the digitalization of the chain. Therefore, it offers a framework for how digitalization influences the power structures in the supply chain compared to the theoretical understanding of power in SCM.

Sustainability-related intentions can differ substantially from sustainability-related actions, which is well documented and researched in the consumer behavior literature (e.g., Carrigan and Attalla (2001), Roberts (1996), Auger and Devinney (2007)). In a similar vein, our research asks whether an intention–action gap also occurs in professional settings, that is whether corporate sustainability intentions (“wanting”) deviate from corresponding corporate sustainability actions as implemented in procurement (“doing”). Results from a large-scale survey among procurement managers provide first empirical evidence for the existence of a sustainability-related intention–action gap in professional organizations.

The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the limitations of international supply chains. Disruptions in procurement activities became increasingly the norm and industrial companies were forced to adapt their sourcing strategies to this changed environment. This empirical research uses a survey of 173 Austrian industrial companies to explore how locationbased sourcing strategies have changed and will continue to change as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The results show an overwhelming trend towards local sourcing. Differences in the adaptions of sourcing strategies were found depending on companysize as well as between individual industry clusters. Furthermore, barriers for the switch to local sourcing vary by industry type and company size.

Due to the strategic understanding of PSM, an intrinsic interest exists in researching one’s future of PSM. Recently, calls for more forward-looking, explorative, and futureoriented research in PSM have emerged. Researching the future is predominately conducted in the research field of ‘futures studies’ that deals with the scientific study of future developments to formulate reasonable assumptions of the future to influence today’s actions. In light of existing calls for more research, it is critical to question the extent to which core principles of ‘futures studies’ are already reflected in PSM. Following propositions from dedicated methodological frameworks from ‘futures studies’, a systematic literature review has been completed. This systematic literature review identifies and examines 75 contributions in the field of PSM and investigates possible hints on how to explore futures in PSM. Following the propositions on how to execute ‘futures studies’, it seems as if research in PSM mainly focuses on exploring potential assumptions for future developments and on analyzing and interpreting those assumptions in light of future developments. Research results seem loosely coupled in light of the applied framework on how to conduct ‘futures studies’. The first results indicate that studies and methodological insights on how to (scientifically) create and validateimaginable futures (including creating images of multiple futures) and how to transfer those indications from imaginable futures in today’s actions are missing. Although individual articles provide insight into a highly focused segment of the future, no holistic insight into the future exists. Consequently, PSM is missing an integrated approach of ‘futures studies’ to developing insights into the future. In other words, the subsequent question arises as to whether transferring methods from ‘futures studies’ to research in PSM can yield new insights.

Despite the growing discussions on supply chain decoupling, there is relatively little research about this strategy beyond reshoring discussions. Based on qualitative research, we investigate the strength of decoupling tendencies, their drivers, and constraints. The study indicates that major drivers of decoupling are an increased flexibility and shorter lead time, while the availability of suppliers is a major constraint. Further, although the drivers and constraints are similar, the results suggest that the two concepts – supply chain decoupling and reshoring – differ, as companies pursue those approaches with varying degrees of strength. In this regard, the findings also reveal a gap of political discussions and business practice. In conclusion, our exploratory study brings several important implications to purchasing and supply managers on decoupling considerations.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an influence-effect model as a construct for determining information asymmetry influencing factors between suppliers and buyers, a model which will clarify the theoretical relationship between influencing factors and information asymmetry. In order to understand the cause-effect principle of the influencing factors, the principal-agent theory was used to characterize the suppliers and buyers. In addition, the criteria of the supplier evaluation were analyzed, which are important for purchasing enterprises. As a result of the determination of the influencing factors on the information asymmetry on the side of the buyer, numerous factors can be determined; non-compliance or non-existence on the side of the supplier favors the development of uncertainty as well as the development of the information asymmetry. Influencing factors such as social, legal, or company-internal influencing issues (e.g., integrated management systems, cooperating systems, etc.) can be determined as information asymmetry influencing factors. Furthermore, it can be stated that the essential measurement methods of indirect and direct survey types can be used to draw conclusions about information asymmetry influencing factors. An explanatory model was designed from this information, and this can be used to determine the information asymmetry influence variables. This paper is among the first of its kind to extend the current state of information asymmetry theory in the area of supplier-buyer relationships within any industry. The information asymmetry influence variables could only be captured by the current state of the literature. Future research should subject the information asymmetry influence variables and the entire construct of the information asymmetry influence variable model to a representative empirical study.

One prospect of additive manufacturing (AM) is location-independent and on-demand production from digital files. Implementing the technology influences production in the company but also simplifies and shortens the holistic supply chain. While these impacts have been increasingly studied, there is a lack of contributions that look at the impact of AM on internal logistical processes. For this reason, an empirical study was conducted, whereby semi-structured expert interviews were chosen as the survey instrument to extend the existing theory. As a result, procurement, warehousing, production, and distribution effects can be shown. The results also compare current potentials and barriers in practice with the literature. The contribution is rounded with practical implications and further research to advance the development in the AM field.

Aufgrund des kontinuierlichen Bedeutungsanstieges des Einkaufs, weiter verstärkt durch aktuelle Managementherausforderungen und Krisen, bekommt die Frage der zukünftigen Schwerpunkte und Entwicklungslinien ein immer größeres Gewicht. So können rechtzeitig wichtige Richtungsentscheidungen getroffen und deren Umsetzung proaktiv initiiert werden. Dieser Beitrag soll eine valide Grundlage dafür schaffen, indem mittels einer Delphi-Studie ein Zukunftsbild für den Einkauf entwickelt wird. Die auswertbare Befragung von rund 40 Führungskräften aus dem Einkaufsumfeld hat dabei als Top-Themen Agilität, Nachhaltigkeit, Innovation und Digitalisierung ergeben. Auch zahlreiche Herausforderungen wurden identifiziert. Für diese wurden im Abgleich mit bestehenden Forschungserkenntnissen Handlungsempfehlungen formuliert, u.a. die gezielte zukunftsorientierte Gestaltung von Veränderungsprozessen oder die besondere Berücksichtigung der Mitarbeitenden im Einkauf.