Janaina Siegler

Purpose: Organizations are increasingly making commitments and equity pledges to racially diversify their supply chain. While such commitments are commendable, historical attempts at reform have experienced limited success. This suggests that there is a need for organizations to understand the hurdles and complexity that might limit impact, and then be intentional when taking action.Design/methodology/approach: In this study, we conduct an inductive, qualitative investigation involving five organizations in Indianapolis USA. Three are corporations that had made a commitment to and are actively trying to racially diversify their supply chain. The other two are support organizations that serve as a link between suppliers and corporations.Findings: The results identify three levels of interrelated management challenges associated with racially diversifying the supply chain at the industry, strategy, and operation levels.Originality/value: Strategies for overcoming the challenges when integrating racial diversity into the supply chain are discussed, and a set of directional questions are provided to help organizations with their quest to racially diversify their supply chains.

Purpose: This paper aims to explain and demonstrate how the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) and Honey’s Content Analysis (HCA) can make new contributions to the field of Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM). The proposition involves integrating these complementary analyses to fortify the rigor of qualitative research and establish robust data analysis protocols to identify the main attributes of interviewees regarding a phenomenon while understanding in their perspective how these attributes impact the desired analysis outcome.Design/methodology/approach: This study uses examples with rich empirical data from 40 interviewees across two organizations. The examples use a protocol that allows the grouping of meanings from different knowledgeable individuals and capturing relevant constructs related to an outcome.Findings: The combination of RGT and HCA permits researchers to effectively identify and analyze the constructs individuals and groups utilize to comprehend the subject matter under investigation. Consequently, these techniques present a structured means to conduct grounded theory investigations and interpretive research, thereby enabling the iterative development of the preliminary conceptual models necessary for OSCM field advancement.Originality/value: We present two examples in which the protocol is applied to the field of OSCM. These examples illustrate that the techniques provide valuable opportunities for OSCM research, particularly for addressing the limitations related to sample size. Ultimately, RGT and HCA complement quantitative methodologies by uncovering nuanced variations and micro-foundations within firm- and network-level phenomena, offering insights essential for advancing our understanding of OSCM dynamics in specific contexts.

This paper investigates Honda Motor Co of Japan and over 50+ supply chain network relationships between suppliers and customers. These companies represent the industry through trading, specialty retail, road & rail, professional services, machinery, food products, electronic equipment, diversified financial, automobiles, and auto components. Using data from Bloomberg terminals, Mergent Online, Hoover Academics, and IBIS World, our goal was to understand Honda's supply chain risks and the capabilities needed to overcome them, in conjunction with their suppliers, customers' locations, and industry differentiators. We aimed to understand how they performed through the many disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic. Results showed that the main risks to Honda Motor Co are in three categories: Organizational (credit, agency), Industry (product market, input market), and Environmental (macroeconomic). The core capabilities that Honda Motor Co used to overcome these risks are Flexibility (financial strength), Velocity (efficiency, anticipation, security), and Collaboration (market position). As a market leader, Honda has demonstrated resilience and readiness to recover from these disruptions.

The case examines the business operations of Midwest Whiskey, MWW, focusing on the downstream supply chain. This includes examining the risks, efficiencies, and modes of distribution for all of the MWW products, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions of interest include: considering the downstream supply chain for MWW, where would you suggest Casey invests in the B2B and B2C channels? Would your answer change had the pandemic not occurred? What risks does MWW have? Why did you choose each? What capabilities, and subsequent actions, can MWW use to mitigate these? What are positives and negatives to investing in a three-way liquor license? What parameters should be taken into consideration in developing a forecasting model?

This study investigates the way firms reconfigure their supply base and reshape their production network to capture value from Free Trade Zone incentives to capture value from incentives. Six production networks located in Manaus, Brazil are analyzed using the Global Production Network framework and factors related to plant type and supplier relationships. A multiple case study was conducted. Data was collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews administered in loco, and the selected the firms were leaders in three different industries: transportation, mechanical assembly and chemicals. The results indicate that, if effectively applied, incentives can impact production network configuration from an embeddedness perspective, causing a firm to change its strategic role. Based on the analysis, we propose five propositions that challenge the relationships among autonomy, value creation, plant types and levels of embeddedness. The propositions are particularly useful for suppliers and distributors, as well as public agencies, including infrastructure providers and policymakers.

Este estudo objetiva retomar a discussão da fragmentação da ciência, explorar como esse fenômeno manifesta-se em Administração e quais suas implicações para o avanço do conhecimento científico. Para tanto, utilizou-se a interface entre os campos de Operações e Recursos Humanos como caso ilustrativo. A metodologia adotada foi o estudo bibliométrico por meio de um mapeamento estruturado da produção científica dessas duas grandes áreas. Os resultados indicaram que ambas evoluíram de modo independente, com pouca sinergia entre os autores dos diferentes campos. Foram evidenciados fatores que ressaltam a fragmentação (visões epistemológicas, preferências metodológicas e distanciamento entre os autores). Finalmente, buscou-se provocar a reflexão quanto às oportunidades oferecidas pelo intercâmbio entre áreas para a evolução do conhecimento.