Minseok Park

Purpose: The extensive use of mobile money (MM) has been widely recognized as a digital engine of socioeconomic development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This paper aims to focus on the effects of MM use and stockouts on informal microenterprise performance and investigate whether MM use mitigates the relationship between stockouts and firm performance.Design/methodology/approach: This study utilizes firm-level data from the latest World Bank Informal Sector Enterprise Surveys across six SSA countries. We employ instrumental variable-adjusted and propensity score-weighted regressions to investigate the buffering effect of MM use.Findings: We find a significantly positive effect of MM use and a significantly negative impact of stockouts on informal microenterprise performance. Importantly, we establish that MM use attenuates the negative impact of stockouts on firm performance. We further document that the attenuating effect of MM use is more profound for firms using MM for transactions with supply chain partners, located in communities with high MM use rates, and operating in the retail industry.Practical implications: Our research generates important managerial and policy implications. Future policies should capitalize on MM to foster an effective financial ecosystem in which informal microenterprises can survive and grow, thereby deepening their contributions to sustainable development.Originality/value: Whereas the business benefits of MM among small, medium and large firms are well-documented, the role of MM use on informal microenterprise performance is less understood. This study fills the research gap in the literature by focusing on the influence of MM use on the relationships between informal microenterprise operations and performance.

Matching the supply of medical equipment with soaring demand caused by an epidemic event is a daunting challenge. Focusing on medical equipment manufacturers, this study empirically examines how supply chain management impacts manufacturers’ responses to epidemic-driven demand. This study employs novel supply chain data from South Korea collected before and after the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic event. In the results, we show that such an epidemic positively influences the sales performance of medical equipment manufacturers (i.e. a 10.2 percentage-point increase). To identify the mechanism behind this result, we provide evidence that increasing the supply base (i.e. the number of supply channels) enables medical equipment manufacturers to better respond to epidemic-driven demand and ultimately improves their sales performance. More interestingly, we find that medical equipment manufacturers with lower market status (i.e. lower market shares and lower supplier shares) expand their supply bases more extensively than other medical equipment manufacturers with higher market status do. Interpreting these results, we offer managerial insights into how medical equipment manufacturers can effectively manage their supply chains and improve their performance when responding to epidemic-driven demand.

Purpose: As organizations globalize, they are facing twin challenges of (1) how to develop actionable intelligence from the vast amount of data flowing into their organization and (2) how to effectively manage the increasing risks to their supply chain. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to bring these two issues on a single platform to understand how firms can effectively predict supply chain risk by developing and using BDA capabilities, through an automated risk alert tool.Design/methodology/approach: The authors used a questionnaire-based survey methodology supported by secondary data to collect information related to managerial perceptions on how firms can develop a risk alert tool by improving BDA capabilities. A database of 213 senior and middle-level managers was developed and used to test the proposed hypothesis. Using econometric techniques, the authors identify the conditions necessary for such an automated risk management tool to be effective.Findings: The results suggest that if organizations focus on developing an effective IT infrastructure supported by a strong BDA capability, they will be able to leverage these capabilities to develop an effective risk management tool. Moderating influences of Upstream and Downstream Supply Chain IT Infrastructure capabilities were also observed on different types of BDA capabilities within a firm. In conclusion, it was argued that the effectiveness of a risk alert tool is dependent on how well firms harness big data analytics capability.Originality/value: The value of the research stems from the fact that it uses managerial surveys to identify specific BDA capabilities that can enable firms to develop risk resilience capabilities. In addition, the article is one of the few empirical studies that aims to identify how firms can use BDA capabilities within a supply chain context to develop an automated risk alert tool. The article, therefore, contributes to the literature that identifies the value of BDA capabilities within the context of supply chain risk management.

This study investigates the impact of mobile money (MM) on SMEs' resilience and the associated business outcome in developing countries amid Covid‐19. Despite the potential of MM to improve SMEs' resilience, little evidence has been documented. Using Enterprise Survey data in Zambia, we show that SMEs are more likely than large firms to experience catastrophic sales decline, reflecting their inherent vulnerability. Further analysis reveals that this unfavourable effect can be effectively counteracted when SMEs incorporate MM into daily business. An important policy implication is that the use of digital technologies should be a key element of policy responses to Covid‐19.