The impact of visibility and information sharing on firm performance: A multi-method study of firm performance and resilience under conditions of supply disruption.

摘要

The structure of supply chain relationships is an important dimension of supply chain design, and there is evidence that supply chain design determines the specific capabilities of the supply chain. From a design perspective, there are widely differing views on how to design supply chains, particularly on how to structure relationships between firms in the supply chain. This dissertation focuses on one aspect of supply chain design -- the structure of supply chain relationships between firms and how this choice affects visibility and information sharing capabilities and consequently affects firm performance.;The contributions from this dissertation include the development of a theoretical framework of important factors that firms should consider when choosing an supply chain relationship structure on the modularity-integration continuum, with specific focus on the visibility and information sharing dimension of supply chain relationship structure (SCRS), and a limited test of the SCRS framework to evaluate how firm performance differs under conditions of supply disruption by SCRS-related visibility and information sharing practices, using empirical data from two firms to parameterize lower (LDV) and higher demand variation (HDV) conditions in a simulation model to generate data for analysis.;From this analysis, firm performance differed between the LDV and HDV cases under normal conditions and conditions of supply disruption. The LDV case, with demand derived from a just-in-time production operation, resulted in no differences in firm performance using visibility and information sharing practices associated with modular and integrated SCRS's, under both normal and supply disruptions conditions. The high degree of system coupling created almost immediate performance effects on the focal firm in the LDV case under supply disruption.;For the HDV case, firm performance differed depending on whether a modular or integrated SCRS was employed. While both types of SCRS performed well under normal conditions, conditions of supply disruption affected performance. In this case, the integrated SCRS outperformed the modular SCRS and an interactive effect was observed between SCRS and disruption duration for the HDV case.;This limited test does not suggest this will be true in all cases, since the number of cases is small and supplier switching costs under periods of high environmental uncertainty and other limitations were not considered. In addition, performance effects from robustness and resilience observed from supply disruptions of specified durations appear to be nonlinear, and further investigation of functional relationships and interrelationships is needed.