From responsiveness strategy to market responsiveness: A pursuit of responsive supply chains.

摘要

The current dynamic business environment, characterized by intense global competition, rapid technological advancement and volatile demand, constantly challenges firms to proactively and swiftly respond to turbulence. Responsiveness realizes when supply chain constituents work together toward the same direction. The responsive supply chain has emerged as an effective type of management philosophy for the current uncertain business environment. Differing from traditional supply chains that emphasized efficiency, the responsive supply chains focus on compressing time-to-market and at the same time increasing flexibility by connecting the downstream of the supply chain to its upstream through pull production, information technology, integrated product design, and collaborative practices with suppliers and customers. Despite the rich conceptualizations available on responsive supply chains, few studies have comprehensively and empirically studied the interrelationships between these constructs. This study purports to construct and test a research framework that comprehends the critical practices of responsive supply chains from a focal company perspective.;Structural equation modeling based on the sample of international manufacturing strategy survey found that (1) there is a significant relationship between the competitive market environment and the responsive product strategy, confirming the influence of the environment on strategy formulation; (2) advanced manufacturing technology, pull production, and product development programs are critical in compressing the manufacturing time, reducing procurement and manufacturing lead time, and increasing the speed of product delivery to customers; (3) inter-organizational and interfunctional coordination through information sharing, coordination with suppliers and customers, and supply chain restructuring has a direct positive impact on internal production system integration.;This study makes three main contributions. First, this study derived a structural research model from coordination theory that addresses how firms increase market responsiveness through coordination mechanisms. Second, this study expanded coordination theory to supply chain level and shed light on the influence of supply chain restructuring on integration of Intra-organization level practices. Third, this study also provided various contextual analyses from plant size to globalization. Recommendations for future research and implications for managers are also discussed.