SPECIAL ISSUE CALL FOR PAPERS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OPERATIONS AND PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

Supply Chain Governance in the Age of Digital Transformation

Guest Editors

PAOLO BARBIERI – University of Bologna, Italy

LISA ELLRAM – Farmer School of Business, Miami University, Oxford OH, USA

MARCO FORMENTINI – University of Trento, Italy

JOERG RIES – Cass Business School, City University of London, UK

Background

The effective management of inter-organisational relationships across the supply chain is of paramount importance for all firms involved as it affects their ability to attain competitive advantage and sustainable business performance. In a turbulent and constantly evolving business environment, this requires appropriate and adaptive governance mechanisms that promote efficient collaboration within the supply chain while mitigating the risk of opportunistic behaviour through means of control. Governance of inter-organisational relationships can generally be contractual and/or relational. Contractual governance is based on binding formal agreements that specify obligations and roles of exchange partners. Formal contracts provide the safeguard to protect the individual entities from bounded rationality or opportunistic behavior. They determine compulsory deliverables, monitoring policies and non-compliance penalties. Relational governance, in contrast, refers to trust-based social and moral norms in supply chain relations. It is characterized by shared values, open communication and exchange, coordinated action and joint problem solving as well as flexibility. Contractual and relational governance mechanisms can be complementary and are therefore often used simultaneously in practice.

It is widely acknowledged that information technologies support information and process integration across the supply chain. As such, it is not surprising that the recent emergence of new, ICT-based technologies in the context of the so called “Digital Transformation” – a phenomenon also labelled as “Fourth Industrial Revolution” or “Industry 4.0” – is attracting enormous interest both in practice and research communities. Yet, a clear understanding of the impact of Digital Transformation on governance from a supply chain perspective is still lacking, since the large majority of research has been focusing on describing this new phenomenon, its diffusion, and its technological implications.

Accordingly, the objective of this special issue is to stimulate, and collect, highly impacting research contributions that investigate the relation between Digital Transformation and governance of inter-organizational relationships in supply chains.

The number of managerial and academic publications flourishing over the last few years highlights the substantial attention deserved to the Digital Transformation – a term that is becoming increasingly popular to identify the full integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the context of manufacturing, operations and supply chain. Digital Transformation is mainly influenced by Cyber Physical Systems, which include smart machines, warehousing systems and production facilities that have been developed digitally and feature end-to-end ICT-based integration, from inbound logistics to production, marketing, outbound logistics and service. It is a quite pervasive phenomenon, whose applications embrace all business sectors and hold a potentially disruptive impact over the architecture of manufacturing systems and the nature of the business processes. Although advanced manufacturing technologies (“Smart Manufacturing”) are central to the concept, the Digital Transformation also embraces technologies related to product (“Smart Product”) and supply chain (“Smart Supply Chain”) dimensions.

The broad and heterogeneous range of applications related to the Digital Transformation is enabled by a set of base technologies that provide the essential functionalities, such as extended interconnectivity, access to shared computing resources, advanced data processing, etc. Particularly, Internet of Things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems allow the virtualization of physical systems and permit their real-time control and rapid readjustment. Cloud computing and other networking technologies support a device’s functionalities through resources it can access from remote. Advanced analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence are key to the Digital Transformation, since the functions they provide – e.g., cost- and time-effective elaboration of big data, and ability to adapt to unforeseen conditions – result in distinctive features such as predictive capabilities and autonomous, increasingly effective decision-making. Finally, new physical-digital manufacturing technologies (e.g., additive manufacturing, advanced robotics) represent innovative production modes owning high potential in terms of output uniqueness, flexibility, and process productivity.

The Digital Transformation is expected to have a significant impact on inter-organisational governance for two main reasons. Its technologies lead to profound transformation of the firm’s processes (including manufacturing processes), the structure of the firm’s ecosystem, and even the firm’s business model (e.g., fast response to customer’s needs, detected by sensors installed on the product). Changes in the firm’s internal and external environment will necessarily lead to a modification in the way it interacts with business partners in the supply chain. Further, changes in the governance mechanisms of the buyer-supplier interaction will be likely driven by the modification and advancements in those technologies that specifically enable/support the buyer-supplier interaction itself, such as: blockchain, machine learning (ML) for automated decision-making (applied to the supply chain relationship), collaborative digital platforms, etc.

It is worth mentioning that these technological advancements, in fact, have the potential to influence – and even radically change – all types of collaborative practices. They can profoundly affect the nature and management of contracts, thus modifying the “formal” mechanisms of relationship management. They also allow for more extensive direct relationship management (i.e., centralized control, another type of transactional approach to governance). On the other hand, they enable superior coordination as well as new forms of collaboration, even at different tiers of the supply chain.

Topics of interest

This special issue pioneers research on how and why Digital Transformation influences governance of inter-organizational relationships in supply chains. We expect it to contribute to knowledge generation primarily with respect to the following issues:

Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Impact on supply chain collaboration and integration – The Digital Transformation will impact on the way governance at the SC level can be managed (i.e. coordination and control). More transparency and visibility (provided by technologies such as Blockchain and IoT) could positively influence collaborative relationships (horizontally and vertically): when focusing on SC collaboration, the influence of the Digital Transformation at the SC level should discuss more in depth the evolution of the key pillars, i.e. information sharing, decision synchronization (i.e. ownership of the collaborative process), incentive alignment.
2. Evolution of different types of governance mechanisms – Research should investigate the evolution of governance mechanisms in terms of collaboration vs. mandatory/power-based approaches, and formal vs. informal ones, in the context of the adoption of new technologies increasing transparency and visibility throughout the supply chain.
3. Impact of Digital Transformation on the role of trust in buyer-supplier relationships – Apparently, possible diverging impacts may exist. Increased visibility and traceability of the information could reduce or even remove the importance of trust; but will any information be transparent? Will it be acknowledged as trustworthy by all the partners? Will trust, or perhaps “digital trust”, still be necessary?
4. Impact on relationship governance in the multi-tier supply chain – Following the growing interest towards multi-tier relationships, when focusing on governance from a SC perspective, how are relationships (and governing and controlling these relationships) evolving when implementing the Digital Transformation across the “extended” supply chain? How is “governance-beyond the dyad” (e.g., governance of a triadic relationship) affected by the Digital Transformation, in terms of its form and effectiveness?
5. Impact of Digital Transformation on governance of international relationships – It is well known that international relationships could suffer from lower levels of trust compared to the domestic ones, as well as from the different degree of infrastructural development between developed and emerging countries. Does the Digital Transformation help to overcome the cultural barrier(s) by making the transaction aspects more transparent and objective? Is its implementation in international relationships affected by infrastructural gaps between different countries?
6. Size matters? Impact of Digital Transformation on power balance and governance practices in the relationships between large corporations and SMEs – Investments in the new digital technologies may be substantial. Large enterprises may afford them more than smaller ones, and therefore acquire – and possibly exploit – the resulting advantages in terms of visibility, control of information, data analytics and automated decisions. Is this further strengthening the bargaining power of big companies? How is governance changing in the relationships between large corporations and SMEs?
7. Efficiency of self-executing governance systems – Research has recognised the importance of relational norms and informal governance as self-enforcing safeguard that can either be more effectively and less costly than contractual mechanisms or at least complementary to contractual mechanisms. Given the presence of self-executing smart contracts and AI-based control systems, the role and relevance of governance mechanisms in the presence of specific inter-organisational relationships needs to be reconsidered.
8. Strategic sustainability objectives implications – Additional visibility and transparency driven by the Digital Transformation could have an important impact in the way companies can control and coordinate their supply chains for strategic sustainability objectives. It has been argued that traditional supply chain disclosures do not provide information on actual products wherefore they have limited impact on consumer behaviour and are less effective in preventing human rights abuse and environmental pollution. In addition, downstream companies that face consumer complaints may be able to monitor and enforce certain practices. This issue might be tackled by more effective governance mechanisms coupled with new technologies (e.g., blockchains in the mining industry or in apparel manufacturing). It would be very interesting to understand the governance implications from and environmental and social point of view.
9. Implications of Digital Transformation on supply chain finance/cashflow – There has been an increased trend for buyers to reduce cash conversion cycles by deferring payments to their suppliers (to 90 days, 120 days or even longer) often without establishing financial support mechanisms. Suppliers are also asked to hold inventory until it is consumed. Yet the supplier may not be in the best financial position to finance the supply chain. Digital Transformation might enable visibility of invoices and inventory to improve financial flows, gain access to efficient supply chain finance mechanisms and trade terms, and reduce transaction costs. It might facilitate better understanding of the true financing costs within the supply chain, to improve payment terms, inventory levels and financing mechanisms.
10. Improved systems of for accounting and costing – The promise of activity based costing has not reached fruition for a variety of IT and corporate cultural reasons. Ease of access to better data could facilitate improved understanding and allow firms to price products to customers based on the true cost total of serving that customer, including SCF costs. This can open up a true opportunity for customers to get what they value and are willing to pay for from their suppliers.

In spite of the considerable attention received by inter-organizational governance theories and mechanisms in supply chain management research, very few papers so far have considered the impact of Digital Transformation on supply chain governance. This special issues aims to address this research gap.

Types of papers to be published

While, the novelty of the Digital Transformation obviously justifies phenomenon-driven research approaches, we also encourage submission of theory-driven research contributions, given the important implications, and challenges that Digital Transformation raises for the most common governance theories, e.g., Transaction Costs Economics, Social Exchange Theory, Resource Dependence Theory, etc. Proposal of novel theoretical framework, if valuable, will also be considered for publication.

Preference will be given to empirical papers. We are open to several methodological approaches including survey, case study, econometric analyses of archival/secondary data, experiments/behavioral operations, and action research, till the extent that they really help to grasp the innovation in governance driven by Digital Transformation. Modelling can be part of the methodology but we expect papers to be empirical in nature. Breakthrough theoretical papers with sharp thinking and highly innovative vision will be considered for publication. Instead, we discourage the submission of literature reviews.

Submissions and review process

Submission must be made via Manuscript Central with clear selection indicating that the submission is for this Special Issue.

Submitted papers have to comply with the normal author guidelines of the International Journal of Operations and Production Management, which can be found on the journal's page.

Papers submitted to the Special Issue will be subjected to normal thorough double-blind review process.

Manuscript to be submitted to the guest editors by: 30/09/2020*

First review outcome by: 30/11/2020

Revised manuscript to be submitted to the guest editors by: 31/01/2021

Second review outcome by: 28/02/2021

Second revised manuscript to be submitted to the guest editors by: 31/03/2021

Final decision outcome by: 15/04/2021

Accepted papers would be online first around 30 days after acceptance.

Special Issue Editorial Team

PAOLO BARBIERI, Ph.D in Management, is an Assistant Professor of Purchasing and Supply Chain Management at the Department of Management of the University of Bologna, and Core Faculty of the Bologna Business School. He has been Visiting Professor at Michigan State University, Clarkson University, North Florida University and Cass Business School. He is the Department of Management’s delegate in the Digital Transformation-Industry 4.0 Competence Centre (“BI-REX”) of the Emilia-Romagna Region, funded by the Italian Government and by a pool of 45 companies including leading firms such as Ducati Motor Holding, IMA, Eni, Philip Morris, Siemens and IBM Italy.

His research interests focus on governance of buyer-supplier relationships of complex engineered products, supplier performance measurements, global supply chain management and reshoring. On these topics he has published in leading journals such as: Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Omega – The International Journal of Management Science, Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, European Business Review, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, and others.

LISA M. ELLRAM, Ph.D., C.P.M., CMA, Scor-S is a University Distinguished Professor and the Rees Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management  in the Department of Management at the Farmer School of Business, Miami University in Oxford, OH, where she teaches logistics and supply chain management at the undergraduate and graduate level. 

Her primary areas of research interest include sustainability in purchasing, transportation and supply chain management; services purchasing and supply chain management; offshoring and outsourcing; and supply chain cost management and finance. She has published in numerous top journals spanning a variety of disciplines, including Journal of Supply Chain Management, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Production and Operations Management, California Management Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and other managerial and academic outlets.  She is Co-Editor in Chief Emeritus for the Journal of Supply Chain Management (2007-2016), and is currently Senior Associate Editor at Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management and on the editorial board of several other journals.  She has co-authored eight books, including academic books and textbooks.

MARCO FORMENTINIUniversity of Trento, Italy, formerly an Associate Professor in Sustainable Supply Chain Management at Audencia Business School, Nantes (France). He received his PhD from University of Padova (Italy) and he has been previously Research Fellow at Cass Business School, London (UK) and Lecturer at University of Bath, School of Management, Bath (UK).

His research involves activities in the areas of Operations and Supply Chain Management, focusing mainly on sustainability - investigating corporate sustainability strategies and related governance mechanisms - supply chain collaboration with a specific interest on agri-food supply chains, strategic sourcing and integration of international supply chains.

He published in leading journals such as: International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Transportation Research: Part E and Journal of Cleaner Production.

JOERG RIES, Ph.D in Industrial Management, is a Senior Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain Management at Cass Business School, City University of London. He also is a member of the Digital Leadership Research Centre at Cass Business School and the Data Science Institute at City University of London.

His research mainly focusses on predictive and prescriptive analytics in the context of supply chain management – the exploration of text mining and artificial intelligence as enabler for smart and efficient supply chains – supply chain finance with a strong focus on process automation and purchase-to-pay optimisation as well as sustainable supply chain operations. On these topics he has published in leading journals such as: European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Omega – The International Journal of Management Science, and others.

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特刊征集国际运营与生产管理杂志的论文

数字化转型时代的供应链治理

特邀编辑

PAOLO BARBIERI–意大利博洛尼亚大学

LISA ELLRAM-美国俄亥俄州牛津迈阿密大学法尔萌商学院

MARCO FORMENTINI–意大利特伦托大学

JOERG RIES–英国伦敦城市大学卡斯商学院

背景

供应链中组织间关系的有效管理对所有相关企业来说都是至关重要的，因为它影响到它们获得竞争优势和可持续运营绩效的能力。在动荡和不断演变的商业环境中，这需要适当和适应性强的治理机制，促进供应链内的有效协作，同时通过控制手段降低机会主义行为的风险。组织间关系的治理通常可以是契约性和/或关系型的。契约式治理基于具有约束力的正式协议，这些协议规定了交易合作伙伴的义务和角色。正式的契约为保护个体免受有限理性或机会主义行为的侵害提供了保障。他们确定了强制性的可交付成果、监控政策和违规处罚。相反，关系治理指的是供应链关系中基于信任的社会和道德规范。它具有价值观共享、交流开放、行动协调、共同解决问题和灵活性等特点。契约和关系治理机制可以互补，因此在实践中经常同时使用。

人们普遍认为，信息技术支持整个供应链的信息和过程集成。因此，在所谓的“数字转型”的背景下，最近出现的基于信息和通信技术的新技术——这一现象也被称为“第四次工业革命”或“工业4.0”——吸引了实践界和研究界的极大兴趣，这一点并不奇怪。然而，从供应链的角度对数字化转型对治理的影响仍然缺乏清晰的认识，因为大多数研究都集中在描述这一新现象、其扩散及其技术含义上。

因此，本专题的目标是激发和收集具有高度影响力的研究成果，研究数字化转型与供应链中组织间关系的治理之间的关系。

在过去几年里，管理和学术出版物的数量激增，凸显了数字化转型值得给予的大量关注。数字化转型是指信息和通信技术（ICT）在制造、运营和供应链中的全面整合，这一术语正变得越来越流行，运营和供应链。数字化转型主要受网络物理系统的影响，这些系统包括智能机器、仓储系统和生产设施，这些系统已经数字化开发，具有端到端的基于信息和通信技术的集成，从入站物流到生产、营销、出站物流和服务。这是一个相当普遍的现象，其应用涵盖所有业务部门，并对制造系统的体系结构和业务流程的性质产生潜在的破坏性影响。虽然先进制造技术（“智能制造”）是这一概念的核心，但数字化转型也包括与产品（“智能产品”）和供应链（“智能供应链”）维度相关的技术。

与数字转型相关的广泛和异构的应用是由一系列提供基本功能的基础技术实现的，如扩展的互连性、共享计算资源的访问、高级数据处理等。尤其是物联网（IoT）和网络物理系统允许物理系统的虚拟化，允许实时控制和快速调整。云计算和其他网络技术通过设备可以从远程访问的资源来支持设备的功能。先进的分析、机器学习和人工智能是数字化转型的关键，因为它们所提供的功能——例如，大数据的成本和时效性精化，以及适应不可预见条件的能力——会产生诸如预测能力和自主性、日益有效的决策。最后，新的物理数字制造技术（如增材制造、先进机器人）代表了创新的生产模式，在输出的唯一性、灵活性和过程生产力方面具有很高的潜力。预计数字化转型将对组织间治理产生重大影响，主要有两个原因。其技术导致企业流程（包括制造流程）、企业生态系统结构、甚至企业商业模式的深刻变革（例如，通过安装在产品上的传感器检测到的对客户需求的快速响应）。企业内外部环境的变化必然会导致其与供应链中业务伙伴互动方式的改变。此外，买方-供应商互动治理机制的变化很可能是由那些专门启用/支持买方-供应商互动的技术的修改和进步驱动的，例如：区块链、用于自动决策的机器学习（ML）（应用于供应链关系），协同数字平台等。

值得一提的是，这些技术进步事实上有可能影响——甚至根本改变——所有类型的协作实践。它们可以深刻地影响契约的性质和管理，从而改变关系管理的“正式”机制。它们还允许更广泛的直接关系管理（即集中控制，另一种事务性治理方法）。另一方面，即使在供应链的不同层次，它们也能实现卓越的协调以及新的协作形式。

感兴趣的主题

本期特刊研究数字化转型如何以及为什么影响供应链中组织间关系的治理。我们希望它主要就以下问题促进知识生成：

1. 对供应链协作和集成的影响——数字化转型将影响供应链层面的管理方式（即协调和控制）。更多的透明度和可视性（由区块链和物联网等技术提供）可以积极影响协作关系（横向和纵向）：当关注供应链协作时，供应链层面的数字化转型的影响应更深入地讨论关键支柱的演变，即信息共享、决策同步（即协作过程的所有权）、激励一致性。
2. 不同类型治理机制的演变——研究应在采用新技术提高整个供应链的透明度和可见性的背景下，调查治理机制在协作与强制性/基于权力的方法、正式与非正式方法方面的演变。
3. 数字化转型对信任在买方-供应商关系中的作用的影响-显然，可能存在不同的影响。增加信息的可见性和可追溯性可能会降低甚至消除信任的重要性；但是，任何信息都是透明的吗？它是否会被所有合作伙伴视为值得信赖？信任，或者“数字信任”，仍然是必要的吗？
4. 对多级供应链中关系治理的影响——随着人们对多级关系的兴趣日益增长，从供应链的角度关注治理，在“扩展”供应链实施数字化转型时，关系（以及管理和控制这些关系）是如何演变的？就其形式和效力而言，“超越二元关系的治理”（例如，三元关系的治理）如何受到数字化转型的影响？
5. 数字化转型对国际关系治理的影响——众所周知，与国内关系相比，国际关系的信任程度可能更低，发达国家和新兴国家的基础设施发展程度也不同。数字化转型是否有助于克服文化障碍，使交易方面更加透明和客观？它在国际关系中的实施是否受到不同国家之间基础设施差距的影响？
6. 规模很重要？数字化转型对大公司和中小企业关系中权力平衡和治理实践的影响——对新数字技术的投资可能是巨大的。大企业可能比小企业负担得起，因此获得并可能利用由此产生的在可视性、信息控制、数据分析和自动化决策方面的优势。这是否进一步增强了大公司的议价能力？大公司与中小企业关系中的治理如何变化？
7. 自我执行治理系统的效率——研究已经认识到关系规范和非正式治理作为自我执行保障的重要性，它可以比契约机制更有效、成本更低，或者至少是对契约机制的补充。鉴于自动执行智能合约和基于人工智能的控制系统的存在，需要重新考虑治理机制在特定组织间关系中的作用和相关性。
8. 战略可持续性目标的含义——数字化转型推动的额外可见性和透明度可能对公司控制和协调其供应链以实现战略可持续性目标的方式产生重要影响。有人认为，传统的供应链披露没有提供有关实际产品的信息，因此它们对消费者行为的影响有限，在防止侵犯人权和环境污染方面效果较差。此外，面对消费者投诉的下游企业可能能够监督和执行某些做法。这个问题可以通过更有效的治理机制和新技术（例如采矿业或服装制造业的区块链）来解决。从环境和社会的角度来理解治理的含义是非常有趣的。
9. 数字化转型对供应链财务/现金流的影响-采购商通过推迟向供应商付款（延期至90天、120天或更长时间）来缩短现金转换周期的趋势越来越明显，而往往没有建立财务支持机制。供应商也被要求保留库存直到消耗完。然而，供应商可能并不处于为供应链融资的最佳财务状况。数字化转型可能使发票和库存的可见性得以提高，从而改善资金流动，获得有效的供应链融资机制和贸易条件，并降低交易成本。它可能有助于更好地了解供应链中的真实融资成本，改善付款条件、库存水平和融资机制。
10. 会计和成本核算体系的改进——由于各种信息技术和企业文化的原因，作业成本法的承诺尚未实现。更容易获得更好的数据有助于增进理解，并允许公司根据为客户服务的真实总成本（包括SCF成本）为客户定价。这可以为客户提供一个真正的机会，让他们获得他们所看重的东西，并愿意从供应商那里付钱。

尽管组织间治理理论和机制在供应链管理研究中受到了广泛的关注，但迄今为止很少有论文研究数字化转型对供应链治理的影响。本特刊旨在解决这一研究空白。

拟发表论文类型

尽管数字转型的新颖性显然证明了现象驱动研究方法的合理性，但鉴于数字转型对最常见的治理理论（如交易成本经济学）带来的重要影响和挑战，我们也鼓励提交理论驱动的研究成果，社会交换理论、资源依赖理论等提出新颖的理论框架，如有价值，也将考虑出版。

优先考虑实证论文。我们愿意接受多种方法，包括调查、案例研究、档案/二级数据的计量分析、实验/行为操作和行为研究，直到它们真正有助于掌握数字化转型驱动下的治理创新。建模可以是方法论的一部分，但我们希望论文在本质上是实证的。具有敏锐思维和高度创新视野的突破性理论论文将被考虑出版。我们不鼓励提交文献综述。

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提交的论文必须符合《国际运营与生产管理杂志》的常规作者指南，该指南可在该期刊主页上找到。

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稿件于2020年9月30日前提交给特邀编辑*

第一次审查结果：2020年11月30日

修订稿将于2021年1月31日前提交给特邀编辑

第二次审查结果：2021年2月28日

第二次修订稿将于2021年3月31日前提交给特邀编辑

最终决定结果：2021年4月15日

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