From a rugged to a smooth supply chain performance landscape: a complementarity perspective

Abstract

We draw on complementarity and performance landscape perspectives to reason why and how supply chains should shift from a rugged to a smooth performance landscape. We analysed the organisation of supply chain-oriented firms by conceptualising them as a set of interdependent elements whose complementarity interaction generates desirable performance outcomes. We collected perceptual data from 139 firms. After establishing the psychometric properties of the measures, we employed two econometric methods that enabled us to examine the complementary interaction using performance differences among five SCM practices. Overall, we find empirical evidence for complementarity among the SCM practices. We also find interesting results from the two econometric approaches allowing us to articulate the distinction between practice contextuality and interaction contextuality. Our study offers empirical evidence for supply chain managers to find a promising position in the rugged supply chain performance landscape. In addition, we offer noteworthy managerial insights on managing the supply chain towards a smoother supply chain performance landscape.

Keywords:

• Supply chain
• complementarity
• rugged performance landscape

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Javad Feizabadi

Dr. Javad Feiz Abadi is an assistant professor of supply chain management at the Asper School of Business. His work has appeared in journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Business Logistics, and International Journal of Production Economics among others. His primary research focuses on strategic decisions in the supply chains and, more specifically, interdependencies among the elements in the supply chain design and strategy.

David Gligor

Dr. David Gligor earned his PhD at the University of Tennessee. He has published over 90 peer-reviewed academic articles and his work has appeared in journals such as Journal of Operations Management, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Decision Sciences, Journal of Business Logistics, and Journal of Supply Chain Management. He has been recognised as the top 2% most cited scholar in the world within the field of Business and Management in 2021 and 2020. He is a Senior Associate Editor for the International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management.

Somayeh Alibakhshi Motlagh

Mrs. Somayeh Alibakhshi Motlagh is an independent supply chain scholar. She obtained her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in public administration and completed the 2-years PhD program coursework at the University of Malaya. Her work experience in the oil and gas supply chains has provided solid practical knowledge for her to contribute to the supply chain management theory. She has published papers in journals such as Supply Chain Management: An International Journal and International Journal of Logistics.