دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی تریپل A و مزیت رقابتی در زنجیره های تامین - الزویر 2018

Abstract

Based on his own experience in a number of companies, Lee (2004) posits that the Triple-A (agility, adaptability and alignment) is essential for supply chain (SC) management to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage (CA). However, there is a lack of empirical research that analyzes the Triple-A SC and its impacts on CA. The objective of the present work is to address this omission and to provide empirical evidence on this topic using a multiple-informant, international sample from eight developed countries. A consistent partial least squares structural equation model (PLSc) is used on data for 151 manufacturing plants in three industrial sectors to determine whether agility, alignment and adaptability have individual and/or joint effects on achieving a CA in SCs. In relation to the individual effects, different CAs are achieved by each of the Triple-A variables. SC adaptability has been shown to have a significant positive relationship with all the dimensions of CA. SC alignment affects most of these dimensions, but SC agility only affects financial CA and flexibility CA. This research does, however, confirm the positive relationship for the joint effect of the Triple-A SC variables and CA. The effects are significant on all the CA measures except quality. Important implications can be drawn for managers by showing how SC levers can be set to improve performance indicators.

Discussion and conclusions

Previous studies of Triple-A SC variables are few in number and, moreover, have for the most part been focused on the effect of these variables on different performance measures and not on the CA. The present study focuses on the effect of Triple-A variables on CA and contributes to filling this gap. The proposed model contributes to the literature with new evidence by analyzing a complex model that relates a set of variables that had never previously been studied jointly or in such great detail. Furthermore, the CA measures have also been analyzed independently and this enables the influence that SC agility, SC adaptability and SC alignment (individual effects) and Triple-A SC (cumulative joint effects) have on each measure to be seen, as well as more detailed results to be derived than if CAs were analyzed in aggregate terms. Individual variable effects are tested to determine whether they produce similar results that in the prior literature. However, previous studies do not analyze the various CA measures separately and they usually focus on performance measures.