key: cord-0041780-2z7wmlg3
authors: Zinn, Walter; Goldsby, Thomas J.
title: Global Supply Chains: Globalization Research in a Changing World
date: 2020-04-06
journal: nan
DOI: 10.1111/jbl.12241
sha: 3ad92047438341de25b31c8ee078fcbf85d0dfde
doc_id: 41780
cord_uid: 2z7wmlg3

nan

We all know of the famous Adam Smith concept of absolute advantage to explain the benefits of global trade. It is one of the earliest globalization ideas. It describes how trade potentializes the relative efficiencies of two economies. Suppose, for instance, that English firms are more efficient producing wool and French firms more efficient producing wine. Instead of each country producing both goods domestically, the absolute advantage argument is that both England and France would be better off producing what they do best and trading-wool exports to France and wine exports to England. Adam Smith was right in that the joint output would be greater and that both countries would be richer as a result. However, there is also an opposite argument in favor of market protection. Despite the overall gain in common wealth, trade can create losers. English wine producers and French wool producers would likely be harmed by free, open trade. Their interest stages the argument for market protections.

The clash between these two opposing arguments did not fundamentally change in nearly 250 years. In fact, it is as relevant today as ever. After a prolonged push for increased global trade following World War II, there is currently pushback in some settings. Think of renegotiating the NAFTA Treaty, the "trade war" with China, and Brexit as cases in point. Still, there are forces, such as remaining trade agreements, China's Belt and Road Initiative, and investment flows that continue to favor trade. As a result, we find ourselves facing an unprecedented level of uncertainty and change in global trade.

Change in global trade is principally driven by economic, technological, political, and natural factors. On the economic side, some countries increase/decrease their footprint either as producers of goods and services or as markets for imports. Technological innovation can also increase a country's footprint and improve the cost and service of global trade itself. Further, the ideology espoused by governments influences trade-related policies, from more open to more protectionist. Recently, firms were challenged by another type of global change, the threat posed by the spread of the coronavirus labeled COVID-19. In this instance, a health crisis has forced businesses to reconsider the logistics of people and freight across national boundaries in an effort to control the spread of contagion. This challenge in some cases made firms aware of their dependence on a single source of supply, leading them to make radical changes to their supply chains. Overall, these changes impose major challenges to supply chains; whether they are directly engaged in global trade or are, instead, a domestic supply chain affected by global actors.

In light of these challenges, we ask:

How are supply chains affected by changes in economic, technological, political, and natural forces taking shape around the world? How are they affected by the related volatility brought forth by uncertainty in the timing and extent of these changes? How can firms manage their effort to become more agile and responsive to customer demands when their supply chains stretch around the world?

Expansion or repatriation of global supply chains generally affects their length. When longer, supply chains operate across more legal jurisdictions and economic systems; and deal with labor pools with different talent levels, work rules, and wages. They also operate with transportation systems varying in efficiency and cost; and face different risks in economic stability and proclivity for natural disasters. Shorter supply chains tend to be simpler to manage but are less capable to take advantage of opportunities in global markets for sources of supply and customers.

At the firm level, whenever production facilities or distribution hubs are relocated or repurposed, issues such as network redesign come to the fore. A change in one node requires changes in many other nodes, whether they are directly related to global trade or not. Location factors, in turn, impact issues such as labor management, sustainability, transportation cost, and inventory/warehousing cost. And, of course, there is the additional need to acquire new management skills and remove outdated ones. Finally, trade uncertainty adds risk, both operational and financial, clouding investment decisions. These changes at the firm level clearly affect related supply chains. As one firm redesigns its supply chains, suppliers, third-party service providers, and customers are affected as well. In some cases, new processes are needed, while in others, new suppliers must be identified and qualified.

As globalization is furthered in some cases and rethought in others, corresponding research questions in supply chain management come to the fore. Global supply chain research is therefore a current and crucial topic. It must fulfill its role to help academics and practitioners understand current challenges and produce actionable results. Accordingly, the Journal of Business Logistics is issuing a call for a Special Topic Forum in Global Supply Chain Research. The call is for a broad-based STF looking into managerial issues regarding challenges in global supply chain management.

Research published in supply chain management journals in general, and in the Journal of Business Logistics in particular, is severely lacking at a global level. An exception is JBL's close partnership with the European Research Seminar, held annually in different European cities and attended mostly by European and American researchers. It provided a significant number of quality publications over the years. Still, we do not know enough about how changes in the global trade environment are affecting supply chains and the firms in them. Much more is needed.

Submissions of global-related papers typically fit into one or more of three broad categories: global trade, trade within multicountry agreements, and changes affecting domestic supply chains in countries foreign to the focal firm. Research in global trade and multi-country trade agreements encompasses issues related to, for instance, the impact of tariffs, currency risk, or the toll of political instability on supplier relations. Similarly, the challenges of tapping into new regulations, labor pools, or consumer markets whenever a supply chain is relocated to a new country make for interesting research as well. Furthermore, issues related to setting up a domestic supply chain in countries other than a firm's home country are a clearly underresearched topic deserving of attention. In addition, the impact of new technologies such as blockchain, additive manufacturing, or artificial intelligence on global supply chains might equally contribute to the STF, as technology is a key source of change in today's supply chains.

JBL's long-standing policy of being agnostic to the usage of different methodologies applies to this STF as well. The focus is not so much on the choice of method itself as it is on its suitability for the research questions being asked and how well it is applied.

Hence, the JBL Editor team is entertaining proposals for Guest Editors for a Special Topic Forum on global supply chains. The deadline for proposals is April 30, 2020. The STF's call should be out by July 31 and the deadline for submissions, March 31, 2021. Manuscripts will be reviewed as soon as they are received.

Let's now transition to the current issue of JBL. We lead off with an article by Foerstl and Franke (2020) that explores the phenomenon of cross-functional teams for sourcing. While collecting the inputs of experts from various parts of the organization for strategic procurement decision making seems routine today, the authors note that a collaborative approach to procurement can be rife with conflict. The research employs a large sample of participants from a social team experiment to measure the influence of factors such as goal misalignment, political behavior, and team conflict on team sourcing behavior and team members' satisfaction. The research offers rich perspectives for fellow academics but also those challenged with making crossfunctional engagement live up to its potential.

Next, Craighead et al. (2020) examine the prospects for successful new product launch in emerging markets based on distinct knowledge types. Two data collections yield different results, suggesting that emerging market footholds benefit extensively from logistics and competitive knowledge, whereas other forms of knowledge (namely, customer knowledge) become more prominent as markets mature. The analysis illustrates that logistics and other types of knowledge can be instrumental to new product launch in emerging markets. Yang et al. (2020) takes us into the realm of inventory optimization. The authors devise a trade-off analysis that affords managers the opportunity to right-size inventories against competing cost and service scenarios. The research examines itemand order-based inventory performance measures in a multi-item inventory system for finished goods. Inventory classification and inventory control policy decisions inform the analysis that can inspire academics and practitioners alike.

Finally, carriers, shippers, and regulators will take particular interest in the longitudinal analysis conducted by Miller et al. (2020) regarding the proclivity of small-and medium-sized motor carriers to comply with the U.S. electronic logging device (ELD) mandate, as the rules approached enforcement on December 18, 2017. The research employs multiple theories to explain how and why carriers of different size and geographic coverage complied differently as the mandate approached. The authors conduct a series of discrete choice logistic regression models on data spanning four months (September to December 2017) to arrive at their conclusions.

Enjoy the issue!

Emerging Market Footholds and Knowledge: An Examination of New Product Launch Performance

Goals, Conflict, Politics and Performance of Cross-Functional Sourcing Teams -Results from a Social Team Experiment

Electronic Logging Device (ELD) Compliance of Small & Medium Size Motor Carriers Prior to the

Improving Order Fulfillment Performance through Integrated Inventory Management in a Multi-item Finished Goods System