How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect firm-supplier-customer relationships? We find that, by the end of 2020q1, U.S. firms lost as many as 10.3% of their Chinese suppliers, suffering market value losses of up to $1.4 trillion. Affected U.S. firms were unable to relocate their supply chains,...

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is one of the most influential technologies of the twenty-first century. Today, RFID technology is being applied in a wide array of disciplines in science research and industrial projects. The significant impact of RFID is clearly visible by the rate of...

Since the early 2000s, there has been rapid growth in the number and spread of supermarkets in southern Africa. This paper is a synthesis of key findings of studies undertaken in Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe on the expansion of supermarkets and the impact this has had on...

This paper explores the effect of the spread of supermarkets on the participation of suppliers in supermarket value chains in Botswana and South Africa. Using secondary data and in-depth interviews with key players in the value chain, the paper evaluates the buyer power of supermarkets evidenced...

Cost reduction has been a major driver of outsourcing. However, recent product recalls suggests that purchasing cost reduction alone is not enough. In this paper, we incorporate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) perspective into a two-stage leader-follower game to analyze the decisions made by...

Purpose: This paper examines the multiplicity of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standards, explaining its nature, dynamics, and implications for Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) and International Business (IB), especially in the context of CSR and global value chain (GVC)...

Objective: The aim of this article is to investigate the impact of vertical R&D cooperation on market performance of firms. Specifically, we explore the impact of vertical R&D cooperation on firms’ process innovation, outputs, market prices, and economic profits. Research Design & Methods: We...

Using case study data, we describe how a large personal computer manufacturer changed its supply-chain management strategy after outsourcing the majority of its design and manufacturing activities to a network of focused suppliers. To cope with this new structure, the firm created highly skilled...