Business & Management Studies

Unearthing the interplay between organisational resources, knowledge and industry 4.0 analytical decision support tools to achieve sustainability and supply chain wellbeing

Unearthing the interplay between organisational resources, knowledge and industry 4.0 analytical decision support tools to achieve sustainability and supply chain wellbeing

The findings highlight the importance of understanding how tacit resources are generated, stored, and analysed for effectively leveraging I4.0 decision support tools.

Authors

Emilia Vann Yaroson, Operations and Analytics Department, University of Huddersfield, Kirklees, UK.

Soumyadeb Chowdhury, Information, Operations and Management Sciences Department, TBS Business School, 1 Place Alphonse Jourdain, 31068, Toulouse, France.

Sachin Kumar Mangla, Full Professor and Director, Research Center for Digital Circular Economy for Sustainable Development Goals (DCE-SDG), Jindal Global Business School, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India.

Prasanta Kumar Dey, Operations and Information Management Department, Aston Business School, College of Business and Social Science, Aston University, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK.

Summary

Due to increasing supply chain disruptions and stakeholder demands for more environmentally friendly business models, managers are searching for ways to ensure sustainability and supply chain performance. We propose supply chain well-being (SCWB) as a new concept that offers a more comprehensive way of managing supply networks. Similarly, the opportunities for SCWB and sustainable business performance (SBP) are facilitated through the application of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) data-driven analytical decision support systems (ADSS).

In this context, our study examined the role of ADSS in fostering SBP and SCWB by integrating the theoretical perspectives stemming from organisational information processing theory (OIPT), resource-based view and the knowledge-based view. Our conceptual model was tested on 350 Vietnamese manufacturing SME managers using covariance-based structural equation modelling.

The findings highlight the importance of understanding how tacit resources are generated, stored, and analysed for effectively leveraging I4.0 decision support tools. This paper contributes to the existing literature in several ways. First, we extend the supply performance literature by proposing SCWB as a more comprehensive approach to managing supply chain networks.

We also show how ADSS can be absorbed by SMEs and extend the OIPT literature by elucidating the role of knowledge sharing, generation, and analysis for information processing capabilities. The findings offer policymakers, technology providers and practitioners to focus on information processing fit for achieving SBP and SCWB.

Published in: Annals of Operations Research

To read the full article, please click here.