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Abstract

The overall purpose of this dissertation is to understand how networks interact with each other in a supply chain context. In particular, this thesis investigates the embeddedness of firms in networks, the characteristics of networks, and their impact on the focal firm performance. Firms are embedded in two separate networks: the internal network consisting of the parent company and its subsidiaries, and the external network consisting of customers, suppliers, and their subsidiaries. Incorporating three theoretical perspectives: embeddedness, social network theory and complexity theory, this dissertation examines three research questions:

(1) What is the relationship between physical proximity of the firm with its supply network, geographic dispersion of its internal network and its financial performance?

(2) What are the impacts of the dimensions of buyer network complexity on supplier operational and sales performance?

(3) What is the relationship between the degree of sharedness of suppliers, shared suppliers’ centrality, and buyer innovation performance?

The first study¹ argues that the relationship between the firm’s physical proximity with its supply network and firm performance is moderated by the degree of geographic dispersion of its internal network. Using a large-scale study based on secondary data, the first paper is one of the first studies that offer an understanding of the possible interaction of internal and supply networks of a buying firm and the effect on performance. The dataset consists of 100 buying firms from the electronics industry where their supply network data is collected from FactSet and internal network data from Orbis. The results reveal that the performance effects of physical proximity of the firm with its supply network is negatively moderated by the geographic dispersion of the firm’s internal network.

In the second study², the focus is on the complexity defined at the buyer network-level. Therefore, the impacts of structural dimensions of buyer complexity (i.e., horizontal, vertical, and spatial) on supplier sales performance as well as its operational performance are examined, and these dimensions are formulated by including the additional layer of the buyer’s internal network complexity. These impacts are examined using 96 supplying firms and their 4,163 buyers from the electronics industry, collected from FactSet. The internal network data of these buyers is collected from Orbis in order to operationalize the network constructs. The results confirm that the consideration of complexity at the downstream side is important and support the argument that examining internal complexity of buyers’ networks uncovers differential effects when looking at the structure of these networks.

The third study examines two important factors resulting in a buyer higher innovation performance: the extent of shared suppliers that the buyer has in its supply network with its peers and the centrality of these shared suppliers. This study also suggests that there is an interplay between these two factors and that, together, they will strengthen the impact on buying firm innovation. This study builds on a dataset containing 96 public buying firms (focal firms) with their supply networks resulting in a total of 4,713 suppliers. Overall, the results reveal the importance of considering the centrality of the shared suppliers and shed light on supplier centrality when buying firms search for critical input on innovative technologies and processes.

¹ This study got shortlisted into the Harry Boer award for the best paper authored by a PhD student in EurOMA 2020, and soon later, the paper was invited to a special issue in the International Journal of Operations & Production Management. The paper went through a major and then a minor revision process before being accepted in May 2021. Please find paper here: Chedid, F., Kocabasoglu-Hillmer, C. and Ries, J., 2021. The interaction between supply networks and internal networks: performance implications. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 41(6), pp. 860–881.

² This paper was presented at EurOMA 2021 online Conference and was published in the conference proceedings.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Bayes Business School Doctoral Theses Bayes Business School > Faculty of Management Doctoral Theses

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