{"title":"The effect of blockchain implementation on supply chain disputes","authors":"Xiaoqi Lyu , Baofeng Huo , Min Tian","doi":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109708","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109708","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although the significance of blockchain implementation has been broadly recognized, it is uncertain how a firm's blockchain implementation may further influence its supply chain relationships. This study fills the gap by exploring the relationship between blockchain implementation and supply chain disputes. Specifically, this study proposes that buyers with blockchain implementation are more likely to foment disputes with their suppliers, based on a substitution interaction between governance mechanisms. It also investigates how this impact may be moderated by corporate ethics and resource availability factors. A unique panel dataset of listed Chinese firms from multiple resources is created to test the hypotheses. The results suggest that a buyer's blockchain implementation is positively associated with supply chain disputes. Moreover, this positive relationship is weaker when buyers exhibit a higher level of technology for social good (TSG) orientation and engage in fewer financial misconducts. Conversely, the positive relationship is stronger when buyers operate in environments with higher supplier concentration and receive lower analyst recommendations. Our study makes both methodological and theoretical contributions. Specifically, we employ GPT-4 to help identify supply chain disputes with the buyer's violation. We also use a machine learning approach through combining the “continuous bag of words” (CBOW) method with the BERT NLP model to extract TSG orientation from unstructured annual reports, enabling both efficient and comprehensive understanding of semantic information. Our findings provide valuable insights for buyers, suppliers and policy makers in developing strategies to mitigate the adverse effect of blockchain implementation on supply chain relationships.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14287,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Production Economics","volume":"288 ","pages":"Article 109708"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144491809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A process model of governance adaptation and performance outcomes in e-commerce permissioned blockchain networks","authors":"Sulafa Badi , Livashnee Naidoo","doi":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109709","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109709","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>E-commerce-permissioned Blockchain networks are enablers of new governance mechanisms, leveraging Blockchain technology to enable parties in e-commerce supply chains to collaborate on and coordinate transactions. Despite the widespread interest in forming these business networks, there is little understanding of how joining these networks affects the established contractual and relational governance mechanisms among supply chain partners. Consequently, this study adopts an input-process-outcome (IPO) process model to examine the effects of Blockchain-enabled governance mechanisms on traditional governance (contractual and relational) in e-commerce permissioned Blockchain networks and performance outcomes. We employ a quantitative research design and collect data from e-commerce permissioned Blockchain consortium members worldwide, analysing data from 361 individual respondents using CFA and SEM. The findings show that as the Blockchain platform's transaction-level and administrative-level capabilities increase, so do the changes in contractual and relational governance mechanisms employed by supply chain actors. Furthermore, changes in relational governance have a significant positive correlation with performance outcomes. However, changes in contractual governance negatively impact performance outcomes. Managers in e-commerce permissioned Blockchain networks can enhance performance by prioritising relational governance, adopting flexible contracts, streamlining administrative processes, and proactively managing risks, thus maximising the potential benefits of Blockchain technology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14287,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Production Economics","volume":"288 ","pages":"Article 109709"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144366284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Production–inventory planning in high-tech low-volume manufacturing supply chains","authors":"Tijn Fleuren , Yasemin Merzifonluoglu , Renata Sotirov , Maarten Hendriks","doi":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109687","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109687","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper studies production–inventory planning in high-tech low-volume manufacturing supply chains, where long production lead times, complex network structures, multiple capacity constraints, as well as non-stationary demand and supply uncertainty, complicate production and safety stock placement decisions. The majority of academic approaches considers these problems under limiting assumptions about the system, while practitioners mostly rely on suboptimal heuristic integration of plans. We bridge the gap between stylized stochastic inventory models and industrial production planning practices by developing novel practice-driven multi-stage stochastic programming models. We validate our methodology in the uncapacitated single-product setting without lead time uncertainty by benchmarking strategic safety stock levels against an approach based on the seminal stochastic service model, which we tailor to accommodate the non-stationary demand. Additionally, we analyze the impact of capacity constraints and lead time uncertainty on safety stock requirements, and demonstrate how the performance of the benchmark solution regresses under these complexities. Finally, to support production–inventory decisions in view of the short life cycles of high-tech products, we adapt our modeling framework to new product introduction planning under modular product design, motivated by the setting of our industry partner, ASML. Following a fast-time-to-market strategy, we investigate optimal ramp-up and phase-out plans given interdependent demand and supply uncertainty due to risks in technology development. This study highlights the flexibility of our approach in addressing specific challenges encountered in real-world planning problems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14287,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Production Economics","volume":"288 ","pages":"Article 109687"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144491807","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jon Bokrantz , Mukund Subramaniyan , Anders Skoogh
{"title":"Seizing opportunity: Advancing the science and practice of opportunistic maintenance in manufacturing","authors":"Jon Bokrantz , Mukund Subramaniyan , Anders Skoogh","doi":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109704","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109704","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Opportunistic Maintenance (OM) remains underutilized in manufacturing despite being introduced over half a century ago. To break new ground, this article seeks to provide concept clarity and demonstrate the potential of artificial intelligence techniques for OM in a manufacturing context. Through an analysis of the existing OM literature, we provide clarity in the OM theory and distinguish two separate views of OM that we dub the ‘component view’ and the ‘flow view’. We then integrate the two views into a new and unified conceptual definition of OM followed by expanding the OM concept by embedding four distinct time constructs: frequency, duration, sequence, and timing. To pave the way for novel OM tools, we demonstrate a real-world application of data-driven prediction of maintenance opportunity windows in an automotive manufacturing line using a long short-term memory algorithm. Evaluated against a naïve benchmark, our model showed quantitatively superior predictive performance on precision, recall, and F1 score. Our theoretical and practical implications relate to increasing the coherence in OM scholarship, making OM research easily understandable by working professionals, and creating new directions for OM tools capable of learning, adapting, and responding to changing production dynamics. We thereby offer a unified foundation for creating impactful OM theory and tools, aiming to inspire maintenance scholars to pursue the OM topic in their own research to deepen the understanding of OM and fully unlock its productivity potential in manufacturing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14287,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Production Economics","volume":"288 ","pages":"Article 109704"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144329756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Platform's role in green vs. non-green product competition: Blockchain transparency and selling contract selection","authors":"Jianghua Wu, Junzhu Yao, Yuqian Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109703","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109703","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>By enhancing transparency, blockchain facilitates product greenness verification, boosting consumer trust and willingness to pay for greener products. This study examines the impact of blockchain transparency and asymmetric selling contracts on upstream competition and free-riding effects, focusing on greenness and supply chain profits. In our model, the downstream platform offers reselling or agency contracts to the asymmetric green and non-green suppliers. First, the findings reveal that under a low (high) commission rate, a reselling contract for the non-green supplier and an agency (reselling) contract for the green supplier is most effective in enhancing greenness. Second, blockchain adoption consistently increases the non-green supplier's profits but does not always benefit the green supplier. Notably, higher blockchain costs reduce the green supplier's profits but may increase the non-green supplier's profits. Third, platform profitability varies with market conditions, and each of the four contract forms can become optimal under certain conditions. Specifically, a reselling contract with the green supplier is optimal under a low commission rate but shifts to an agency contract as the rate rises, while the non-green supplier undergoes this shift at a higher rate threshold. Notably, at an extremely high commission rate and blockchain transparency, reverting to a reselling contract with the green supplier maximizes platform profits. Finally, under a moderately low commission rate and high transparency, combining a reselling contract for the non-green supplier with an agency contract for the green supplier achieves the highest greenness while aligning with optimal strategies for platform profitability and overall supply chain efficiency.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14287,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Production Economics","volume":"288 ","pages":"Article 109703"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144297723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hongxia Sun , Zhijie Wang , Ke Yan , T.C.E. Cheng , Guowei Hua
{"title":"How to arrange production and carbon emissions reduction? Thoughts towards remanufacturing authorization, risk aversion and carbon cap-and-trade","authors":"Hongxia Sun , Zhijie Wang , Ke Yan , T.C.E. Cheng , Guowei Hua","doi":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109702","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109702","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Remanufacturing can reduce carbon emissions and yield economic benefits, which is often carried out by an independent remanufacturer (IR) rather than the original equipment manufacturer (OEM). Moreover, OEM applies remanufacturing authorization to compete and cooperate with IR. However, the IR's risk aversion, which arises from the uncertainty of the remanufacturing market, posing challenges to supply chain. Considering remanufacturing authorization strategies and risk-aversion, we apply the Cournot game to study the decisions of an OEM and a risk-averse IR under the carbon cap-and-trade (CCT) policy. Furthermore, the impact of consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for remanufactured product is discussed. We find that the IR's risk aversion negatively impacts the choice of the remanufacturing strategy. And low risk aversion can strengthen the positive effect of consumers' WTP for remanufactured product on the IR and environment, while weakening the negative impact on the OEM. In addition, compared with the IR's carbon emissions reduction (CER) cost coefficient and carbon price, the impact of risk aversion is more significant. Moreover, the increase in competition intensity has a negative impact on the OEM and IR, and this effect cannot be offset by changes in carbon price and consumers' low carbon preference. From the perspectives of society and consumers, fixed remanufacturing authorization is superior to unit remanufacturing authorization. Compared with the policy without CCT, CCT policy imposes restrictions on the OEM's production and profitability, but is beneficial to the IR's development and environmental protection.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14287,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Production Economics","volume":"288 ","pages":"Article 109702"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144312964","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Supporting delivery allocation decisions in a beverage company with multi-criteria methods and an optimization model","authors":"Laís Sant'anna Fonseca , Diogo Lima","doi":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109701","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109701","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Bidding processes are common for transparency purposes in several areas, such as civil construction and energy exploration. Usually, public agencies are responsible for the projects and formal notices are launched for the competition of interested parties. Also, those processes may occur in the private sector, and the decision process involves multiple dimensions that may be conflicting. The present study presents a multi-criteria model to support decisions involving the allocation of deliveries (pallets) in the bidding process of a beverage company, where a set of carriers compete for the distribution of beverages in routes. On each route, there is a specific set of competing carriers. In addition, a carrier can participate in the process of more than one route, however, the carrier's capacity must be respected, considering the combination of allocations received on the solution. The Best-Worst Method (BWM) is used to obtain weights for criteria that are later applied in the PROMETHEE II method. The net flows from PROMETHEE II are then used in an assignment model, which outputs the share allocated to each carrier in each route. The tests and models include several practical constraints, and the approach achieved consistent results that may be replicated to support decision-making and future processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14287,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Production Economics","volume":"288 ","pages":"Article 109701"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144306894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Botond Benedek , Ottó Csiki , Krisztina Demeter , Dávid Losonci , Levente Szász
{"title":"Financial impact of digitalization – A time-lagged analysis","authors":"Botond Benedek , Ottó Csiki , Krisztina Demeter , Dávid Losonci , Levente Szász","doi":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109699","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109699","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While digitalization represents a widespread phenomenon, it does not always yield the expected financial benefits (digitalization paradox) and studies offer contradictory findings in this sense. This study aims to ease this contradiction by considering the potential time-lagged effects, the interrelatedness of financial indicators, and the complex nature of digitalization. We rely on the DuPont framework to investigate the impact of digitalization on interconnected financial performance indicators such as the efficiency of asset use (fixed asset turnover), profitability (EBITDA margin), and financial return (ROE), with immediate, 1-year, and 2-year effects. To assess firms’ digitalization, we analyze the annual reports of publicly listed automotive companies between 2012 and 2022 by two complementary methods (i.e., a machine learning algorithm and a keyword-centric content analysis). Panel regression results suggest that the financial impact of digitalization is not straightforward. It (i) improves fixed asset turnover both over short (same year) and longer periods (1–2 years lag); (ii) but does not lead to an increase in profitability; (iii) its impact on ROE becomes significant only after 2 years. In addition, these patterns are the same when traditional and advanced technologies are investigated separately, with a notable exception of ROE, on which traditional technologies exert both immediate and lagged positive impact. These findings suggest that companies investing in advanced digitalization can avoid the digitalization paradox through the more efficient use of assets but not through higher profitability, achieving better financial returns only in the longer run.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14287,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Production Economics","volume":"288 ","pages":"Article 109699"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144297722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Examining the impact of reshoring initiatives on shareholder wealth of its domestic suppliers","authors":"Shukai Zhang , Minhao Zhang , Xiaojun Wang , Wen Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109700","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109700","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recent global disruptions have exposed the vulnerabilities of international supply chains, fueling a growing trend toward reshoring. While the existing literature largely focuses on the impact of reshoring on focal companies, limited attention has been paid to its financial consequences for domestic suppliers. This study seeks to fill this gap by examining how reshoring initiatives affect the shareholder wealth of domestic suppliers in the United States manufacturing sector. Drawing on Transaction Cost Economics (TCE), we find that reshoring leads to negative financial outcomes for domestic suppliers due to increased transaction costs, heightened asset specificity, and vulnerability to opportunism. We further demonstrate that supplier dependence, industry competition, and financial constraints exacerbate these adverse effects. However, mutual dependence between domestic suppliers and reshoring companies mitigates the negative consequences observed. Our study contributes to the reshoring literature by extending the focus beyond focal companies to include the overlooked financial implications for domestic suppliers, offering new insights into the complexity of supply chain relationships through the lens of TCE.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14287,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Production Economics","volume":"287 ","pages":"Article 109700"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144255070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Symmetric or asymmetric? Value-added service design for new and remanufactured products under competition","authors":"Yiwen Zhang , Myat Su Han , Kai Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109682","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109682","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Remanufactured products, although seen as pro-environmental alternatives to new ones, may evoke consumer skepticism regarding quality. Value-added service provided to customers after purchase can efficiently alleviate this concern and inspire consumption. However, the inherent competition between new and remanufactured products in price and service raises a vital question on who should provide value-added services, and at what modes, in a supply chain. Using game-theoretic models, we examine four potential service modes: symmetric cases (Scenario M or R), where a manufacturer provides value-added services to both products or delegates the retailer to provide services, and asymmetric cases (Scenario MR or RM), where a manufacturer provides services to remanufactured products, leaving the new ones up to the retailer, or vice versa. We find that asymmetric cases result in the highest and the lowest service qualities; that is, the manufacturer (or the retailer) would provide the poorest (or the highest) service quality when the other party acts as a service competitor. In contrast, symmetric cases result in the highest and the lowest retail prices; that is, product competition stimulates service quality but does not necessarily intensify price competition. Additionally, when the service cost coefficient falls within a certain range, the retailer counterintuitively raises sales prices for both products even when the manufacturer undertakes service costs. Finally, the total revenues under asymmetric cases decrease due to the increased competing effect, whereas Scenario R generates the highest profits for both parties. However, for consumers, the asymmetric cases would be more beneficial.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14287,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Production Economics","volume":"287 ","pages":"Article 109682"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144262474","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}