Integrative leadership for effective supply chain implementation: An empirical study of Korean firms

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2012.04.013Get rights and content

Abstract

In spite of the plentiful literature on the role of leadership in general, the role of integrative leadership as a critical implementation mechanism for supply chain has been rarely explored. Based on the literature review, this study presents a research model that defines integrative leadership grounded in goal congruence theory. Integrative leadership indicates that the extent to which three senior leaderships – Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Supply Chain Officer (SCO) – are congruent with the common goal of supply chain will lead to better supply chain implementation outcomes. Specifically, effective supply chain implementation outcomes are achieved through synergistic information flows enabled by integrative leadership. Structural Equation Model (SmartPLS) is used to test the hypothesized relationships through the use of empirical data of Korean 142 firms. The empirical results provide managerial insight on the impact of integrative leadership on intangible, value-based, and qualitative supply chain management performance goals. Future research issues are discussed as well.

Introduction

Increasingly, firms garner their attention to develop appropriate supply chain strategies for effective supply chain outcomes (Walters and Lancaster, 2000, Cousins, 2005). In spite of such great endeavor, supply chain strategic initiatives often do not succeed. The primary reasons behind this failure are derived from lack of a cohesive and inclusive mechanism for shared goal as well as integration of diverse roles of senior executive leadership for effective supply chain implementation. Prior literature has examined implementation mechanisms for the successful supply chain outcomes in terms of responsiveness (Koste and Malhotra, 1999), socialization (Cousins and Menguc, 2006), flexibility (Sawhney, 2006) and motivation (Linderman et al., 2006). Performance measurement impacts on leadership (Elenkov, 2002, Ukko et al., 2007), performance through leaders' profiles or goal orientation (Kulmala et al., 2009), dimension of strategic leadership, leadership efficiency and leader effectiveness (Hinterhuber and Friedrich, 2002, Byrne and Bradley, 2007) discuss essential roles of leadership on organizational performance outcomes. However, the role of integrative leadership as a critical implementation mechanism for supply chain management has rarely been explored.

This paper discusses how leadership that is congruent with the shared goal among senior executives is essential for enabling members to share strategic information-level information and in turn operational-level information, which lead to supply chain effectiveness. We call such leadership as integrative leadership. This integrative leadership involves highly collaborative and dynamic interactions among the key senior executives toward implementation of strategic initiative such as supply chain implementation in their organization.

This paper explores a primary research question, “What is the effective integrative leadership mechanism for supply chain effectiveness”? Specifically, this article examines integrative leadership that involves the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Supply Chain Officer (SCO). Because of their different positions in the organization, each executive has diverse perspectives and preferences. Thus, the integrative leadership mechanism requires shared motivation of these executives which enable them to work toward implementing effective processes and supply chain performance outcomes.

Based on the literature review, this study presents a research model that highlights the focus of this research. An empirical validation is done through the survey data of 142 Korean firms. This paper is organized as follows. In the next section this study provides a literature review that presents theoretical rationale for the conceptual framework. For the hypotheses development specific research model is presented and the variables are defined. Each hypothesis defines and explains the nature of causal relationships between variables based on previous literature support or essential interactive characteristics of related variables. In the subsequent section this study discusses the research methods, analysis and results. The final section presents implications of this research and concluding remarks with a summary of limitations and future research issues.

Section snippets

Literature review

This section provides the theoretical rationale of this research aim. Specifically, this study discusses three aspects of effective integrative leadership mechanism in terms of integrative leadership for shared goals, synergistic information flows, and supply chain implementation outcomes. Fig. 1 shows the conceptual framework for an effective integrative leadership mechanism. This study examines how an integrative leadership that is congruent with supply chain goals positively influences the

Hypotheses development

The research model identifies the key variables. An effective research model needs to indicate valid contribution, adequate fit to the research focus and parsimony of the model (Li et al., 2005, Stevenson et al., 2011). This paper presents a research model related to integrative leadership of three major senior executives with the goal of supply chain implementation. Integrative leadership involves the CEO's awareness of the strategic value of supply chain management and the role of IT on

Survey instruments

In developing survey instruments, we have applied generally accepted research practices. Pilot study is generally recommended for rigorous instrument development before proceeding with the main survey (Hong et al., 2005, Hong et al., 2011, Liao et al., 2010). However, in view of relative small population in Korea, it was not practical to conduct both rigorous pilot study and main survey research. Instead, we engaged in rigorous literature review for selecting and developing valid items for each

PLS (Partial Least Square)

In order to test our proposed hypotheses, this study uses Partial Least Square (PLS), a component based structural estimation modeling technique and more specifically, SmartPLS package version 2.0.M3 (Ringle et al., 2005, Claassen et al., 2008). PLS has its distinct features compared to other structural equation modeling techniques such as LISREL/AMOS, covariance based structural equation modeling techniques. For example, PLS does not have minimal requirements of the restrictive assumptions

Discussion

This research proposed a conceptual framework and empirically tested a set of hypotheses concerning the impact of integrative leadership for shared goal on effective supply chain implementation outcomes through synergistic information flow.

Concluding remarks

Several limitations of this study are mentioned here before discussing research implications. A single-respondent (e.g., president, information technology director or purchasing manager) from each firm participated in the survey. Thus, this study shares the limitation of survey methods based on single respondents (Boyer and McDermott, 1999). Our research results report the individual perceptions on the nature of integrative leadership and performance impacts in his/her firm. Thus, it might not

References (87)

  • A. Gunasekaran et al.

    A framework for supply chain performance measurement

    International Journal of Production Economics

    (2004)
  • H.H. Hinterhuber et al.

    The technology dimension of strategic leadership

    International Journal of Production Economics

    (2002)
  • P. Hong et al.

    Role changes of design engineers in integrated product development

    Journal of Operations Management

    (2005)
  • P. Hong et al.

    Knowledge sharing and strategic fit in integrated product development: an empirical study

    International Journal of Production Economics

    (2011)
  • J.M. Howell et al.

    Champions of technological innovation: the influence of contextual knowledge, role orientation, idea generation, and idea promotion on champion emergence

    The Leadership Quarterly

    (2004)
  • S.D. Jap

    Perspectives on joint competitive advantages in buyer-supplier relationships

    International Journal of Research in Marketing

    (2001)
  • L.L. Koste et al.

    A theoretical framework for analyzing the dimensions of manufacturing flexibility

    Journal of Operations Management

    (1999)
  • H.I. Kulmala et al.

    Performance through measuring leader's profiles: an empirical study

    International Journal of Production Economics

    (2009)
  • D.M. Lambert et al.

    Issues in supply chain management

    Industrial Marketing Management

    (2000)
  • S. Li et al.

    Accessing information sharing and information quality in supply chain management

    Decision Support Systems

    (2006)
  • S. Li et al.

    Development and validation of a measurement instrument for studying supply chain management practices

    Journal of Operations Management

    (2005)
  • K. Linderman et al.

    Six sigma: the role of goals in improvement teams

    Journal of Operations Management

    (2006)
  • J.T. Mentzer et al.

    The nature of interfirm partnering in supply chain management

    Journal of Retailing

    (2000)
  • M. Pagell

    Understanding the factors that enable and inhibit the integration of operations, purchasing and logistics

    Journal of Operations Management

    (2004)
  • C. Prahinski et al.

    Supplier evaluations: communication strategies to improve supplier performance

    Journal of Operations Management

    (2004)
  • R. Rauniar et al.

    Shared knowledge and product design glitches in integrated product development

    International Journal of Production Economics

    (2008)
  • J.C. Real et al.

    Information technology as a determinant of organizational learning and technological distinctive competencies

    Industrial Marketing Management

    (2006)
  • E. Rosenzweig

    A contingent view of e-collaboration and performance in manufacturing

    Journal of Operations Management

    (2009)
  • S. Samaddar et al.

    Inter-organizational information sharing: the role of supply network configuration and partner goal congruence

    European Journal of Operational Research

    (2006)
  • R. Sawhney

    Interplay between uncertainty and flexibility across the value-chain: towards a transformation model of manufacturing flexibility

    Journal of Operations Management

    (2006)
  • M. Stevenson et al.

    The theory and practice of workload control: a research agenda and implementation strategy

    International Journal of Production Economics

    (2011)
  • M. Tenenhaus et al.

    PLS path modeling

    Computational Statistics and Data Analysis

    (2005)
  • J. Ukko et al.

    Performance measurement impacts on management and leadership: perspectives of management and employees

    International Journal of Production Economics

    (2007)
  • L. Vijayasarathy

    An investigation of moderators of the link between technology use in the supply chain and supply chain performance

    Information & Management

    (2010)
  • H. Zhou et al.

    Supply chain practice and information sharing

    Journal of Operations Management

    (2007)
  • J.C. Anderson et al.

    Structural equation modeling in practice: a review and recommended two-step approach

    Psychological Bulletin

    (1988)
  • H.I. Ansoff

    Corporate Strategy: An Analytical Approach to Business Policy for Growth and Expansion

    (1965)
  • J.S. Armstrong et al.

    Estimating nonresponse bias in mail surveys

    Journal of Marketing Research

    (1977)
  • B.M. Beamon

    Measuring supply chain performance

    International Journal of Operations & Production Management

    (1999)
  • W.R. Boswell

    Employee alignment and the role of “line of sight”

    Human Resource Planning

    (2000)
  • J. Bower et al.

    Strategy formulation: a social and political process

  • J.F. Brett et al.

    Goal orientation and goal content as predictors of performance in a training program

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1999)
  • R.D. Bretz et al.

    Person-organization fit and the theory of work adjustment: implications for satisfaction, tenure, and career success

    Journal of Vocational Behavior

    (1994)
  • Cited by (35)

    • Supply chain leadership and firm performance: A meta-analysis

      2021, International Journal of Production Economics
      Citation Excerpt :

      Gosling et al. (2016) concluded that the role of leadership in the supply chain is important, and stated that if one organisation takes a leadership role, this can reduce risks and prevent chaos in the supply chain. In other words, appropriate SCL can facilitate superior SCM (Youn et al., 2012, which is critical to organisational performance improvement (Jermsittiparsert and Srihirun, 2019). In addition, some argued that SCL can generate improvement in various firm performance measures (Saini et al., 2018).

    • Managing sustainability orientation: An empirical investigation of manufacturing firms

      2019, International Journal of Production Economics
      Citation Excerpt :

      Such internal implementation efforts considers involvement of customers in planning order sizes, stabilizing production schedules and minimizing bullwhip effect. Strengthening customer relationship results in improved forecasting, information integration and implementation of pull production methods (Koufteros et al., 2007; Youn et al., 2012). This is about translating internal operational level intent/goals, OSI, into back-end effective actions, DBP.

    • Supply chain information capabilities and performance outcomes: An empirical study of Korean steel suppliers

      2014, International Journal of Information Management
      Citation Excerpt :

      It is the people that implement plans and systems for them to function. Thus, relational trust on system structure and the intent of leadership and information quality in terms of content and manner of information exchange is crucial for effective decision making at the work level (Youn, Yang, & Hong, 2012). Information processing theory suggests that the real work is through sharing relevant information in a timely and reliable manner among key stakeholders (Daft & Lengel, 1986; Hong, Doll, & Nahm, 2004).

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text