This study investigates the influence of an ambidextrous supply chain strategy on manufacturers’ combinative competitive capabilities – the ability to excel simultaneously on competitive capabilities of quality, delivery, flexibility, and cost – and, in turn, on business performance. Drawing upon March's (1991) notions of exploration and exploitation, an ambidextrous supply chain strategy is conceptualized as a simultaneous pursuit of both explorative and exploitative supply chain practices. We operationalize this concept as a second‐order latent construct that captures the co‐variation between exploration and exploitation within the context of a manufacturer's supply chain management strategy. Using survey‐based data gathered from 174 U.S. manufacturers, we find that an ambidextrous supply chain strategy coincides with combinative competitive capabilities and business performance. Our empirical finding contradicts conventional wisdom that argues for tradeoffs between exploration and exploitation. Instead, our empirical results are in line with an emerging complementarity view advocating that supply chain managers build practices to gain operational efficiency while simultaneously searching for opportunities to gain operational advantages. In addition, we provide insights regarding the role of combinative capabilities in mediating the relationship between an ambidextrous supply chain strategy and business performance.

Supply networks are composed of large numbers of firms from multiple interrelated industries. Such networks are subject to shifting strategies and objectives within a dynamic environment. In recent years, when faced with a dynamic environment, several disciplines have adopted the Complex Adaptive System (CAS) perspective to gain insights into important issues within their domains of study. Research investigations in the field of supply networks have also begun examining the merits of complexity theory and the CAS perspective. In this article, we bring the applicability of complexity theory and CAS into sharper focus, highlighting its potential for integrating existing supply chain management (SCM) research into a structured body of knowledge while also providing a framework for generating, validating, and refining new theories relevant to real-world supply networks. We suggest several potential research questions to emphasize how a * We sincerely thank Professors Thomas Choi (Arizona State University), David Dilts (Vanderbilt University), and Kevin Dooley (Arizona State University) for their help, guidance, and support. † Corresponding author. 548 Complexity and Adaptivity in Supply NetworksCAS perspective can help in enriching the SCM discipline. We propose that the SCM research community adopt such a dynamic and systems-level orientation that brings to the fore the adaptivity of firms and the complexity of their interrelations that are often inherent in supply networks.

This study investigates the role of learning and effective process implementation in the development of mass customization capability. Building upon the knowledge-based view of the firm, we argue that internal and external learning are two knowledgegeneration routines that contribute to effective process implementation. Effective process implementation, in turn, is a knowledgebased manufacturing capability, which, as a function of internal and external learning, leads to mass customization capability. We employ structural equation modeling to empirically test the effects of learning on mass customization capability, mediated by effective process implementation, using survey data collected from 100 manufacturing plants in 3 industries and 6 countries. Our results provide empirical evidence supporting the proposed model of the effect of internal and external learning on mass customization capability, fully mediated by effective process implementation. This research is one of the first studies to integrate insights from the knowledge-based view of the firm and mass customization. It complements the OM view of mass customization, which to date has largely focused on the technical side, by demonstrating the role of managerial practices and learning in cultivating mass customization capability in a manufacturing environment. Published by Elsevier B.V.