This study investigates key components of supply chain collaboration that contribute to firm performance in vertical collaboration with supply chain partners based on supply chain management experiences on the leather and footwear companies in Vietnam as well as how they work in these companies from an extended resource-based perspective. The mix-research methods employed, include prior studies' review, in-depth interviews with seven experts in the leather and footwear industry, and case studies at three typical companies in this sector. The results indicate that seven critical supply chain collaboration components, such as information sharing, goal congruence, decision synchronization, joint knowledge creation, incentive alignment, resource sharing, and collaborative communication, have a significant impact on firm performance in the context of leather and footwear companies in Vietnam. Accordingly, companies in the leather and footwear industry, as well as those struggling to maximize firm performance can use it as a reference and put it into action.

This study focuses on reviewing, analyzing, comparing lean assessment methods/tools from previous researches, and selecting an appropriate method/tool, and then applying the selected one to evaluate the leanness level in the specific company. Literature review and case study research at JVN-Company are conducted in this study. The result finds that: (a) LAT developed by Pakdil & Leonard (2014) is the effective tool to measure efforts in implementing Lean and identify wastes from Lean perspective within an enterprise; and (b) By applying LAT to assess the leanness level at JVN company, the results show that JVN company has achieved the leanness level at 68,58%; while Customer dimension has the highest LAT score showing that JVN has high customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, the delivery dimension, particularly late delivery, is in special need of improvement in comparison with other dimensions. Accordingly, a few proposals have been recommended for JVN to consider and adopt the appropriate ones to improve its performance. Overall, the results of this study provide helpful references for manufacturing companies in Vietnam to self–assess their leanness comprehensively, thereby developing the proper and effective roadmap for Lean transformation.

This study aims to investigate the components of supply chain collaboration, their impacts on firm performance, and the moderation of innovation capability on the relationship between supply chain collaboration components and firm performance in the real world of manufacturing companies in Vietnam. A two-phase approach, including exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis in structural equation modelling with the support of SPSS/AMOS 20 is conducted to verify the proposed hypotheses based on supply chain collaboration activities of 241 manufacturing firms in Vietnam under the extended resource-based view—capability-based approach—specifying innovation capability. The results indicate that six supply chain collaboration components—information sharing, goal congruence, joint knowledge creation, incentive alignment, resource sharing, and collaborative communication—have a significant impact on firm performance, while decision synchronisation has no statistically proven impact on firm performance. Particularly, collaborative communication has the greatest positive impact, and innovation capability can considerably alter the positive relationship between supply chain collaboration components and firm performance. Accordingly, manufacturing companies in Vietnam and their supply chain partners should strategically prioritise resources for supply chain collaboration activities and capitalise on potential networks to foster an inter-organizational learning-oriented culture for improving innovation capability and achieving firm performance.