No abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to design a framework for assessing supplier sustainability (in terms of survivability) within the defence industry based on financial and operational dimensions. Design/methodology/approach – The research employs a case study approach to identify a research gap in the area of supplier performance measurement and proposes five dimensions to assess supplier sustainability from the review of literature and industry practice while employing a systematic approach to generate measures for each dimension with suggested actions to improve sustainability. Findings – The sustainability measures, dimensions and improvement actions developed were validated with industrial experts from three defence companies and implemented as a sustainability system. A case study was applied and the results were generated. Research limitations/implications – Future research could include further case study application and application of dimensions and measures to other industries. Practical implications – The paper offers managerial implications about the need to consider the survivability of suppliers in the long term, especially in the current economic climate and think about mitigation strategies to enable economic sustainability. Originality/value – This paper adds to the existing knowledge in the supply chain area and proposes a novel approach to supplier performance measurement and management which is holistic.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the challenges in the servitization journey of product-centric firms from an ecosystem perspective, considering both intra-firm and inter-firm levels. Prior research addresses the challenges of servitization in many sectors from different perspectives. However, the majority of studies primarily focus on the provider of an offering. There is a lack of in-depth studies on analysing servitization challenges from the broader set of network actors including customers, suppliers, and sub-suppliers at the intra-firm and inter-firm levels. A multiple case study method was used to analyse five product-centric firms from different industries that were engaged in servitization. At intra- firm level, our analysis shows that ‘coordination’ is a major challenge for the provider, supplier, and sub-suppliers, and that ‘uncertainty’ and ‘risk’ is a major challenge for the provider, customer, and supplier. At inter-firm level, ‘partnership management’ found to be a most significant challenge for provider, customer, supplier, and sub-suppliers. The study contributes to the discussion of the relational view approach for servitization research.