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M uch of the empirical research in the past two decades has suggested that quality management (QM) is context dependent. This research develops an empirical QM model in a technology-based sectorelectronics manufacturing. Based on quantitative and qualitative investigations of 225 electronics firms in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of China, a path analytic model is developed. The empirical model shows that a typical quality management system (QMS) in the electronics industry is composed of four major modules, namely leadership, cultural elements, operational support systems, and process management. These modules create a series of chain effects on organizational performance, rather than acting as parallel elements with an equal impact. By quantifying their effects on organizational performance and comparing the model to others in the literature, we identify those QM constructs that are context dependent. In electronics manufacturing, process management and customer focus are more important than other elements (e.g., cultural factors) for garnering business results. This study contributes to contingency theory and research by identifying the key constructs and their relationships in a competitive, volatile, and technology-based industry with complex supply networks.

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The classical newsvendor problem seeks to minimize the expected inventory cost or maximize the expected profit. But optimizing an expected value alone does not fully capture the stochastic nature of the newsvendor problem. Inspired by the higher‐moment analyses explored in finance literature, we conduct a mean‐variance‐skewness‐kurtosis (MVSK) analysis for the newsvendor problem. We first derive the analytical expressions for the profit’s mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis in the standard newsvendor setting, and reveal their structural properties. We then establish various MVSK optimization problems and find the solution to each of them. We show that kurtosis aversion always induces the newsvendor to order less, while skewness seeking can induce the newsvendor to order either more or less depending on the specific structure of the profit’s skewness, which is affected by the symmetric and asymmetric properties of the demand distribution. Finally, based on the Pareto‐optimality concept, we address the challenge of supply chain coordination (SCC) in the presence of MVSK agents in two specific cases: (i) each agent maximizes its MVSK‐objective‐function and (ii) each agent maximizes its expected profit function, subject to given constraints on the profit’s variance, skewness, and kurtosis. In each case, we explore whether and how the supply chain can be coordinated. We find that considering the MVSK preferences of supply chain agents will affect the achievability of SCC and flexibility of the coordinating contract. We also uncover that if we assume an individual MVSK agent to be an MV one, the achievability of SCC by contracts will be very much negatively affected.

Purpose Buyer’s dependence on its key supplier for critical resources and capabilities is generally considered as creating a disadvantageous position for the buyer and undermining its business performance. This study aims to invoke arguments from resource dependence theory (RDT) to examine if this adverse effect of buyer’s dependence is moderated by the buyer’s absorptive capacity and a long-term relationship with the key supplier. Design/methodology/approach Using a data set drawn from 204 manufacturing firms in Australia, this study tested the proposed model using hierarchical moderated regression analysis. Findings The finding shows that buyer’s dependence on its key supplier by itself has no significant effect on the buyer’s business performance. However, the link between buyer’s dependence on its key supplier and performance is positively moderated by the level of the buyer’s absorptive capacity, as well as by the joint effect of buyer’s absorptive capacity and a long-term relationship with the key supplier. Practical implications As buyer’s dependence is often difficult to avoid, the finding of this study is instructive in showing managers how to strategically mitigate the effect of their firm’s dependence on a key supplier; indeed, turn it into a positive outcome. Originality/value This is the first study, which integrates the internal and external resources in mitigating the effect of buyer’s dependence on the supplier.