This study explores the level of relevance of logistics and supply chain management research and probes underlying motives prompting scholars to value and pursue managerial (vs. purely academic) contributions. At its core, the concerns over rigor and relevance of higher education comprise a crisis of trust and credibility that appeared decades ago and continues to provoke concern from the field's thought leaders. While exploratory in nature, the results suggest both practitioners and academics agree at differing levels that logistics and supply chain management research is relevant, but pressure to chase indices and rankings has influenced behavior of academics. Consequently, the academic peer-reviewed process no longer seems to focus on managerial implications. The article begins with theories pertinent to human motivation, namely, self-determination theory (SDT), and employs qualitative interviews of academics to help develop surveys of both academics and logistics and supply chain management practitioners. It then presents the methodologies of quantitative data collection and analysis-combined with interviews of deans and editors-to explore the research questions to offer discussion, implications, future research directions, and conclusions.
PurposeThis paper addresses a gap in task performance research, with a focus on supply chain operations, by exploring the role that defensive pessimism (DP)—a phenomenon sparsely studied in supply chain literature—has in the workplace. It investigates the roles that task complexity, perceptions of control and employee situatedness in the workplace play as predictors of DP, as well as addresses the relationship between defensive pessimism and supply chain performance.Design/methodology/approachFive hypotheses are developed and empirically tested employing the data-generating method, Monte Carlo simulation and then applying factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) to survey data from practitioner members of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals.FindingsThe results reveal that task complexity and external locus of control heighten perceptions among employees that task completion could be outside their locus of control. The increased tendency to be defensively pessimistic about workplace commitments negatively impacts supply chain performance. This study found that task complexity and external locus of control encourage DP, negatively impacting supply chain performance (SCP).Originality/valueThis study explored underlying causes of defensive pessimism, a self-limiting behavior among supply chain professionals. In understanding the role of DP, it is possible to enhance SCP by managing task complexity, external locus of control and job autonomy—predictors of defensive pessimism in work commitments.
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