Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of smart city initiatives and big data on supply chain management (SCM). More specifically, the connections between smart cities, big data and supply network characteristics (supply network structure and governance mechanisms) are investigated. Design/methodology/approach: – An integrative framework is proposed, grounded on a literature review on smart cities, big data and supply networks. Then, the relationships between these constructs are analyzed, using the proposed integrative framework. Findings: – Smart cities have different implications to network structure (complexity, density and centralization) and governance mechanisms (formal vs informal). Moreover, this work highlights and discusses the future research directions relating to smart cities and SCM. Research limitations/implications: – The relationships between smart cities, big data and supply networks cannot be described simply by using a linear, cause-and-effect framework. Accordingly, an integrative framework that can be used in future empirical studies to analyze smart cities and big data implications on SCM has been proposed. Practical implications: – Smart cities and big data alone have limited capacity of improving SCM processes, but combined they can support improvement initiatives. Nevertheless, smart cities and big data can also suppose some novel obstacles to effective SCM. Originality/value: – Several studies have analyzed information technology innovation adoption in supply chains, but, to the best of our knowledge, no study has focused on smart cities.
27 October 2003 in Journal of Operations Management
The emergence of triple bottom line reporting by organizations in Spain is the context in which the present work have tried to understand the influence of both external and internal contexts on social and environmental disclosures. The material for this study is drawn from semi-structured interviews with 30 managers of 20 Spanish organizations with responsibility for the preparation of TBL reports. The narratives provided by the interviewees suggest that internal (organizational and individual) and external contexts are both important in the explanation of social and environmental disclosure practices. One of the study's main findings is that certain assemblages of external and internal influences exist that can either enhance or inhibit the development of TBL reports.