Guest editorial

• Date: 14 August 2017
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-05-2017-0135
• Pages: 722-722
• Published date: 14 August 2017
• Author: Booi H. Kam
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics

ISL 19

Guest editorial

Two of the papers in this issue were developed from their original eight-page paper

delivered at the 19th International Symposium on Logistics (ISL2014) held in Ho Chi Minh

City, Vietnam in July 2014. From the 96 papers addressing the ISL2014’s theme “Designing

responsible and innovative global supply chains,”the Program Committee selected 15,

inviting authors to submit an extended version to this journal for consideration. Seven

papers went through the double-blind peer-review process. The two ISL2014 papers

included in this issue focus on external collaboration, an inevitable element undergirding the

design of innovative supply chains in the global context.

The first paper, by Ekanayake, Childerhouseand Sun, explores the relational dynamicsat

both organizational and individual levels within the context of supply chain collaborations.

Focusing on how interorganizational and interpersonal ties interact, the authors reveal the

critical role of individuals in interorganizational collaborative arrangement, demonstrating

how “one or two individuals can make or break a collaborative agreement.”They add that

amendments to interorganizational-level ties should take cognizance of changes at the

interpersonal relationship level. Failure to do so can result in negative knock-on effects on

interorganizational links and, ultimately, on organizational performance. This paper

highlights the symbiotic relationships between interpersonal and interorganizational ties in

contributing to supply chain collaboration success.

In the second paper, Krichanchai and MacCarthy investigate the benefits, challenges and

issues of vendor-managed inventory (VMI) in the supply of medicinal products to hospitals.

Based on a study of two contrasting VMI projects in Thailand –a successful public project

launched under a national healthcare initiative and an aborted private project involving a

large hospital and a private distributor –this paper shows that VMI projects work when

hospitals perceive little risk and bear no costs. VMI projects are less likely to succeed when a

hospital has concerns regarding losing control of vital medicinal supplies to a distributor, or

if a hospital perceives that it might land itself in a “lock-in”situation with a particular

supplier when alternative brands abound. Findings from this study also suggest that public

sector could potentially leverage VMI arrangement to control the stocks of important

medicines in hospitals to ensure product accessibility to patients.

Booi H. Kam

School of Business IT and Logistics, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 28 No. 3, 2017

p. 722

© Emerald PublishingLimited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-05-2017-0135

722

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