The impact of supply chain fit on business and innovation performance in Brazilian companies

• Date: 20 August 2020
• Pages: 141-167
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-01-2020-0040
• Published date: 20 August 2020
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics
• Author: Ricardo Zimmermann,Luis Miguel D.F. Ferreira,Antonio Carrizo Moreira,Ana Cristina Barros,Henrique Luiz Correa

The impact of supply chain fit on

business and innovation

performance in

Brazilian companies

Ricardo Zimmermann

INESC TEC, Porto, Portugal

Luis Miguel D.F. Ferreira

Department of Mechanical Engineering, CEMMPRE, Univ Coimbra,

Coimbra, Portugal

Antonio Carrizo Moreira

DEGEIT and GOVCOPP, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

Ana Cristina Barros

INESC TEC, Porto, Portugal, and

Henrique Luiz Correa

Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, USA

Abstract

Purpose –This paper investigates the effect of the fit between supply and demand uncertainty (SDU) and

supply chain responsiveness (SCR) (SC fit) on business and innovation performance in Brazilian companies.

Design/methodology/approach –The study presented an analysis carried out on an empirical study based

on a sample of 150 manufacturing companies. Business and innovation performance of companies with

different types of SC fit ( high–high and low–low fits) and misfit (positive and negative) are compared and

discussed.

Findings–The results indicated that SC fit had a positive effect on both business and innovation performance.

Further analyses suggested that companies with SC fit present similar business performance, independent of

the level of SDU that characterizes the environment where they compete, while companies in environments

with higher levels of uncertainty tend to present superior innovation performance. Companies with positive

and negative misfit present similar performance.

Originality/value –An analysis of the literature showed that there is no consensus when it comes to the

definitions and measurements of SC fit. The paper investigates the effects of SC fit on businessand innovation

performance, while previous empirical studies have mainly addressed its impact on financial performance.

Moreover, this study compares the effects of two types of fit and two types of misfit and assesses SC fit in

Brazilian manufacturing companies, analyzing the context of an under-researched reality.

Keywords Supply chain fit, Supply and demand uncertainty, Supply chain responsiveness, Business

performance, Innovation performance, Brazil

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

The importance of supply chain management (SCM) and its effects on performance are

broadly recognized by practitioners and researchers. Consequently, the challenging task of

The impact of

supply chain fit

141

This work is financed by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agency, FCT –Fundaç~

ao para

aCi

^

encia e a Tecnologia, within project UIDB/50014/2020. This research is sponsored by FEDER funds

through the program COMPETE–Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade–and by

national funds through FCT–Fundaç~

ao para a Ci^

encia e a Tecnologia –, under the project UIDB/00285/

2020.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/0957-4093.htm

Received 29 January 2020

Revised 25 June 2020

3 August 2020

Accepted 4 August 2020

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 32 No. 1, 2021

pp. 141-167

© Emerald Publishing Limited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-01-2020-0040

designing the right supply chain (SC) according to the internal and external characteristics of

companies is a topic that has been widely addressed by researchers and managers (Fisher,

1997;von Falkenhausen et al., 2019;Zimmermann et al., 2020). More recently, the importance

of integrating supply and demand characteristics and SC features gave rise to the concept of

SC fit (Wagner et al., 2012;Gligor, 2017), derived from Fisher’s (1997) seminal work and from

the concept of strategic fit (Venkatraman, 1989). SC fit refers to the compatibility of the

demand characteristics of the environment where companies operate, considering their

products and services, with their SC design, strategies and practices (Esper et al., 2010;

Wagner et al., 2012;Gligor, 2017).

Previous empirical studies have discussed and tested the effect of SC fit on performance,

suggesting that the higher the degree of SC fit, the higher the performance of companies

(Wagner et al., 2012;Hallavo, 2015;Gligor, 2016,2017). Most of these studies have discussed

and assessed the effects of SC fit on financial performance (Wager et al., 2012;Gligor, 2016,

2017), while its effects on other relevant aspects of companies’performance are still under

research. The aim of this paper is to specifically address business and innovation

performance using the concept of SC fit, which is understood as the degree of compatibility

between supply and demand uncertainty (SDU) and SC responsiveness (SCR), which would

complement previous knowledge, a need defended by Wagner et al. (2012). This paper also

compares the effects of two types of fit ( high uncertainty–high responsiveness, high–high fit

on performance and conversely, low uncertainty–low responsiveness, low–low fit) and two

types of misfit ( positive and negative misfit–characterized by high/low uncertainty and low/

high responsiveness). A part of this investigation has been done as a complement to previous

studies that assessed the effect of SC fit on performance (Wagner et al., 2012;Gligor, 2016,

2017;Luo and Yu, 2016;Sabri, 2019), contributing to the generalizability (external validity) of

the previous findings, by assessing similar subjects under different conditions (Goldsby and

Autry, 2011). Moreover, as stated by Goldsby and Autry (2011) and by van Weele and van

Raaij (2014), replication of previous studies should be more frequent in SCM research as it

helps to increase the validity, credibility and relevance of theory developed in the field.

Additionally, Block and Kuckertz (2018) argued that replication studies, defined as “studies

that put published empirical results to an additional empirical test”(p. 355), are needed to close

the gap between theory and practice.

Therefore, this study contributes by adding to existing knowledge regarding the effect of

SC fit on performance by pursuing the following main research objectives: (1) to analyze the

impact of SC fit on business and innovation performance; (2) to compare the effects of two

types of fit ( high–high and low–low fits) and two types of misfit (positive and negative); (3) to

assess SC fit in companies located in a country that is not part of the group of the most highly

industrialized countries in the world and that has not yet received significant attention from

researchers when it comes to SC fit. Further, few studies have shown the particular

aforementioned features and their effects on SCM in Latin America (previous studies on SC fit

have mainly focused on companies in Europe and the USA). The roles of environmental

uncertainty and company size are also considered. The research question that will be

addressed in the present paper is how does the fit between SDU and SCR (SC fit) impact

business and innovation performance?

This paper contributes to theory as it analyzes a set of characteristics related to SC fit that

have not been tested together before and by replicating and extending previous studies. This

paper also contributes to practice as its results may help managers perform the challenging

task of achieving/improving their company’s degree of fit between supply and demand

characteristics and SC features. A set of recommendations is presented following the

guidelines proposed by Svanberg (2020) in order to ensure its relevance and feasibility.

The resource-based view (RBV) and contingency theory (CT) are used as the theoretical

foundations for this paper. The RBV is widely applied in strategic management literature and

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