Quelling the Fires: A Case Study in Progress of an Extended RBV Process: An Abstract

Competition and cooperation among industrial network members are central concerns of supply chain research (Huemer 2014). Supply chains may exhibit cases where the interests of network members do not perfectly align (Lambert and Enz 2016; Williamson 2008). There is a need to explore how firms and networks identify and address functional deficiencies within and between supply chain members to develop capabilities that support the implementation and on-going management of better supply chain processes (Lambert and Enz 2016). A case study method examines conversion of a steel processing firm’s extant shipping procedures to an automated scheduling system (portal), with which the focal firm seeks to both better cooperate with their supply chain partners and preserve focal firm resources otherwise appropriated by customer firms. Extended Resource-based View theory (ERBV) explains this “outbound spillover rent” that occurs when focal firm resources unintentionally leak out to benefit alliance partners or marketing channel members (Lavie 2006). Such appropriation can lead to erosion of operational efficiency and effectiveness, constituting a problem worth investigating that has implications for managing resource sharing and appropriation in industrial supply chains. The researchers conducted nine interviews, ranging from 15 to 120 min with employees of various levels of the toll-processor, a customer firm service procurement manager, and the fleet manager of the transportation carrier most commonly recommended to customers by the toll-processor. Researchers additionally reviewed secondary data on focal firm performance metrics, procedures, and culture. Initial findings lend themselves to an ERBV interpretation. ERBV extends Resource-based View (Barney 1996) by noting that competitive advantage derives from assembling the most important resources and by groups of firms combining their unique resources to generate greater rents than their individual resources in isolation (Lavie 2006). This case displays multiple actors coordinating their efforts to execute shipping tasks, consistent with ERBV. Members of a supply chain may share a partner’s resources, as well as appropriating their partner’s resources and the accompanying rents they derived (Lavie 2006). The tendency of partners to influence schedule adjustments suggests appropriation of partner resources in the form of knowledge of processes and control over scheduling. Implementation of the portal will require process redesign and development of new capabilities by users to operate the portal, thus, reducing the resource demand on the toll-processor, and increasing the resource contribution of the other stakeholders.