Title: Assessing global supply chains: perspectives on performance measures across leading countries

Authors: Jooh Lee; James Jungbae Roh

Addresses: Management and Entrepreneurship, Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey 08028, USA. ' Management and Entrepreneurship, Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey 08028, USA

Abstract: Contingency theory suggests that each performance measure carries different emphases and is subject to contextual factors. Although useful, comparative measures of firm performance are fraught with difficulties in comparison mainly for two reasons: different measures carry dissimilar emphasis, and disparate national financial and business practices can exert innate bearings in the measures. Finding a context-invariant performance measure serves as a platform to conduct global supply chain performance comparison studies. Basing on longitudinal 2,400 international observations, this study explores if there exists significant difference among commonly employed performance measures across major countries and proposes context-invariant measures. While the results confirm the previous studies that accounting- and market-based performance indicators show different emphases among countries and country groups, this study finds sustained growth rate, growth rate in sales, and composite performance scores invariant of locus.

Keywords: performance measures; international comparisons; ANOVA; analysis of variance; contingency theory; contextual factors; comparative measures; firm performance; dissimilar emphases; disparate practices; national practices; financial practices; business practices; innate bearings; context-invariant measures; comparison studies; accounting-based performance indicators; market-based performance indicators; countries; country groups; sustained growth; growth rates; sales growth; composite scores; performance scores; invariants; locus; USA; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Germany; United Kingdom; UK; North America; Asia-Pacific; Europe; EEC; European Economic Community; business excellence; SCM; supply chain management; global supply chains; challenges; opportunities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBEX.2012.048803

International Journal of Business Excellence, 2012 Vol.5 No.5, pp.554 - 574

Published online: 31 Jul 2014 *

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