Product quality information in supply chains: a performance-linked conceptual framework applied to the Australian red meat industry
The International Journal of Logistics Management
ISSN: 0957-4093
Article publication date: 6 July 2020
Issue publication date: 3 September 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to address the association between the quality and quantity of information in supply chains and the costs and benefits of generating, using and sharing it.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors’ conceptual framework draws on multiple disciplines and theories of the value and use of product information. Controllable aspects of information, its quality and quantity, are the focus of the study as drivers of firm and chain performance. Structural equation models of constructs at two stages of the Australian red meat supply chain are employed, using data from a survey of 81 sheep and cattle breeders and commercial producers.
Findings
Information quality influences performance more for some product attributes than others and is more influential than is information quantity. Information sharing for many attributes generates benefits only at high cost. Investment in measurement and transmission technologies is supported for intrinsic and extrinsic measures of quality. Differences in respondents' evaluation of information quality are interpreted as evidence of persistent chain failure.
Originality/value
To the authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt at quantifying and comparing the benefits and costs of information sharing across multiple stages of a supply chain and the first to assess quantitatively the role played by information quality and quantity in generating costs and benefits.
Keywords
Citation
Zhang, Y., Baker, D. and Griffith, G. (2020), "Product quality information in supply chains: a performance-linked conceptual framework applied to the Australian red meat industry", The International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 697-723. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-06-2019-0157
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited