Robert D. Klassen

• Zhang, Q.; Wong, C. W. Y.; Klassen, R. D., 2024, "Carbon neutrality: Operations management research opportunities", Journal of Operations Management, April 70(3): 344 - 354.
  Abstract: Climate change, primarily driven by greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), is a pressing environmental and societal concern. Carbon neutrality, or net zero, involves reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the most common GHG, and then balancing residual emissions through removing or offsetting. Particularly difficult challenges have emerged for firms seeking to reduce emissions from Scope 1 (internal operations) and Scope 3 (supply chain). Incremental changes are very unlikely to meet the objective of carbon neutrality. Synthesizing a framework that draws together both the means of achieving carbon neutrality and the scope of change helps to clarify opportunities for research by operations management scholars. Companies must assess and apply promising technologies, form new strategic relationships, and adopt novel practices while taking into account costs, risks, implications for stakeholders, and, most importantly, business sustainability. Research on carbon neutrality is encouraged to move beyond isolated discussions focused on specific tactics and embrace a more, though not fully, holistic examination. Research opportunities abound in both theoretical and empirical domains, such as exploring tradeoffs between different tactics, balancing portfolios, and investigating the strategic deployment of initiatives over time. As a research community, we are critically positioned to develop integrative insights at multiple levels, from individual processes to horizontal and vertical partnerships and ultimately to large-scale systemic realignment and change.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joom.1303

• Diebel, W.; Gualandris, J.; Klassen, R. D., 2024, "How do suppliers respond to institutional complexity? Examining voluntary public environmental disclosure in a global manufacturing supply network", Journal of Operations Management, March 70(2): 285 - 315.
  Abstract: When making decisions about their commitments to environmental practices and performance, suppliers face heterogenous institutional logics and their diverse prescriptions for action. How do suppliers respond to such institutional complexity? We examine this question in the context of suppliers' voluntary public environmental disclosures (disclosure). Specifically, our study assembles a unique panel data set of global manufacturing suppliers and their annual contractual relationships with buyers. Building on the institutional logics perspective and the sustainable supply network literature, we hypothesize that suppliers selectively mimic the disclosure of their buyers by following market, corporate, and sustainability logics. Our study contributes to the institutional logics perspective and the sustainable supply network literature by indicating that in the context of disclosure, market and sustainability logics both actively shape suppliers' responses to institutional complexity. Furthermore, we find support for mimicry as a mechanism of buyer influence that can lead to disclosure heterogeneity across suppliers even when they follow the same logic, which opens new avenues for research. Our findings can be leveraged by buyers, policymakers, and other stakeholders interested in advancing transparency and sustainability in supply networks.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1293

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joom.1293

• Awaysheh, A.; Klassen, R. D.; Shafiq, A.; Johnson, P. F., 2024, "Drivers of consumer protection practices: implications for operational performance", Supply Chain Management-An International Journal, February 29(2): 260 - 278.
  Abstract: Globalization and increased outsourcing have contributed to increased supply chain complexity, exposing firms to greater vulnerability in the areas of product safety and supply chain security. Meanwhile, stakeholders pressure firms to ensure that their products are safe, and their supply chains are secure. Drawing from stakeholder theory, this paper aims to explore how the supply chain characteristics of distance and power affect the adoption of consumer protection (CP) practices, which ensure product safety and supply chain security. Using primary survey data from a sample of Canadian manufacturing firms, this research examines the relationships among supply chain characteristics, adoption of CP practices and firm performance. Analysis supported the use of two practices related to product safety (consumer education and product design) and three practices for supply chain security (packaging, tracking and authenticity). Greater cultural distance between the focal firm and its suppliers was positively associated with investments in safer design practices, while increased geographical distance between the focal firm and the customer was significantly related to increased consumer education. Moreover, as power of a focal firm relative to its suppliers increased, so too did investments in supply chain security. Finally, CP practices were related to improved operational performance along multiple dimensions. This research focuses on the critical role of two key stakeholder groups in improving product safety and supply chain security: suppliers and customers. The authors add to the theoretical discussion of product safety and supply chain security by identifying critical differences between suppliers and customers for the focal firm. Second, the research informs the managerial community of the potential benefits of investments in CP practices.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/scm-06-2023-0284

• Hajmohammad, S.; Klassen, R. D.; Vachon, S., 2024, "Managing supplier sustainability risk: an experimental study", Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, January 29(1): 50 - 67.
  Abstract: Purpose: Buying firms are increasingly exposed to sustainability risk arising from negative conditions or potential events in their supply base that might provoke adverse stakeholder reactions. Procurement managers at these firms can pursue multiple strategies to address this risk with suppliers, including acceptance, monitoring-based mitigation, avoidance and collaboration-based mitigation. This study aims to investigate how perceived risk, supplier dependence and financial slack resources contribute to the strategic preferences of these managers. Design/methodology/approach: A vignette-based experiment with procurement managers is used to examine the factors affecting the managers’ strategic preferences in managing supplier sustainability risk. Findings: The empirical results revealed that the procurement managers’ preference for avoidance or collaboration strategies was stronger when they perceived higher risk, but their preference varied based on the degree of supplier dependence. Specifically, when they perceived a high level of risk, procurement managers were more inclined toward a monitoring strategy with dependent suppliers and preferred an avoidance strategy when they dealt with independent ones. Financial slack was also an influential factor: managers with more slack at their disposal preferred to collaborate with suppliers to address the risk; on the other hand, limited slack shifted their preference toward an acceptance strategy, regardless of the level of risk. Originality/value: This study helps to develop a more nuanced picture of how procurement managers make challenging and complex trade-offs when responding to supplier sustainability risk.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/scm-02-2023-0106

• Vanpoucke, E.; Klassen, R. D., (Forthcoming), "Reducing forced labour in supply chains: what could traditional companies learn from social enterprises?", International Journal of Operations & Production Management
  Abstract: Forced labour is one of the most exploitative practices in supply chains, generating serious human right abuses. The authors seek to understand how relationships for reducing forced labour are influenced by institutional logics. The emerging supply chain efforts of social enterprises offer particularly intriguing approaches, as their social mission can spur creative new approaches and reshape widely adopted management practices. Design/methodology/approach: The authors study supplier relationships in the smartphone industry and compare the evolving practices of two cases: the first, a growing novel social enterprise; and the second, a high-profile commercial firm that has adopted a progressive role in combating forced labour. Findings: The underlying institutional logic influenced each firm's willingness to act beyond its direct suppliers and to collaborate in flexible ways that create systematic change. Moreover, while both focal firms had clear, well-documented procedures related to forced labour, the integration, rather than decoupling, of forced labour and general supply chain policies provided a more effective way to reduce the risks of forced labour in social enterprises. Research limitations/implications: As authors’ comparative case study approach may lack generalizability, future research is needed to broadly test their propositions. Practical implications: The paper identifies preconditions in terms of institutional logics to successfully reduce the risk of forced labour in supply chains. Originality/value: This paper discusses how social enterprises can provide a learning laboratory that enables commercial firms to identify options for supplier relationship improvement.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-09-2022-0596

• Klassen, R. D.; Shafiq, A.; Johnson, P. F., 2023, "Opportunism in supply chains: Dynamically building governance mechanisms to address sustainability-related challenges", Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, March 171: 103021 - 103021.
  Abstract: Opportunism has long been highlighted as one of the hazards of complex buyer–supplier relationships. This hazard has become more challenging to manage as the pressure from consumers and the public for improved sustainability-related performance is passed along the supply chain between buyers and suppliers. For example, buyer demands for and supplier implementation of sustainability requirements, such as low carbon emissions or fair worker treatment, are often poorly defined; difficult to document; and subject to change as pressure for immediate improvement builds, as scientific understanding deepens and as societal expectations advance. This complex setting generates tempting openings for either a buyer or supplier to act opportunistically. In an effort to advance both theory and managerial practice, we consider three aspects of sustainability-related opportunism. First, in line with prior research, we focus on defining sustainability-related opportunism as jointly considering the codification of expectations and verification of performance (while allowing for false suspicions). Second, our conceptualization stresses the need to move away from an implied static view to embrace more fully the changing nature of stakeholders’ sustainability-related concerns. For example, supply chain relationships evolve based on repeated interactions as firms influence each other’s beliefs, practices and outcomes. Third, in a related sense, a dynamic model can combine several theoretical perspectives to inform how the balance of transactional and relational governance mechanisms might adapt as our understanding of sustainability changes, institutional forces evolve, and dyadic relationships mature.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136655452300008X

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2023.103021

• Shafiq, A.; Johnson, P. F.; Klassen, R. D., 2022, "Building synergies between operations culture, operational routines, and supplier monitoring: implications for buyer performance", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, April 42(5): 687 - 712.
  Abstract: Pressured by various stakeholder groups to improve the sustainability performance of their emerging economy suppliers, multinational firms continue to expand their supplier monitoring. Leveraging the strategy literature on alliances and the buyer-supplier relationship management literature, the authors propose that a buyer firm's efforts to proactively develop cultural sensitivity and operations cognizance to understand the operational culture and routines of its suppliers can ameliorate some shortcomings of supplier monitoring, thereby improving the performance of the buyer firm. Using primary survey data from a sample of US manufacturing firms, combined with secondary data of supplier monitoring and financial performance, this research examines the relationship between supplier monitoring, cultural sensitivity, operations cognizance, and buyer firm performance. Supplier monitoring was associated with positive but diminishing returns for financial and sustainability performance for the buyer. Second, increasing cultural sensitivity and operations cognizance for suppliers in emerging economies were associated with improved buyer performance. Finally, the synergistic use of supplier monitoring and operations cognizance was associated with improved buyer firm financial performance. While the buyer-supplier relationship literature has mainly treated organizational differences between dyadic supply chain partners as exogenous to the context in which their relationship evolves, the authors posit that buyer firms' efforts to understand such differences can affect the value of buyer-directed interactions, such as supplier monitoring. This research adds to the theoretical understanding of the process of developing relational mechanisms with emerging economy suppliers. In particular, efforts of buyer firms to better understand the operational culture and routines of their suppliers can complement monitoring and are associated with a positive impact on performance.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mcb/024/2022/00000042/00000005/art00005

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-03-2021-0149

• Johnson, P. F.; Klassen, R. D., 2022, "New Directions for Research in Green Public Procurement: The Challenge of Inter-Stakeholder Tensions", Journal of Cleaner Logistics and Supply Chain, March 3: 100017 - 100017.
  Abstract: Public sector spending represents a significant portion of gross domestic product in most countries, and holds much promise to advance calls to improve the sustainability of goods and services provided by supply chain partners – but only if multiple objectives can be reconciled. Public procurement also tends to heavily emphasize outcome-based specification practices that rely on traditional tendering for supplier selection, thereby stifling potentially innovative improvements. Drawing on stakeholder theory, we consider how potential inter-stakeholder tensions contribute to both the challenges and opportunities for green public procurement (GPP) practices. In addition to conventional categories of internal and external stakeholders, we identify a third category of stakeholders who ‘bridge’ across these two groups. This framing helps to delineate complex interactions among multiple stakeholder groups and enables a mapping of each group’s weighting of priorities and influence in decision making. Doing so highlights potential sources of inter-stakeholder tensions that must be balanced or resolved to advance GPP. Moreover, process-based collaboration can engage multiple groups of stakeholders, attenuate inter-stakeholder tensions, and foster cooperative, novel solutions for improved environmental outcomes. Drawing from an initial case study, new research directions emerge when we combine both process- and outcome-based practices that engage supply chain partners and multiple stakeholders to develop and advance new green technologies and evaluate complex considerations in public sector procurement.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772390921000172?via%3Dihub

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clscn.2021.100017

• Johnston, D.; Pagell, M.; Veltri, A.; Klassen, R. D., 2020, "Values-in-action that support safe production", Journal Of Safety Research, February 72: 75 - 91.
  Abstract: Introduction: Safe production is a sustainable approach to managing an organization's operations that considers the interests of both management and workers as salient stakeholders in a productive and safe workplace. A supportive culture enacts values versus only espousing them. These values-in-action are beliefs shared by both management and workers that align what should happen in performing organizational routines to be safe and be productive with what actually is done. However, the operations and safety management literature provides little guidance on which values-in-action are most important to safe production and how they work together to create a supportive culture. Method: The researchers conducted exploratory case studies in 10 manufacturing plants of 9 firms. The researchers compared plant managers’ top-down perspectives on safety in the performance of work and workers’ bottom-up experiences of the safety climate and their rates of injury on the job. Each case study used data collected from interviewing multiple managers, the administration of a climate survey to workers and the examination of the plant's injury rates over time as reported to its third party health and safety insurer. Results: The researchers found that plants with four values-in-action —a commitment to safety, discipline, prevention and participation—were capable of safe production, while plants without those values were neither safe nor productive. Where culture and climate aligned lower rates of injury were experienced. Discussion and conclusion: The four value-in-actions must all be present and work together in a self-reinforcing manner to engage workers and managers in achieving safe production. Practical application: Managers of both operations and safety functions do impact safety outcomes such as reducing injuries by creating a participatory environment that encourage learning that improves both safety and production routines.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2019.11.004

• Longoni, A.; Pagell, M.; Shevchenko, A.; Klassen, R. D., 2019, "Human capital routines and sustainability trade-offs: The influence of conflicting schemas for operations and safety managers", International Journal of Operations and Production Management, August 39(5): 690 - 713.
  Abstract: Purpose: Sustainable operations management is characterized by environmental, social and operational goals. The implementation of routines to protect and direct the effective use of human capital is proposed to potentially improve all three dimensions. However, functional managers with overlapping responsibilities at the plant-level might implement human capital routines based on their individual functional schemas. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether functional managers have conflicting perceptions of human capital routines, due to narrow perceptions benefiting their own functional domain, and thus generate trade-offs. Design/methodology/approach: A combination of matched survey and archival data from 198 manufacturing plants is used to explore the degree to which functional managers have conflicting perceptions of human capital routines and the effects of these perceptions on sustainability outcomes. Findings: The results indicate that on average functional managers have conflicting perceptions that generate trade-offs between sustainability dimensions. However, when functional managers had a shared perception better outcomes on all sustainability dimensions are shown. Thus, human capital routines can be a powerful tool for sustainability only if senior management can promote a shared schema across functional managers. Originality/value: Differently than most previous studies assuming shared sustainability goals within an organization, this study considers a multiplicity of functional actors with potentially varying perceptions about sustainability goals and links these to organizational routine implementation and outcomes. Additionally, the dynamic and subjective nature of organizational routines, such as human capital routines, is proposed to explain contradictory impacts in a multi-objective setting such as sustainable operations management.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-05-2018-0247

• Gualandris, J.; Klassen, R. D., 2018, "Delivering transformational change: aligning supply chains and stakeholders in non-profit organizations", Journal of Supply Chain Management, April 54(2): 34 - 48.
  Abstract: Governments and global corporations increasingly both confront and rely on International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) to identify, design and deliver interventions that prompt transformational change in societies, industries and supply chains. For INGOs, transformational change is defined as a fundamental, long-lasting reframing of a social or industrial system through synergistically altering the knowledge, practices and relationships of multiple stakeholder groups. With each intervention, the focal INGO assembles its own complex supply chain of non-profit organizations and for-profit firms to provide the necessary resources and skills. While prior supply chain management literature provides a good starting point, with some generalizability to the non-profit sector, this paper begins with several key differences to explore how interventions are delivered, and then, how INGOs’ supply chains must be aligned. In doing so, at least three critical factors must be taken into account to improve alignment: stakeholder-induced uncertainty supply chain configuration and supply chain dynamism. By synthesizing these factors with prior literature and emerging anecdotal evidence, tentative frameworks and research questions emerge about how INGOs can better leverage their supply chains, thereby offering a basis for scholars in supply chain management to build a much richer and more nuanced research understanding of INGOs.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jscm.12164

• Klassen, R. D.; Hajmohammad, S., 2017, "Multiple temporal perspectives extend sustainable competitiveness", International Journal of Operations and Production Management, November 37(11): 1600 - 1624.
  Abstract: Purpose: In operations and supply chain management, time is largely one-dimensional – less is better – with much effort devoted to compressing, efficiently using, and competitively exploiting clock-time. However, by drawing on other literatures, the purpose of this paper is to understand implications for the field of operations management if we also emphasize how humans and organizations experience time, termed process-time, which is chronicled by events and stages of change. Design/methodology/approach: After a brief review, the limitations of the recurrent time-oriented themes in operations management and the resulting short-termism are summarized. Next, sustainability is offered as an important starting point to explore the concept of temporality, including both clock- and process-time, as well as the implications of temporal orientation and temporal conflict in supply chains. Findings: A framework that includes both management and stakeholder behavior is offered to illustrate how multiple temporal perspectives might be leveraged as a basis for an expanded and enriched understanding of more sustainable competitiveness in operations. Social implications: Research by others emphasizes the importance of stakeholders to competitiveness. By recognizing that different stakeholder groups have varying temporal orientations and temporality, managers can establish objectives and systems that better reflect time-based diversity and diffuse temporal conflict. Originality/value: This paper summarizes how time has been incorporated in operations management, as well as the challenges of short-termism. Sustainability forms the basis for exploring multiple perspectives of time and three key constructs: temporal orientation, temporality, and temporal conflict. A framework is proposed to better incorporate temporal perspectives as a basis for competitiveness in operations and supply chain management.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-03-2016-0105

• Shafiq, A.; Johnson, P. F.; Klassen, R. D.; Awaysheh, A., 2017, "Exploring the Implications of Supply Risk on Sustainability Performance", International Journal of Operations and Production Management, October 37(10): 1386 - 1407.
  Abstract: Purpose: Firms are increasingly being pressured by the public, regulators and customers to ensure that their suppliers behave in a socially and ecologically sound manner. Yet, the complexity and risks embedded in many supply chains makes this challenging, with monitoring practices offering one means to attenuate supply sustainability risk. Drawing on agency theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between sustainability and operations risk, supplier sustainability monitoring practices, supply improvement initiatives and firm performance. brbr Designmethodologyapproach: This research uses data from a survey and archival sources from a sample of large US firms to empirically examine the relationship between sustainability and operations risk, supplier sustainability monitoring practices, supply improvement initiatives and firm performance. brbr Findings: Findings indicate that higher levels of perceived sustainability risk is related to greater monitoring of supplier sustainability practices by focal firms. Perceptions of higher operations risk are indirectly related to greater social monitoring through investment in supply improvement initiatives. Monitoring of supplier sustainability practices is also found to have a positive effect on focal firm performance. brbr Practical implications: Findings suggest that managers process operations risks and sustainability risks independently. Greater sustainability risk leads to increased sustainability monitoring, while greater operations risk leads to increased investment in supply improvement initiatives, which in turn leads to increased social monitoring. The research also indicates that behavior-oriented approaches, such as monitoring of supplier environmental and social practices, are an effective approach to improving firm sustainability performance. However, due to resource constraints, a challenge for supply chain managers is where and when to invest in behavior-oriented approaches for suppliers. brbr Originalityvalue: This research advances supply risk literature by exploring the effects of supply sustainability risk on the use of monitoring practices to manage supplier environmental and social behavior. Using a combination of survey and archival data to independently assess the implications of sustainability monitoring practices on firm sustainability performance, this study provides a methodology for evaluating the impact of sustainability monitoring practices on the triple bottom line in supply chain management.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-01-2016-0029

• Haghshenas, M.; Klassen, R. D.; Liu, S. F., 2017, "Depth-sensing cyclic nanoindentation of tantalum", International Journal of Refractory Metals and Hard Materials, August 66: 144 - 149.
  Abstract: In the present paper, depth-sensing multi-cycling instrumented indentation testing of tantalum is studied to assess depth-dependent plastic deformation of the metal at room temperature. Loading/unloading/reloading scheme in cyclic indentation testing is a reliable indentation-based approach in which data collection is not necessarily adversely affected by lateral in-homogeneities of the sample leading to more accurate measurements. The experimental results show indentation size effect (ISE) and depth-dependent strain rate sensitivity in Ta. To interpret these phenomena, the density of geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) and statistically stored dislocations (SSDs) constructed by the Nix-Gao model were used. The observed dependence of hardness and activation volume upon indentation depth indicated that the average flow stress, and hence the average plastic strain, is higher around the small indentations than around the deep indentations.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmhm.2017.03.015

• Lee, S. Y.; Klassen, R. D., 2016, "Firms’ Response to Climate Change: The Interplay of Business Uncertainty and Organizational Capabilities", Business Strategy and the Environment, December 25(8): 577 - 592.
  Abstract: With climate change emerging as one of the most important issues increasing uncertainty in the business circle, firms have shown different reactions. Why do firms differ in adopting and implementing carbon management practices (CMPs) in response to the global warming issue? This paper attempts to explore this question with particular attention to two factors: external business uncertainty and internal organizational capabilities. This study investigated whether business uncertainty, organizational learning and lean production capabilities influenced the adoption and implementation of CMPs as well as examining how organizational capabilities moderate the relationships between business uncertainty and the level of CMPs. The results of a cross-sectional survey and hierarchical regression analyses indicate that perceived business uncertainty decreases the adoption of CMPs, organizational learning and lean production capabilities strongly facilitate the adoption and implementation of CMPs, and lean production capability positively moderates the impacts of business uncertainty on the adoption of CMPs. This study provides guidance for managers and academics considering how to identify, design and manage the dimensions of a firm's practices in response to the global warming issue within the organization as well as with other organizations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bse.1890

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