Coggin College faculty publish study on supply chain network centrality
University of North Florida Coggin College of Business faculty Dr. Dong-Young Kim, operations management and quantitative methods professor, and Dr. Bruce Fortado, human resources management professor, recently published a peer-reviewed study on the relationship between supply chain network centrality and innovation value.
This study contributes to manufacturing and technology management research by exploring the impact of supplier centrality on innovation value. The results of this study shed light on the importance of a firm's central network position in enhancing the impact and quality of innovation. This study uncovers contingencies that help realize the potential benefits of holding a central network position.
For the study, Kim and Fortado reviewed and analyzed archival data collected from U.S. high-tech manufacturing industries over a 17-year period. This methodology makes their study unique as most prior related studies used surveys or case study methods with a much smaller sample size.
Their research confirms that network centrality influences differences in innovation value for U.S. high-tech manufacturing firms. As theorized, the centrality of a supplier that embodies its direct and indirect connections to other influential firms is positively associated with its innovation value.
Read the study in the Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, “Supplier Centrality, Innovation Value and Supplier Acquisition: Evidence from US High-Tech Manufacturing Firms.”