Transformations  in
Business & Economics

EXPLORING HOW MANAGERS’ REGULATORY FOCUS AFFECTS THEIR WILLINGNESS TO SHARE SUPPLY CHAIN RISK INFORMATION¹⁰
Mingxing Xu, Jilin Zhang

ABSTRACT: Frequent disruptions in the supply chain require upstream and downstream firms to share risk information proactively to enhance supply chain resilience. Thus, it highlights the importance of a thorough understanding of supply chain partners’ willingness to share risk information. The impact of various factors at the organisational level, such as corporate culture, commitment, and trust on risk information sharing among supply chain partners, have been examined in the existing literature. However, research on how individual-level factors, such as values, personalities, and motivations, affect managers’ willingness to share information remains limited. This study aims to explore a crucial but understudied aspect of managerial characteristics—regulatory focus—and how it influences managers’ willingness to share supply chain risk information. Using 392 survey responses and 238 behavioural experiment data respectively, the inherent relationship between managerial regulatory focus and the willingness to share supply chain risk information, along with the mediating role of perceived information-sharing risks and the moderating role of supply chain relationship quality were empirically examined. The results indicate that (1) Compared with prevention-focused managers, promotion-focused managers exhibit a greater willingness to share supply chain risk information. (2) Perceived information-sharing risks mediate the impact of regulatory focus on the willingness to share risk information in the supply chain. (3) Supply chain risk information positively moderates the effect of regulatory focus on the willingness to share supply chain risk information and perceived information-sharing risks. The obtained conclusions provide practical implications for focal firms of supply chains that are seeking ways to enhance risk information sharing among upstream and downstream partners.

KEYWORDS:  supply chain risk information sharing, regulatory focus theory, supply chain relationship quality, perceived information sharing risks.

JEL classification:  M10, D81, D83.

¹⁰Acknowledgments:  Acknowledgment. This work was supported by the MOE (Ministry of Education of China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (Grant No. 19YJC630194, 23YJAZH194); the Innovation Strategy Research Plan Project of Fujian Province (Grant No. 2023R0148)