Traceability as a strategic firm capability with a supply chain outlook

In today's increasingly complex supply chain, many governments and public stakeholders insist that traceability is a must-have firm capability to ensure consumer safety, reduce counterfeit products, and enable effective recalls. However, the concurrent literature only loosely links these goals to firms' strategic performance through branding concepts. Therefore, many firms struggle to align traceability with their core capabilities and strategies. As a result, they often regard traceability as a costly investment in data-capturing and -sharing technologies, which are only effective in consumer-related crises. Further, even with the newest technology (i.e., blockchain, RFID), many firms still struggle with tracking and tracing in the supply chain. Accordingly, scholars claim that traceability technologies are ineffective because management and employees treat them like humans or colleagues. As a result, the inadequate interaction between humans and technologies hinders traceability's potentials and discourages firms from exploring and aligning this capability with their core strategies. Therefore, this dissertation aims to provide a broader view of traceability, its strategic use, and interactions between technology and human components in today's complex supply chain contexts. The three essays in this dissertation contribute to theory and practice by extending that traceability can be used for many strategic needs beyond recalls, anti-counterfeiting, and safety. The essays also highlight the fit between human-behavior processes and technological components of traceability. Compared to the past technology emphasis, focusing on fit helps firms balance traceability investment, costs, and effectiveness better. Finally, the dissertation adds to related literature such as sustainability, reverse logistics, and human behaviors in traceability-related contexts.