A collective mindfulness perspective of information sharing in the blood supply chain.

Purpose: This thesis aims to determine and unravel the underlying mechanisms of how inter-organisational information sharing influences blood safety and availability in the dyadic blood supply chain in normal, high tempo, and emergency conditions. Design/methodology/approach: Grounded in the critical realism paradigm and the perspective of high reliability theory particularly the collective mindfulness concept, this thesis uses an embedded multiple case study designed for theory elaboration. A combined retroductive-abductive and the basic qualitative description has been adopted as a research strategy. Two contrasting cases with three embedded cases for each main case are selected using convenient and context-based approaches, representing a centralised and tightly regulated blood supply chain in the UK as well as a decentralised and loosely regulated blood supply chain in Indonesia. The data are collected using the triangulation of semi- structured interviews, walkthroughs, and other supporting documents including artefacts and archives. Template analysis coupled with within-case and cross- case analyses are then used to analyse the data. Findings: This thesis finds that inter-organisational information sharing influences blood safety and availability through the dynamic enactments of collective mindfulness principles that reflect the inter-organisational information sharing behaviour across the operational conditions. It also finds that the blood supply chain actors in the centralised and tightly regulated context are collectively more mindful when sharing information than those in the decentralised and loosely regulated context, so that more positive changes in the blood safety and availability performance are observed in the former compared to that in the latter context. Interestingly, whilst the data reveal an emerging mechanism of heedful interrelating across a range of operational conditions, this thesis also reveals the fact that inter-organisational information sharing does not necessarily lead to positive changes in blood safety and availability. In fact, negatively enacted collective mindfulness principles can lead inter-organisational information sharing to unimproved and even potentially worse blood safety and availability performance. Originality/value: The primary contribution of this thesis lies in understanding the underlying mechanisms of how inter-organisational information sharing influences blood safety and availability in the dyadic blood supply chain across a range of operational conditions. Whilst offering practical and conceptually relevant knowledge to the blood supply chain literature, it informs the wider supply chain literature on the different collective mindfulness principles that make inter- organisational information sharing influence supply chain performance across a range of operational conditions. The use of the collective mindfulness concept offers a novel perspective that extends the current discussion on the effectiveness of that information sharing for supply chains.