THE INTELLECTUAL STRUCTURE OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: A BIBLIOMETRIC APPROACH

Now that supply chain management has a two‐decade research history, it is possible to examine the literature to identify whether there is any latent intellectual structure using bibliometric tools. The study applies a citation and co‐citation approach to reveal four clusters of research that have emerged. One cluster has strong ties to the logistics field, with primarily conceptual articles. A second cluster finds its roots in operations research, and consists mainly of modeling articles. The application of multidimensional scaling, cluster analysis, and factor analysis on co‐citations demonstrated a clearly identifiable structure. The structure is examined and implications for the future development of supply chain research are discussed.     

Considering Supply Chain Management's Professional Identity: The Beautiful Discipline (Or, “We Don't Cure Cancer,But We Do Make a Big Difference”)

In recent months, we have participated in various discussions on the future of logistics and supply chain management (SCM). As the newest business discipline, it is not surprising that SCM is going through growing pains and seeking to chart its future course and define a meaningful destiny. Considering professional identity—that is, who are we and what do we do—is a natural part of maturation. As JBL exists to help construct the discipline's identity, we address SCM's value‐creation competence as a source of identity construction. As we explain, SCM's economic and social contributions are not just noteworthy but remarkable. Modern SCM makes a difference to the people of the world, driving economic growth and raising living standards. Truly, it is a good time to be a supply chain professional. Much research, however, needs to be conducted if we are to fulfill SCM's value‐creation promise.     

THE APPLICATION OF EMPIRICAL STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT RESEARCH TO SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Researchers in supply chain management (SCM) have traditionally relied most heavily on the core disciplines of logistics, marketing, and operations; most are less familiar with empirical literature in strategic management. However, with the evolution of logistics into the more interdisciplinary SCM along with increasing attention within strategic management to supply chain issues, recent empirical research in strategy has much to offer. This study reviews and categorizes more than one hundred articles relevant to SCM drawn primarily from top strategic management journals.     

EXPLORING A GOVERNANCE THEORY OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: BARRIERS AND FACILITATORS TO INTEGRATION

Supply chain management is rapidly growing as both a strategic initiative and an academic discipline. As firms increasingly include their supply chain partners in the development of business strategy, researchers will have to constantly reevaluate the underlying themes and emergent theories of strategic logistics, management, and marketing by introducing new topics and revisiting seminal extant results. As such, this research was developed to explore the important concept of supply chain integration through strategic governance theory development. Since supply chain governance is a relatively new topic, a grounded study of both new and existing integration facilitators and barriers is presented. The study was initiated with a qualitative “managerial” development of scale items followed by a full empirical analysis. The result is an industry based returning to the source methodology for testing current governance related issues in industry. Contributions include the development of multiple dimensions of supply chain governance across facilitators and barriers, an explanation of the interplay between governance facilitators of, and barriers to, integration, a discussion of strategic level managerial implications, and a call for the future extension of governance research into the theory wanting domain of logistics and supply chain management.     

THE ROLE OF LOGISTICS IN MARKET ORIENTATION

In today's increasingly competitive environment, survival depends on two key aspects of being market‐oriented ‐ understanding the external environment and executing decisions based on that understanding. Logistics personnel are uniquely positioned to play a key role in creating and maintaining a market‐oriented organization as they are progressively gaining more responsibilities in integrating cross‐functional processes and implementing supply chain strategies. This paper explores how logisticians participate in market orientation behaviors and how a market‐oriented logistics function impacts logistics and business performance. Based on a qualitative field research study involving in‐depth interviews with seventeen logistics personnel that draws and builds upon the logistics, market orientation, knowledge management, organizational behavior, information processing, and strategic management literatures, a theoretical model of logistics market orientation and its effect on logistics and business performance is developed and propositions are presented. Findings highlight logistics' central role in generating, disseminating, reaching a shared interpretation of, and responding to market intelligence.     

CONSTRUCTING IMPACT FACTORS TO MEASURE THE INFLUENCE OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AND LOGISTICS JOURNALS

Data from ten supply chain management and logistics journals are combined with data from the ISI Web of Science database to develop a series of impact factors. The resulting constructed impact factors provide a context for comparing and ranking leading academic supply chain management and logistics journals. They also provide an objective way of comparing the relative influence of supply chain management and logistics journals, as well as a platform for comparing their influence with that of journals in more general fields like management and business.     

STATE OF LOGISTICS: A VISIONARY PERSPECTIVE

Mentzer and Kahn (1994) advocated that the Journal of Business Logistics (JBL) needed to mature. As a follow‐up to that study, the authors analyzed the Journal from the second half of 1993 through the first issue of 2005. Though the study results suggest that more rigorous research has been conducted over the last decade in the field of logistics, did it improve the Journal? Are the standards and criteria put forth in Mentzer and Kahn (1994) the standards and criteria toward which JBL should strive? To address these questions, qualitative interviews were conducted with visionaries in the field of logistics to: (1) investigate the standards and criteria that should be used to gauge the maturity of JBL and (2) determine the future direction of JBL and the discipline.     

THE DOMAIN AND SCOPE OF SCM'S FOUNDATIONAL DISCIPLINES — INSIGHTS AND ISSUES TO ADVANCE RESEARCH

The authors examine and take stock of the changing nature and landscape surrounding supply chain management, and the related disciplines of purchasing, operations management, logistics and marketing channels of distribution. They identify, describe and synthesize the nature of research in those academic disciplines that are identified to be some of the objectives with respect to supply chain management's integration goals. Their examination highlights the considerable evolution and significant advances occurring within and among these disciplines. Additionally, they find this new landscape to provide both insights and issues for scholarship to those attempting to understand the evolving nature of supply chain management and its related fields. Such insights and issues suggest a number of proposals for progress with regard to SCM's future development.     

Implementation of a System Approach for Enhanced Supply Chain Continuity and Resiliency: A Longitudinal Study

Researchers and practitioners frequently point to inventory as a necessary component of an effective supply chain strategy. However, an undisciplined or ineffective approach to inventory can have a detrimental impact on an organization and its entire supply chain. When making inventory decisions, firms must ensure that the selected approach “fits” the overall supply chain strategy. While such an assertion seems intuitive, there is a need for empirical validation. We seek to contribute to this important body of research by investigating the impact of improved strategic alignment of inventory on resiliency and continuity. More specifically, we investigate the impact of improved strategic fit by comparing two distinct approaches to inventory management within a service parts environment. We hypothesize that a well‐aligned approach to inventory management can enhance continuity and resiliency. We test these hypotheses via a longitudinal field study involving 10 United States Air Force (USAF) locations and two years of data (approximately 650,000 inventory transactions). Results from nine test locations and one control location suggest that a well‐aligned approach to inventory management is indeed effective in improving continuity and resiliency, thus enhancing service‐based strategies—in this case, the USAF's ability to be mission‐capable. While the results of the study are derived from the USAF, we believe the implications provide broader insight into the use of inventory as a means of realizing a strategic fit.     

Conceptualizations of Trust: Can We Trust Them?

Although logistics and supply chain management research efforts have continued to become more sophisticated, opportunities still exist for further advancement. One critical area needing improvement is enhanced scale development and validation. This study provides insights into the strengths and weaknesses of one specific construct, trust, by examining how trust has been measured in our literature. A methodology for improving scale development, the Q‐sort procedure, is used to demonstrate a need for better measurement scales. Our findings suggest that numerous measures of trust have been used for logistics and supply chain research—most of which have been borrowed from other disciplines—without significant replication. More importantly, the results illustrate that all too often content validity is less than adequate. It appears as though we are not always measuring what we want to. Greater focus is recommended for future research that examines theory‐based scale development, purification of measures, and replication of scales to further refine and improve construct measurement for enhanced survey research.     

THE EFFECTS OF CULTURE AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT POLICIES ON SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Afirm's corporate culture and human resource management (HRM) policies have an important impact upon the success of that organization's supply chain management strategy. A model that examines the relationship between organizational culture, HRM policies, and the firm's transaction/relationship orientation toward its employees and the impact of these factors on its choice of supply chain partners is presented. The paper then discusses four different HRM/logistics strategies a firm can implement and examines the degree of cultural fit that is likely to develop in each of these four strategies. Finally, managers are provided with a list of questions that allow an assessment of the fit between the firm's human resource and logistics management strategies.     

Mapping the Landscape of Future Research Themes in Supply Chain Management

Supply chain researchers are confronted with a dizzying array of research questions, many of which are not mutually independent. This research was motivated by the need to map the landscape of research themes, identify potential overlapping areas and interactions, and provide guidelines on areas of focus for researchers to pursue. We conducted a three‐phase research study, beginning with an open‐ended collection of opinions on research themes collected from 102 supply chain management (SCM) researchers, followed by an evaluation of a consolidated list of themes by 141 SCM researchers. These results were then reviewed by 10 SCM scholars. Potential interactions and areas of overlap were identified, classified, and integrated into a compelling set of ideas for future research in the field of SCM. We believe these ideas provide a forward‐looking view on those themes that will become important, as well as those that researchers believe should be focused on. While areas of research deemed to become most important include big data and analytics, the most under‐researched areas include efforts that target the “people dimension” of SCM, ethical issues and internal integration. The themes are discussed in the context of current developments that the authors believe will provide a valuable foundation for future research.     

The Impact of Supply Chain Management Research: You Can't Unring a Bell!

With the assistance of 12 guest editors, the Journal of Business Logistics (JBL) has initiated a sequence of special topics forums (STFs) intended to stimulate research on themes that are both fundamental and timely. In an attempt to complement the quality and depth of the impact of research published in JBL, the objective of this strategy is to continue to increase the breadth of the impact of JBL on research in our discipline. A small number of articles have the preponderance of impact: 1% of the articles published in JBL account for over 20% of all JBL citations and half of the articles account for 95% of all citations. Our selection of the STFs is aimed at increasing the breadth of impact of the research published in JBL. Each STF that is discussed in this Editorial addresses relevant and timely research questions that should have a lasting impact on theory and practice.     

供应链管理研究的若干问题

通过对供应链管理研究成果的回顾,揭示出供应链管理研究中的若干问题,在此基础上提出自己的认识。就现在所处的国际环境,对目前供应链管理的一些热点问题,如库存管理、物流系统规划、战略伙伴关系管理、绿色供应链、基于电子商务的供应链、供应链建模方法、信息支持技术及供应链绩效评估等,把它们分成三类来对其发展现状进行探讨。     

供应链运输与库存整合优化技术应用分析

文章指出,运输与库存是物流配送过程中的两个关键环节,这两个环节的整合优化是供应链管理研究的前沿课题.运输与库存的整合优化是指,在满足给定的产品需求及运输限定条件下,同时寻求最优的库存与运输配送策略,使供应链系统运输与库存的总费用达到最小的最优化技术或方法.运输与库存整合优化应着重解决四个问题:一是确定最优库存水平;二是确定补货频率及补货时刻;三是确定所需车辆数量及配送区域;四是确定运输线路.进而实现对运输与库存问题的联合统筹决策,最低化运输与库存总成本.文章提出,尽管目前运输与库存整合优化问题研究还面临许多困难(如抽象出具有特定应用背景的实际问题并运用恰当的数学优化模型进行全面而准确的描述,然后用可行算法求解等),但随着先进库存管理模式在我国的广泛应用及市场供应链竞争的不断加剧,对运输调度与库存决策整合优化技术进行研究将变得越来越迫切,其广泛应用也将成为必然趋势.     

SUPPLY CHAIN CAPITAL: THE IMPACT OF STRUCTURAL AND RELATIONAL LINKAGES ON FIRM EXECUTION AND INNOVATION

Firms invest millions of dollars annually in developing their supply chains, with the broad goal of increasing their own performance. However, despite the significant resources deployed for supply chain development, the extent to which initiating, maintaining, and managing supply chain relationships contributes to firm success remains unclear. The current article provides conceptual development supporting the valuation of firm‐to‐firm supply chain connections from the perspective of the focal firm. Based on the social network and economics literatures, the article introduces the concept of supply chain capital, which comprises the value of both the structural configuration and relationship content of the firm's supply chain network. Following theoretical development, a non‐exhaustive set of propositions are constructed illustrating multiple ways that supply chain capital can be accrued and exploited for firm‐level benefit. Managerial recommendations for investment in supply chain capital are included, as are future directions for research in the area of supply chain networks.     

An Empirical Taxonomy of Supply Chain Management Practices

We develop an empirical taxonomy of supply chain management (SCM) practices grounded in the capability‐based view. Three groups—transactional SCM, translational SCM, and relational SCM—were identified using cluster analysis of data collected from over 200 U.S. manufacturing firms. We explain the differences among these groups and their relationship to improvements in supplier and buyer performance. Finally, we discuss implications for research and practice in SCM.     

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECT OF FULL‐SCALE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE ADOPTIONS ON INVENTORY BALANCES AND TURNS

Supply chain management (SCM) software vendors, analysts, and others claim that firms implementing SCM software stand to benefit by being able to reduce inventory holdings and increase inventory turns. We theorize that full‐scale implementations lead to system‐wide inventory optimization, which in turn leads to cost improvement associated with inventory balances and turns. To examine the question, we develop an analytical model of inventory optimization, then analyze the effects of the model with a numerical experiment, and finally confirm the results with an empirical examination. We find that firm‐wide implementation is significant in explaining improvement in inventory metrics, relative to pre‐implementation metrics for our sample. Our empirical tests indicate that implementing SCM software across only a portion of the firm does not impact inventory metrics, but that the scale of implementation does. More precisely, we find that firms implementing SCM software across the entire company significantly improve both inventory turns and inventory as a percent of revenue relative to partially‐implementing firms and non‐implementers.