DEVELOPING AND MEASURING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

To investigate the construct of Supply Chain Management and its antecedent construct of a Supply Chain Orientation, reliable, valid scales of each are needed. In this study, we developed measurement scales for a supply chain orientation (SCO) and supply chain management (SCM). Validity and reliability of the developed scales were established and the relationship between a SCO, SCM, and business performance was also established, providing evidence of nomological validity. The implications of these findings for managers and researchers are discussed.     

The Role of Marketing Channels in Supply Chain Management

This paper synthesizes five decades of supply chain-related research from premier managerially oriented marketing journals and provides a state-of-the-art integration and forecasting of where the field is heading. Such a review identifies where the field of supply chain management (SCM) has been, where it is, and where it is likely to go within the domain of marketing. Importantly, our paper involves a strategic discovery of the anchoring of SCM thought in marketing. A prominent feature of this paper is a set of takeaways, delineated from the cross-section of SCM literature bases (marketing channels, logistics, purchasing, and operations management) that will facilitate the development of the topic of SCM in marketing. These takeaways serve as agenda setters for future research and potential applications of SCM in marketing. Overall, we contribute to the marketing and SCM literatures by (1) reviewing the breadth of the most impactful literature on SCM that is directly connected to the field of marketing, (2) summarizing the state-of-the-art of the SCM in marketing literature, and (3) forecasting via a series of integrated takeaways what research is needed and where the SCM in marketing is likely to progress.     

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.     

Digitalization and its Impact on the Future Role of SCM Executives in Talent Management – An International Cross-Industry Delphi Study

In the field of supply chain management (SCM), attracting and developing appropriate talent is critical for achieving most SCM goals, as extensive skills are necessary to do the job properly. In order to ensure that future-proof talent can continue to emerge in this discipline, the role of SCM executives is extremely important. Although many studies have been conducted in the field of talent management (TM), the future role of SCM executives has been mostly neglected in research. The present empirical study addresses this gap, taking into consideration the fourth industrial revolution, as innovation in technology continues to drive significant changes in the SCM field. Aiming to investigate the extent to which increasing digitalization is influencing the future role of SCM executives, a Delphi study with 103 experts from industry, academics, and politics/associations was carried out. In order to identify meaningful topic clusters from the data, fuzzy c-means clustering was used. From an actor-network theory perspective, our results show that in some areas of TM, digitalization is leading to a strong fusion of SCM executives and digital technologies, as well as to a clear division of roles, in which either SCM leaders or technology will dominate in the future.     

New Challenges for International Business Research: A Review of Extant Research and the Unique Contributions of John Dunning

Relative to other fields, international business is a young field of study. Tracing its origins to the mid-1950s, the field began to develop unique theories and paradigms in the 1970s and 1980s. The field has developed rich research streams since and has become firmly established as an independent field of study and important part of university curricula. John Dunning (1902–2009) is widely regarded as a father of the field, carving out unique theories from his primary field of economics and through his efforts hiring and training future prominent international business scholars. This article examines the evolution of the international business field and unique contributions of John Dunning's research to the development of extant theory. It then reviews Dunning's last contribution—his fifth and last book entitled New Challenges for International Business Research: Back to the Future.     

Toward Greater Validation of Supply Chain Management Theory and Concepts: The Roles of Research Replication and Meta‐Analysis

Although researchers have been working for over three decades to identify, construct, and test the critical concepts and theories that comprise the supply chain management (SCM) discipline, the field’s theoretical basis has yet to be thoroughly vetted through repetitive, rigorous study. Emerging theories in SCM offer great explanatory potential, but if they are to stand the tests of time, place, and reason, research findings must be accumulated and synthesized. For the field to prosper, we advocate the execution of multiple studies that replicate findings across contexts while simultaneously encompassing relevant theoretical extensions. Furthermore, as SCM research streams mature, scholars should then employ meta‐analytic techniques to gain consensus across studies, such that findings can be more confidently extolled to both academic and practitioner constituencies. In this article, we evaluate the progress of replication and meta‐analysis to date within the SCM field and provide some prospects for thematic research that could perpetuate accelerated validation.     

Data Science,Predictive Analytics,and Big Data in Supply Chain Management: Current State and Future Potential

While data science, predictive analytics, and big data have been frequently used buzzwords, rigorous academic investigations into these areas are just emerging. In this forward thinking article, we discuss the results of a recent large‐scale survey on these topics among supply chain management (SCM) professionals, complemented with our experiences in developing, implementing, and administering one of the first master's degree programs in predictive analytics. As such, we effectively provide an assessment of the current state of the field via a large‐scale survey, and offer insight into its future potential via the discussion of how a research university is training next‐generation data scientists. Specifically, we report on the current use of predictive analytics in SCM and the underlying motivations, as well as perceived benefits and barriers. In addition, we highlight skills desired for successful data scientists, and provide illustrations of how predictive analytics can be implemented in the curriculum. Relying on one of the largest data sets of predictive analytics users in SCM collected to date and our experiences with one of the first master's degree programs in predictive analytics, it is our intent to provide a timely assessment of the field, illustrate its future potential, and motivate additional research and pedagogical advancements in this domain.     

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION AND PRIORITY STRATEGIES IN DANISH ORGANIZATIONS

There has been little discussion on how to prioritize and implement SCM strategies within organizations. This paper presents a decision tool to identify prioritized strategies for improving SCM implementation and validates its use in a study amongst SCM managers of 100 Danish organizations.     

PERSPECTIVES ON LOGISTICS VS. SCM: A SURVEY OF SCM PROFESSIONALS

Despite some movement toward consensus on the definition of supply chain management (SCM), there are multiple perspectives on the concept — and its association with logistics. This paper reports results of a survey of SCM professionals regarding their views of SCM, along with its facilitators and barriers. In general, these executives prefer broad, multi‐functional perspectives as opposed to more narrow perspectives of SCM. According to the survey, the leading facilitators of SCM implementation were relational rather than technological. In addition, internal or employee resistance appears to be more of a barrier to SCM implementation compared to external (customer and supplier) resistance.     

Interdisciplinary Research in SCM: Through the Lens of the Behavioral Theory of the Firm

To accelerate research discoveries—those required to address paramount challenges facing business today—researchers from diverse disciplines must work together. Interdisciplinary research (IDR) is a research that involves bringing together perspectives from two or more disciplines in an integrative manner to address complex and multifaceted supply chain management (SCM) problems. IDR is needed to address contemporary business challenges. We look at SCM research through the lens of the Behavioral Theory of the Firm (BTF) drawing parallels in research evolution and noting similar antecedents in theoretical development. We point to the advances BTF has offered to organizational theory built on IDR and consider the possibilities for SCM. We make a case for methodological diversity in supporting this research, further paralleling lessons from BTF. Last, we describe the state of IDR in SCM today, discuss the objective of this special issue, and showcase the five contributing papers.     

A Challenge in Our Time: Issues of Race in Supply Chain Management

This editorial addresses one of the greatest challenges of our time—racial inequality. Logistics and supply chain management (SCM) factor prominently in people’s everyday experiences, as consumers of products and logistics services as well as through participation in logistics and supply chain workforces. These everyday experiences can be quite disparate depending on one’s race. As academics, we have a responsibility to peel back the layers of how these issues of race and diversity impact and interact with supply chain phenomena. This editorial is intended to bolster conversation around these issues. We identify compelling themes that merit consideration and, perhaps, deeper investigation, including race as an individual difference variable in our research, race in SCM talent and leadership, and race and racism in SCM execution. We also call for more research that addresses racial inclusion and equal access in other aspects of SCM in light of its far-reaching influence in the realms of business and society. The time has come to address these pervasive issues affecting organizations and individuals. We also introduce the articles appearing in the current issue of the journal.     

Sustainable Supply Chain Management Integration: A Qualitative Analysis of the German Manufacturing Industry

Firms are increasingly integrating sustainability into their supply chain management (SCM) practices. The goal is to achieve sustainable flows of products, services, information and capital to provide maximum value to all corporate stakeholders. Prior research on SCM integration has insufficiently addressed sustainability. The objective of this research is to provide for a coherent and testable model of sustainable supply chain management integration (SSCMI). By drawing on four cases from the German manufacturing industry, we seek to identify the most important factors that enable or impede the integration of sustainability into SCM.     

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.     

An empirical study of evaluating supply chain management integration using the balanced scorecard in Taiwan

Supply chain management (SCM) is essential for strengthening competitiveness, customer satisfaction, management performance, and achieving continued success. The development of effective measures of SCM performance is crucial to companies. Most corporations place considerable importance on SCM and the concept of balanced scorecard (BSC). Most studies, however, typically discuss SCM and BSC independently without examining their relationship. This study attempts to integrate SCM and BSC based on a thorough discussion of BSC measures in Kaplan and Norton. The main objectives of this study are to evaluate SCM performance using the BSC to thereby assess the business performance of many of Taiwan's industries that have implemented SCM. This study initially utilizes case studies; a research model and hypotheses are modified according to the case study findings. A questionnaire-based survey forms the second phase of data collection and data analysis. The research framework is analyzed and validated. Case study findings indicate that companies use varying degrees of SCM integration. Data analysis supports a positive correlation between SCM integration and BSC and a direct correlation between SCM integration and each BSC dimension.     

Data Science,Predictive Analytics,and Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform Supply Chain Design and Management

We illuminate the myriad of opportunities for research where supply chain management (SCM) intersects with data science, predictive analytics, and big data, collectively referred to as DPB. We show that these terms are not only becoming popular but are also relevant to supply chain research and education. Data science requires both domain knowledge and a broad set of quantitative skills, but there is a dearth of literature on the topic and many questions. We call for research on skills that are needed by SCM data scientists and discuss how such skills and domain knowledge affect the effectiveness of an SCM data scientist. Such knowledge is crucial to develop future supply chain leaders. We propose definitions of data science and predictive analytics as applied to SCM. We examine possible applications of DPB in practice and provide examples of research questions from these applications, as well as examples of research questions employing DPB that stem from management theories. Finally, we propose specific steps interested researchers can take to respond to our call for research on the intersection of SCM and DPB.     

Doors and boundaries: A recent history of the relationship between research and practice in UK organizational and management research

This article looks at a selection of significant episodes in the history of organizational and management research, and the policies in this field of the UK Social Science Research Council. The episodes begin in the Council's early days in the mid-1960s, and run through its high-profile efforts to improve management research at the end of the 1980s to the start of a new initiative sanctioned by the Council in 2001. They have been chosen because they are important milestones in the development of the field. They also illustrate a central issue which has been evident throughout the period: whether management research should be framed as essentially different or merely seen as carrying some sort of deficit or remedial gap with respect to the other ‘founding disciplines’. They also illustrate an important dilemma facing the funding agency in its longstanding if erratic attempts to engage with the processes through which social science research is used – namely the tension between the goals and rhetoric of excellence and relevance. One episode which illustrates these issues particularly well is that of the Open Door Scheme, a radical SSRC innovation in the 1970s which encouraged non-academic participation in the selection of management research topics. Changes within the funding agency over the same period are crucial for this story. We reflect on their relevance for the episodic developments within management research. From these points of enquiry, we derive a historical, institutional analysis of the interactions between public research funding and management research, of the interplay between the worlds of practice and research, and the ways in which a dialectic has been constructed between concepts of use and relevance, on the one hand, and excellence and rigour on the other.     

LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS WITHIN A GLOBAL CONTEXT: AN OVERVIEW

This paper reviews 726 academic research studies covering logistics and supply chain management (L'SCM) applications within a global context. Articles are analyzed according to their publication year and outlet, common themes, and countries or regions investigated. The sample was drawn from the ABI/INFORM Global database, which includes almost 1,800 journal titles. The review offers a starting point for researchers, graduate students, faculty members or practitioners examining international L'SCM applications. The article also draws attention to the wide array of global L'SCM studies conducted, their settings and viewpoints. Additionally, this paper highlights some of the most interesting works and draws attention to lesser‐researched countries and regions of the world. The overview also provides an introduction for practitioners and managers to what academic research has covered in the area of global L'SCM. Practitioners can use this review as a starting point for the identification of relevant and useful references for their particular task.     

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.     

Leveraging Big Data to Develop Supply Chain Management Theory: The Case of Panel Data

Increased data availability is poised to shape both business practice and supply chain management (SCM) research. This article addresses an issue that can arise when trying to use big data to answer academic research questions. This issue is that distilled data often have a panel structure whereby repeated measurements are available on one or more variables for a substantial number of subjects. Thus, to fully leverage the richness of big data for academic research, SCM scholars need an understanding regarding the different types of research questions answerable with panel data. In this article, we devise a framework detailing different types of research questions SCM scholars can answer with panel data. This framework provides a basis to categorize how SCM scholars have examined the services supply chain setting of health care with public data regarding hospital‐level patient satisfaction. We extend prior research by testing a series of three questions not yet examined in this area by fitting a series of structured latent curve models to seven years of hospital‐level patient satisfaction for nearly 4,000 hospitals. The discussion highlights theoretical and methodological challenges SCM scholars are likely to encounter as they use the panel data in their research.