A typology for strategic supply-chain management : bridging the gap between operations and strategy

Abstract

Over the last decade, supply-chain management (SCM), a field that emerged from the operational areas of purchasing and logistics, has become a focal area in business studies. However, efforts to move SCM from an operational to a more strategic perspective typically stop at the design, or operations strategy level, and it has proven difficult to move SCM to a strategic perspective. Led by operations and operations strategy researchers and practitioners, tremendous efforts have been made to develop management tools for the strategic adoption of SCM. However, despite findings of substantial benefits accruing to those firms that do develop their SCM capabilities, researchers report very low take-up of strategic SCM. This research explores the apparent paradox of the poor take-up of a strategic tool that has had high- profile success, and attempts to fiirther the evolution of SCM theory.