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Eliciting and representing the supply chain strategy of a business unit

journal contribution
posted on 2018-01-01, 00:00 authored by Roberto Perez-FrancoRoberto Perez-Franco, Shardul Phadnis
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a practical method to elicit – in a manner grounded in
fact – the “as is” supply chain strategy that a business unit currently has in place. It also proposes a
framework to represent the supply chain strategy of a business unit in a clear and actionable manner.
Design/methodology/approach – A framework to represent the supply chain strategy of a business unit
was developed through inductive theory generation. A method to elicit the current, “as is” supply chain
strategy of a business unit was developed through collaborative management research projects and validated
by several third-party projects.
Findings – In different projects – many conducted by third parties – the method was found to be a useful
approach to elicit the “as is” supply chain strategy of a business unit. Practitioners found value in
representing a supply chain strategy as a conceptual system serving as a logical bridge between the overall
strategy and the supply chain operations of the business units.
Research limitations/implications – The proposed framework may have limited scalability beyond a
single business unit. The proposed method may be less useful when the supply chain strategy is undergoing a
dramatic transformation, or when the participants from the company are either not fully engaged in the
exercise or knowledgeable about the strategic rationale behind activities.
Originality/value – The paper provides an innovative approach to tap into the tacit knowledge of the
organization to reveal the patterns of decisions underpinning its current supply chain strategy and to
characterize the supply chain strategy of a business unit as a conceptual system.
Keywords North America, Europe, Supply chain strategy, South America, Conceptual research,
Strategy elicitation, Strategy representation

History

Journal

The international journal of logistics management

Volume

29

Issue

4

Pagination

1401 - 1423

Publisher

Emerald

Location

Bingley, England

ISSN

0957-4093

eISSN

1758-6550

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2018, Emerald Publishing Limited