Eliciting and representing the supply chain strategy of a business unit

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