Originally published as the International Journal of Operations and Production Management Volume 26 Number 7, 2006
ISBN: 1 84663 044 4
Guest Edited by: Paul D. Cousins
This Special Issue asks: Is Supply Chain Management an emerging academic discipline?
Supply Chain Management (SCM) has continued to grow in prominence within the field of Operations Management and also within the broader discipline of management. Practitioners have begun to adopt and adapt new techniques to supply management that improve firm performance. Organizations in both the public and private sectors are becoming increasingly aware of the pivotal role that SCM can play in their business success. This is a challenging special issue aimed at stimulating debate rather than providing a definitive answer to the question that we have posed.
The first three papers examine the theoretical development of the supply chain management (SCM) discipline; while the remaining three papers address the development of SCM in practice.
Contents:
Supply chain management: theory and practice – the emergence of an academic discipline?
This article outlines how the papers stimulate debate on the nature and development of SCM and indicates that there is an intense research effort being conducted around the world in this field.
Supply chain management: a structured literature review and implications for future research
The field of supply chain management has historically been informed by knowledge from narrow functional areas. While some effort towards producing a broader organizational perspective has been made, nonetheless, SCM continues to be largely eclectic with little consensus on its conceptualization and research methodological bases. This paper seeks to clarify aspects of this emerging perspective.
Supply management: is it a discipline?
This article examines management literature for guidance on what constitutes a discipline. It also examines supply management publications to determine whether the field constitutes a discipline or an emerging discipline. Finally, it contributes a structured evaluation to the body of supply management theory/discipline development knowledge.
Supply chain management: theory, practice and future challenges
The purpose of this paper is to critically assess current developments in the theory and practice of supply management and through such an assessment to identify barriers, possibilities and key trends.
An empirical taxonomy of purchasing functions
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the different patterns of purchasing function configuration, and the relationship between such patterns and organisational performance.
Extending green practices across the supply chain: The impact of upstream and downstream integration
This research aims to extend the “collaborative paradigm” proposed by others in prior research beyond a supply chain's core operations. To date, this paradigm has generated relatively little empirical research on peripheral, non-core areas such the natural environment. Antecedents (both plant-level and supply chain characteristics) of green supply chain practices (GSCP) are examined.
Supply management's evolution: key skill sets for the supply manager of the future
In the last decade there have been dramatic impacts on, and changes within, the field of purchasing/supply management. Given supply management's new strategic role, this research seeks to examine the key skills and knowledge necessary for firms to improve in order to maximize the purchasing function's contribution to the organization. The research also aims to identifiy the major shifts in supply management that have occurred in the last decade.
About the International Journal of Operations & Production Management
The International Journal of Operations & Production Management draws together information at the forefront of the discipline, providing sound guidance for those concerned with the management of systems, whether in academic institutions, industry or consultancy. Highly respected worldwide, and associated with The European Operations Management Association, this information resource seeks to raise standards in every aspect of operations and production management.
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