تئوری سازمان و مدیریت زنجیره تامین : چشم انداز پژوهشی در حال تکامل

The supply chain is the central organizing unit in today's global industries. We describe how supply chains have evolved over the last three decades, arguing that their organizational history can be divided into three periods. In the first period, the primary focus was on how to make operations throughout the supply chain more efficient. In the second period, the focus shifted from efficiency to effectiveness as leading firms began to incorporate the ideas and expertise of their suppliers and partners into the management of the supply chain. In the current period, some firms are beginning to explore how supply chains can be extended across industries in addition to operating efficiently and effectively within industries.

Supply chains, the network of firms that contributes both inbound and outbound products and services along an industry value chain, have drawn increasing attention from organization theorists since the 1980s. Moreover, scholarly research has shifted over time to emphasize one after another of several organization theory perspectives. Indeed, our own interest in the organization and management of supply chains illustrates those shifting theoretical perspectives. Our research interests have evolved from an initial focus on strategic choice, to one of resource development and utilization, and most recently to the design of multi-firm network organizations whose capabilities are focused on knowledge sharing and application. A brief review of how and why our theoretical perspectives have evolved illustrates how each one has been and can be applied. Overall, this review will show that supply chain research, which originally focused narrowly on the efficient movement of goods among firms within an industry, now incorporates a substantial amount of organization theory.

Based on our research over the past three decades, the overall conclusions that we have reached about supply chains are summarized in Table 1. As shown, from a strategic choice perspective, firms can design supply chains that profitably combine organizational capabilities and perspectives that would be difficult if not impossible to manage inside a single hierarchy. With additional insight and investment driven by a resource-based view, firms can not only use their supply chain partners’ skills to enhance their efficiency, they can also use their know-how to improve products or services and to innovate in other ways. Lastly, recognizing the full power of knowledge sharing, firms can make the investments in trust and collaborative skills necessary to form communities across and within complementary markets that are capable of creating economic wealth from both planned and unplanned innovation on a nearly continuous basis. Clearly, each of these research perspectives builds on and expands the conceptual reach of its predecessor, allowing the design of strategies, structures, and processes of ever-increasing scope and capability.In retrospect, the evolution of our research perspective on supply chains seems obvious. The challenge, however, is to view research prospectively rather than retrospectively. Thus, the more rapidly and effectively scholars can anticipate the next stage of development in supply chains, the greater will be the benefit both to the global economy and to our understanding of organizations and how they are managed.