به سوی یکپارچگی بیشتر بینش های نظریه سازمان و مدیریت زنجیره تامین

Organization theory (OT) has the potential to offer provocative and helpful wisdom to the field of supply chain management, yet OT's potential has remained largely underdeveloped in the supply chain arena. As a result, enormous opportunities exist to integrate insights from organization theory and supply chain management in order to build understanding of why some supply chains excel while others do not. We preview the contributions toward developing such a synthesis offered by each of the articles contained in this special issue. Collectively, the articles take a significant step toward closing the gap between ‘what we know’ and ‘what we need to know’ about supply chain management.

In putting together the call for papers for this special issue, we noted that organization theory (OT) offers a wide variety of interesting and useful perspectives, including the resource-based view, the knowledge-based view, strategic choice theory, agency theory, institutional theory, and systems theory, to name a few. The application of such theories to a phenomenon often provides greater understanding. Yet, to date, researchers interested in operations management in general and supply chain management (SCM) in particular have made limited use of organizational theories. We believe that the theories that are currently guiding organizational inquiry can shed significant light on SCM research thought and practice as well as function as a bridge between social science areas that are bound to be connected when studying the interdisciplinary phenomenon of supply chains. In particular, application of organization theories might help ongoing debates as well as open up new areas of investigation. Accordingly, the idea behind special issue on Organization Theory and Supply Chain Management was to attract papers that would shed greater insights on how organizational theories could help describe, explain, and predict supply chain phenomena (e.g., culture, activities, and outcomes).

Overall, the scholarship in this issue encapsulates previous research, debuts new viewpoints on supply chain management, and articulates future areas of interest. We believe that collectively the articles offered here provide an abundant foundation for subsequent investigation into a subject matter of significant theoretical and practical value. Also, we want to thank each of the many reviewers who gave their time to help us identify a set of fine papers for inclusion in this issue. All of them worked under tight deadlines, and several graciously reviewed more than one paper, sometimes with short notice. Finally, we are indebted to the authors of the articles you will enjoy in this issue. Their dedication has created a collection of papers that we are pleased to offer to you.