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Supply Chain Management: Unheard of in the 1970s, core to today's company

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Supply Chain Management: Unheard of in the 1970s, core to today's company

Rafaela Alfalla-Luque a; Carmen Medina-López a
a
GIDEAO Research Group, University of Seville, Spain

Online Publication Date: 01 March 2009

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 Business History
Vol. 51, No. 2, March 2009, 202–221

Supply Chain Management: Unheard of in the 1970s, core to today’s

company
Rafaela Alfalla-Luque* and Carmen Medina-López

GIDEAO Research Group, University of Seville, Spain

Although the Supply Chain Management (SCM) concept was born at the
beginning of the 1980s, research in the field was almost non-existent until the mid-
1990s. Since then, the growth of SCM research has been exponential. Currently,
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SCM is making the change from being an emerging research field to becoming a
consolidated one. The aim of this paper is to analyse the way SCM has developed
from its origins and to determine whether its present development corresponds to
the needs that companies are experiencing. This article provides a frame of
reference for SCM research, which is essential for the definitive consolidation of a
fledgling field such as this. It also allows any possible gap between SCM research
and practice to be minimised.
Keywords: Supply Chain Management (SCM); Operations Management (OM);
history review; research agendas; bibliometric studies

Introduction
The origin of Operations Management (OM) is closely linked with the birth of the
company itself, as there has always been a need for the production of goods and
services to be managed. For there to be production, companies have had to make use
of a supply chain that allowed raw materials to be obtained and stored, and end
products to be stored and distributed. This means that any company, from its very
beginnings, has had to manage its materials exchange relations and information
flows with its suppliers and customers, albeit with greater or lesser interest and skill.
Furthermore, the management of these flows (which was given the umbrella term of
logistics) has not only been a requirement for companies, as such, but also for many
other projects throughout history. It has become highly relevant in large-scale
campaigns during times of war, for example, and even on the voyages made by
Marco Polo in the thirteenth century, when the establishment of trade between the
eastern and western worlds gave rise to large-scale logistics administration problems
for the purchase, movement and maintenance of supplies and equipment. As a result,
the management of relationships with suppliers and customers, and the movement of
products from one company to another, have not been the exclusive domain of
recent times, but have always underlain organisations and a wide range of projects.

*Corresponding author. Email: alfalla@us.es

ISSN 0007-6791 print/ISSN 1743-7938 online

Ó 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/00076790902726558
http://www.informaworld.com
 Business History 203

Nevertheless, it was not until recent times (the 1980s) when the business situation in
which companies found themselves (mainly, the globalisation process and rapid
developments in the new information technologies), began to change inter-company
relationships, and the need for the proper management of the supply chain in its
entirety (not limited just to direct suppliers and customers) became indispensable for
a company to survive in the business world. And so the concept of Supply Chain
Management (SCM) was born and brought a new facet to company management,
knocking down barriers both inside and outside the company in a quest for the
integrated management of the whole supply chain.
In this new business context, competition is no longer firm against firm, but has
moved on to a higher plane, with the generation of supply chain against supply chain
competition (Boyer, Swink, & Rosenzweig, 2005; Christopher, 2000; Johnson &
Pyke, 2000; Ketchen & Guinipero, 2004; Ketchen & Hult, 2007). Handfield and
Nichols (1999) argued that now manufacturers must not only manage their own
organisations but also be involved in the management of the network of upstream
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and downstream firms. SCM has strategic relevance as a source of competitive

advantage (Christopher, 1992; Fine, 1998). An increasing percentage of value
creation takes place outside the boundaries of the individual firm (Halldorsson,
Kotzab, Mikkola, & Skjøtt-Larsen, 2007). Managing value on supply chains has
become critical for company survival and growth. Given these circumstances,
practitioners and researchers should focus not only on individual companies, but on
the value chains that supply chains and their various links represent, including the
range of suppliers, the firms that produce the final product, and distributors and
customers.

Aims and methodology

As a fledgling discipline, SCM is at present going through a period of great research
activity in an effort to define its boundaries and build up a solid body of knowledge
to be put at the service of progress in business. At this time, studies that define the
historical path taken by SCM, what it currently is and what it should be, are of
special interest. Our intention is to show the researcher how the discipline has
evolved and what state it is currently in, with a view to improving and consolidating
the field of knowledge and defining future lines of action. We share the view of
Wilson (1995), who demonstrated the importance for both scholars and
professionals in the field of an awareness of what has preceded their work as a
tool for improving research in their discipline.
In consequence, the aim of this study is to analyse the way research in SCM has
developed from its origins and to determine whether the way it is currently
developing corresponds to the needs that companies are experiencing. To this end, a
comprehensive review of literature has been undertaken analysing: a) the research
agendas developed in recent decades; b) bibliometric studies of the main journals in
the discipline; c) studies that analyse contributions to conferences; and d) empirical
studies surveying business managers.
In the following sections we shall draw relationships between a number of
papers so as to show the researcher how SCM research has evolved. We
believe that the development of a discipline is greatly facilitated by studies such as
ours.
 204 R. Alfalla-Luque and C. Medina-López

The SCM concept

SCM is a discipline in the early stages of evolution (Gibson, Mentzer, & Cook,
2005). Many authors (Giannakis & Croom, 2004; Halldorsson, Kotzab, Mikkola, &
Skjøtt-Larsen, 2007; Harland, 1996; Heckman, Shorten, & Engel, 2003; Lambert,
Cooper, & Pagh, 1998; Lapide, 2007; Laseter & Oliver, 2003; Russell, 2007; Stadtler,
2005; Svensson, 2002) state that the term ‘Supply Chain Management’ was originally
introduced by consultants at Booz Allen Hamilton in the early 1980s (Oliver &
Webber, 1982)1 when discussing the potential benefits of integrating the internal
business functions of purchasing, manufacturing, sales and distribution. The concept
was built upon by Houlihan (1985), who set out the efficiencies and mutual benefits
that could be gained from information sharing and co-ordinating decisions up and
down a supply chain. Furthermore, at the end of the 1980s, there was little
consistency in the use of the term and little evidence of clarity of meaning (Harland,
1996). Since then, numerous academics and practitioners have offered definitions of
the SCM concept (including Bechtel & Jayaram, 1997; Cooke, 1997; Cooper &
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Ellram, 1993; Cooper, Lambert, & Pagh, 1997; Gibson, Mentzer, & Cook, 2005;
Handfield & Nichols, 2002; Harland, 1996; Houlihan, 1988; Jones & Riley, 1985;
Lalonde & Masters, 1994; Lambert & Cooper, 2000; Lee & Ng, 1997; Lummus &
Vokurka, 1999; Mentzer, DeWitt, Keebler, & Min 2001; Monczka, Trent, &
Handheld, 1998; Quinn, 1997; Scott & Westbrook, 1991; Stevens, 1989; Tan, 2001).
According to Handfield and Nichols (2002), SCM is the integration of all the
activities that relate to the flow and transformation of goods, including associated
information flows, from the raw materials stage right through to the end user by
means of improved supply chain relationships, in order to achieve a sustainable
competitive advantage. Proper SCM requires an inter-functional management focus
to be applied to co-ordinate basic company functions within the firm, as well as
between the various companies that make up the supply chain.
But when was the term Supply Chain Management first used in scientific papers?
To answer this question we have conducted a study of the most prestigious OM
journals, selected on the basis of previous studies which analysed journal quality and
relevance (Amoako-Gyampah & Meredith, 1989; Barman, Hanna, & LaForge, 2001;
Barman, Tersine, & Buckley, 1991; Goh, Holsapple, Johnson, & Tanner, 1997;
Pannirselvam, Ferguson, Ash, & Siferd 1999; Pilkington & Liston-Heyes, 1999;
Soteriou, Hadjinicola, & Patsia, 1999; Vokurka, 1996; Young, Baird, & Pullman,
1996). Relevant logistics and distribution journals were added to these (some of
which only began to be published in the 1990s). A total of 23 journals were analysed.
Searches of the journals were conducted on the main databases (ABI Inform/
ProQuest, EBSCOhost, Emerald, Elsevier and Blackwell Synergy) with a view to
determining the dates on which the first articles were published containing the terms
Supply Chain (SC) or SCM in their titles or abstracts. The results are set out in
Table 1. Generally speaking, the terms were included in abstracts before titles, and
the term SC usually appeared before SCM.
From the time the aforementioned Houlihan paper appeared in the Inter-
national Journal of Physical Distribution and Materials Management in 1985, there
has only been a slow take-up of the term SCM in the various journals. The data we
obtained does not indicate any clear trends towards a faster take-up in the use of the
term in OM-oriented journals than in Operations Research or Management ones.
We see that the term SCM appears for the first time in Management Decisions
(management-oriented) in 1988, for example, and in International Journal of
 Business History 205

Table 1. First appearance of the terms SC or SCM in titles and abstracts in the main
journals.

First First
First appearance appearance
year of in title in abstract
database
Journals search SC SCM SC SCM
California Management Review CMR 1958 1997 1998 1998 1998
Decision Sciences DS 1970 1998 1998 1998 1998
Harvard Business Review HBR 1922 1995 1998 1994 1998
IIE Transactions IIET 1969 1998 1998 1997 1998
Integrated Manufacturing Systems IMS 1990 1991 1991 1991 1991
International Journal of Logistics IJLM 1990 1990 1993 1990 1993
Management
International Journal of Operations IJOPM 1980 1996 1996 1987 1989
and Production Management
International Journal of Physical IJPDLM 1979 1985 1985 1985 1985
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Distribution and Logistics

Management (formerly International
Journal of Physical Distribution
and Materials Management)
International Journal of Production IJPE 1977 1991 2000 1991 1996
Economics
International Journal of Production IJPR 1961 1997 2001 1995 1995
Research
International Journal of Quality and IJQRM 1986 1998 2001 1990 1990
Reliability Management
International Journal of Retail IJRDM 1981 1990 – 1989 1989
and Distribution Management
(formerly Retail and
Distribution Management)
Journal of Business Logistics JBL 1978 1991 1995 1991 1992
Journal of Operations Management JOM 1980 1996 2003 1996 1998
Logistics Information Management LIM 1991 1991 1996 1991 1991
Management Decisions MD 1978 1988 1990 1988 1988
Management Science MS 1954 1997 1997 1997 1997
Operations Research OR 1952 1993 2006 1988 2001
Production and Inventory Management PIM 1983 1993 1998 1991 1998
Production and Operations Management POM 1992 1997 1997 1997 1997
MIT Sloan Management Review SMR 1960 1992 1993 1992 1992
Strategic Management Journal SMJ 1980 1998 2007 1992 –
TQM Magazine TQMM 1989 1990 2005 1990 1995

Source: Prepared by authors.

Operations and Production Management (OM-oriented) and International Journal of

Retail and Distribution Management (logistics-oriented) in 1989. It is not until the
1990s, however, that the term SCM first appears in abstracts in the majority (almost
80%) of journals (Table 2). The uptake of its use in titles was slower, and it was not
until the present decade that it appeared in more than 30% of the journals for the
first time. This study has already shown one tendency in SCM research, and this will
be further investigated in the following sections.
On the academic side, Parsons and Globerson (1987) performed a content
analysis of OM textbooks for two periods: during the early 1970s and from 1984 to
1987. The only SCM-related topic found was logistics, which was covered by 11% of
 206 R. Alfalla-Luque and C. Medina-López

Table 2. First appearance of the terms SC or SCM in titles and abstracts in the main journals
by period.

First appearance in
First appearance in title abstract (percentage of
(percentage of journals) journals)
Period SC SCM SC SCM
1985–1989 8.7 4.5 21.7 18.2
1990–1994 43.5 18.2 47.8 27.3
1995–1999 47.8 45.5 30.4 50.0
2000–2004 0.0 18.2 0.0 4.5
2005–2007 0.0 13.6 0.0 0.0

Source: Prepared by authors.

OM textbooks in the early 1970s and by 43% during the second period. The term
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SCM was not included in the topics covered. Only at the end of the 1990s did OM
textbooks start to include chapters specifically devoted to SCM (i.e. Gaither &
Fraizer, 1999; Heizer & Render, 2001; Krajewski & Ritzman, 2000; Russell &
Taylor, 1999). Currently, some textbooks base OM instruction on the new focus
centred on SCM (Vollmann, Berry, Whybark, & Jacobs, 2005; Waller, 2003),
venturing beyond the limits of the individual company to include the supply chain in
its entirety.
To conclude this section, one piece of data gives us an insight into the evolution
and consolidation of the concept of SCM. It was not until 1998 that the professional
organisation the Council of Logistics Management modified its definition of logistics
to indicate that it was a subset of SCM and that the two terms were not synonymous.
In 2005, the Council of Logistics Management changed its name to the Council of
Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), as its activities had surpassed
the traditional concept of logistics. Curiously, if we go a little further back in the
history of the organisation, we discover that up to 1985 it had been known as the
National Council of Physical Distribution Management. This shows how companies
have moved on from focusing their interest on distribution to logistics, only to later
break down organisational barriers and demand a focus on SCM.

Early developments in SCM: up to the end of the 1980s

The foundations for the present day discipline of SCM began to be laid decades
ago. Papers such as Forrester’s (1958, 1961) and, according to Schonberger
(2007), the Just-in-Time philosophy itself, put forward the idea of the need for
integrated and inter-linked SCM. Elsewhere, Svensson (2002) discovered that there
were many similarities between the theoretical foundations of SCM and Alderson’s
functionalist theory (Alderson, 1957). In the same way, if the conclusions arrived at
by Singhal, Singhal, and Starr (2007) are shared, the Buffa (1961, 1965, 1969)
handbooks can be regarded as forerunners, as they include issues relating to the field,
even though, as we have pointed out in the previous section, the term SCM was still
not in use.
However, even though the foundations for this new OM sub-field had begun to
be laid during the 1960s and 1970s, several decades had to go by before companies
discovered its true potential and it emerged as a field of research. OM research
 Business History 207

agendas for the 1980s (Buffa, 1980; Chase, 1980; Miller et al., 1981; Voss, 1984) thus
showed that no research topic relating to SCM could be found amongst those
proposed. Miller et al. (1981), for example, stated that the four main OM sub-topics
were: operations policy, operations control, service operations and productivity.
Meanwhile, Voss (1984) established the following as priority areas for research
topics: management of technology, production planning and inventory control,
manufacturing policy, quality assurance, performance measures/accounting, inter-
national competitors and service industry operations. And so, none of these agendas
prophesied the relevant role that was to be played by SCM within OM years later.
However, if the Miller et al. (1981) paper is carefully re-read, we find that topics
closely related to SCM begin to come to the fore. The authors proposed many
important research questions that could serve for writing future works on operations
policy, amongst others: a) How could the logistics and production functions be
integrated for even smoother operation? b) The Japanese have been particularly
effective in integrating logistics and production into very tightly coupled operations.
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Could their methods and concepts be successfully implanted in American

companies? c) How could the role and techniques of purchasing be evaluated and
enhanced? How should procurement networks be designed to provide a competitive
advantage? d) How could logistics systems be employed to gain a competitive
advantage? The seeds of future research in SCM could just be made out on this
agenda, although there was still a long road to be run before it was to burst onto the
OM scene with its own identity.
The situation predicted for the 1980s on these agendas was corroborated by an
analysis of the development of articles published in the main journals for the
speciality. According to an analysis of 362 journal articles in the ten main OM
journals for the period 1982–87 (Amoako-Gyampah & Meredith, 1989), it was only
at the end of the decade that a small number of publications on SCM-related topics
appeared, such as purchasing (1.66%) and distribution (0.28%). It was research in
inventory control, process design and scheduling which clearly stood out in the
discipline. However, when the same authors analysed ongoing lines of research
through a study of the papers from the Decision Science Institute proceedings for
1986 and 1987, it was discovered that, compared to what had been detected in the
articles that were analysed, there had been an increase in research in both purchasing
and distribution, although the percentage still remained low. To be specific, 6.08% of
the papers focused on purchasing-related aspects and 2.03% on distribution.
Meredith and Amoako-Gyampah (1990) completed the foregoing study with a
survey of 151 OM academicians on the lines of research in the doctoral theses that
they had done or supervised during the 1957–89 period. This led them to analyse 308
doctoral theses. When they compared the way topics had developed over time it was
seen that the most dominant categories for dissertation topics had been scheduling,
process design and inventory control, although a slight increase in the number of
topics devoted to strategy was also detected over the previous few years. As for the
dominant lines of research at the beginning of the 1990s, issues connected with
process design clearly stood out. There was also increased interest in strategy, quality
and service operations topics. Nonetheless, issues relating to the supply chain were
only the object of a scant amount of research; only 1% of the theses analysed had
been on purchasing and 3.9% on distribution What is more, only 3.9% of
researchers labelled purchasing as one of the current lines of interest, with an even
lower percentage for distribution (2.2%).
 208 R. Alfalla-Luque and C. Medina-López

It can therefore be confirmed that SCM-related topics drew little interest in OM

research during the 1980s. Research in this new sub-field still did not command the
same importance as other OM topics (process design, production planning and
inventory control, manufacturing policy, scheduling, quality assurance, performance
measures and so on). There was nothing to predict the hugely relevant role that SCM
would play for companies during the following decade.

The take-off of SCM research: the 1990s

For OM researchers, the 1990s began with no anticipation of the importance and
need for research into SCM. An example of this is that neither SCM nor its related
topics could be found amongst the research topics proposed by Singhal (1992) at the
beginning of the 1990s in the first issue of Production and Operations Management.
Nevertheless, studies done at the end of the 1990s were to provide information
about the true development of research into SCM during that decade. In this regard, we
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looked at studies by Filippini (1997), who analysed the 244 papers presented at the 1996
Decision Science Institute Conference, and Pannirselvam et al. (1999), who analysed
1754 articles published between 1992 and 1997 in the seven most prestigious OM
journals, and also the proceedings of the Decision Science Institute Conferences and the
Production and Operations Management Society Conferences for 1996 and 1997.
In these studies, purchasing- and distribution-related journal articles and papers
presented at conferences both achieved percentages that were even slightly lower than
those detected at the end of the 1980s. Likewise, and as had happened during the
1980s, scheduling and inventory control were still the two topics that were most often
addressed in OM journal articles. This was, however, at a time when SCM had still
not developed into a specific area of OM despite its importance. And so, as was the
case in Pannirselvam et al. (1999), papers on SCM were placed in the categories with
which their content was best associated (strategy, distribution and purchasing, for
example). This is why, in their conclusions, Pannirselvam et al. (1999) defined SCM as
a ‘new and emerging OM research area’ which in future bibliometric studies needed to
be analysed as a separate category within OM (as they also did for the topics of new
product development, management of technology and the environment) in order to
discover its real state of development. Consequently, these studies (Filippini, 1997;
Pannirselvam et al., 1999), which provided detailed analyses of OM research, missed
the chance to plot the evolution of SCM during the 1990s.
When Meredith and Roth (1998) therefore specifically included an SCM
category, and analysed the Journal of Operations Management submissions for
1997, they obtained results that were very revealing about the field. One of their
findings was that the most popular topics in 1997 were SCM, operations strategy and
quality management. They also discovered that there had been a sharp rise in the
number of papers devoted to globalisation and service operations. The sudden
increase in the popularity of SCM-related articles seems to have come like a bolt out
of the blue, as the topic had not even appeared amongst the top three for the
previous two years (unlike operations strategy and quality). There was, to be sure, a
notable increase in the number of SCM papers towards the end of the 1990s,
although, as mentioned above, papers that were being published on the topic were
being classified in other categories. For this reason, SCM’s consolidation as an
independent area of study meant that many articles that would previously have been
classified in other fields were now placed in the most correct category: SCM.
 Business History 209

To continue down this line, Lalonde (1998) gives the results of an analysis of the
programmes from the annual Council of Logistics Management meetings for 1995,
1996 and 1997. Amongst other things, the results show a steady and significant
increase in the number of sessions that contained the words ‘Supply Chain’ in the
title (13.8% in 1995, 16.9% in 1996 and 22.4% in 1997). This clearly reflects the
corresponding interest shown in the topic by practitioners.
In other respects, Prasad, Babbar, and Calis (2000) analysed 587 articles on
International Operations Management obtained from the study of all the articles
published in 24 OM journals for the period 1986–97. Their findings showed a clear
increase in the number of publications relating to four aspects: distribution,
operations strategy, purchasing and facility location. This would seem to respond to
all the problems surrounding the globalisation process that businesses were
immersed in and which had far-reaching effects on their supply chains. In general
terms, international supply chains involve longer supply times, worse sales forecasts
and greater difficulties for responding to changes in orders, as a result of which they
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are often much longer and much more complex than local supply chains (Flaherty,
1996). In all probability, if the authors had defined a category for SCM as such, as
Pannirselvam et al. (1999) had proposed, a large number of the papers classified in
the first three categories would have been placed there instead.
Earlier papers would therefore seem to reflect the importance SCM was gaining
towards the end of the 1990s, but the fact that no specific category existed for the
field makes an analysis difficult. The Rungtusanatham, Choi, Hollingworth, Wu,
and Forza (2003) paper throws some light on the matter. These authors conducted a
study of 285 survey research articles in OM published in six of the main OM journals
between 1980 and 2000. In order to code the primary research focus of published
OM survey articles they had identified five major topic areas (Figure 1), one of which
was SCM. When the number of articles published on each area was revised, 33
articles out of 202.5 were identified as being in the SCM category, and this was in the
last but one position, only ahead of Just-in-Time with 27.5 papers. Nevertheless, an

Figure 1. Total number of survey articles by major OM area by year.

Source: Rungtusanatham et al. (2003).
 210 R. Alfalla-Luque and C. Medina-López

analysis of the time distribution for the works assigned to each area shows that
major changes have occurred in the last five years, and two topics stand out for their
steep rise to prominence in empirical research in OM: operations strategy and SCM
(Figure 1).
And so the growing importance of SCM and the need for research in it became
evident at the end of the 1990s, with researchers beginning to respond to growing
company demand. For this reason, at that time some authors, such as Handfield and
Melnyk (1998), placed SCM as a field in the first stage of the research and theory
building process (discovery and description).

A new century and a new business culture focusing on SCM

With the dawn of the new century came the supply chain revolution. SCM attained a
strategic level. The trend for major organisations to establish high-level executive
positions with supply chain titles was in full swing (Russell, 2007). Firms such as
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Wal-Mart began to put SCM into practice and gained competitive advantages
through this new way of managing information and material flows. Universities
where SCM had not figured on syllabuses during the previous decades (Johnson &
Pyke, 2000; Machuca & Alfalla-Luque, 2003) also responded to this emerging need
for instruction by introducing SCM courses in business administration, engineering
programmes and masters (Johnson & Pyke, 2000; Larson & Halldorsson, 2002;
Russell, 2007).
As for the state of research in SCM, the position prevalent at the end of the 1990s
and companies’ concern for the subject prophesied a ‘boom’ for the topic at the
beginning of the decade. In effect, authors such as Burgess, Singh, and Koroglu
(2006) arrived at the same conclusion in a bibliometric study. They randomly
selected a sample of 100 articles from a population described as journal articles from
the ABI/Inform Global Proquest academic database published up to 2003 in peer-
reviewed publications resulting from a keyword search limited to the exact phrase
‘Supply Chain Management’. An analysis of the years in which the 100 randomly
selected articles on SCM were published shows that the first articles appeared in
1985. From that time until 2003, there was an exponential increase, with 77 out of
the 100 articles published between 1999 and mid-2003.
Meanwhile, Alfaro, Álvarez, and Montes (2002) analysed 12 refereed journals in
Operations Management, Operations Research and Management Science for the
period 1995–2001, evaluating 376 SCM papers. When the time-line was analysed, it
could be seen that there had been a sharp increase in SCM publications in recent
years; on average, in 1995 only 2.29% of articles in the journals that were analysed
focused on this topic. However, this percentage had risen to 7% in 2001. Despite
this, there are wide differences from one journal to another. The International
Journal of Operations and Production Management, for example, rose from 5.88%
SCM publications in 1995 to 22.09% in 2001, the Journal of Operations Management
from 2.27% to 20.59%, Production and Operations Management from 4% to 18.8%,
the International Journal of Production Economics from 0.81% to 8.62% and IIE
Transactions from 1.15% to 2.13%. In general, SCM research has been much more
robustly included in OM journals than in Operations Research- or Management
Science-oriented journals.
More recently, Slack, Lewis, and Bates (2004) analysed articles in Journal of
Operations Management and International Journal of Operations and Production
 Business History 211

Management for the 2000–2003 period, as well as the perception managers have of
the importance of the various OM topics (through a survey conducted as part of an
MBA for executive management in 2000–2003). Table 3 is clearly seen to confirm
SCM as a topic that arouses great interest amongst both management and
researchers, being placed in second position by both. For managers, the interest and
importance of SCM is only surpassed by quality and improvement, whilst there is
only a greater number of publications on operations strategy.
A study of conference proceedings consolidates the projected forecasts with the
above data from journal analysis. When Karlsson and Ahlström (1998) evaluated
the papers presented at the European Operations Management Association
(EurOMA) conferences in 1996 and 1997 they identified a logistics and supply
chains category. There was not a great number of papers in this category compared
to topics such as operations strategy, management of technology or service
operations, however. And yet, when in 2001 Alfaro, Álvarez and Montes published
a broader study on contributions to both EurOMA and Production and Operations
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Management Society (POMS) conferences for the 1996–2001 period, it could be seen
that SCM was becoming a clear focus of interest for researchers at the end of the
decade. The data revealed that there was significant growth in the number of papers
devoted to SCM, with a percentage high of 21.48% at the POMS conference held in
2001 (Table 4).
This trend was corroborated by an analysis of the most recent EurOMA
conference proceedings. At the 2005 EurOMA conference, papers were grouped into
14 subject areas, five (35.7%) of which were aspects linked to SCM (cultural and
human issues in the supply chain; global operations and supply chains; logistics and
physical distribution; operations and supply chain performance; purchasing and
supply management). Sixty-nine parallel sessions were organised to address these, 29

Table 3. Comparison of practitioner and research content priorities (2000–2003).

Combined
Mean practice Ranked research content mean
Ranked practice content contribution extract from JOM and percentage
MBA survey 2000–2003 score (1–5) IJOPM 2000–2003 of papers
Quality and improvement 4.25 Operations strategy 20.25
SCM 4.15 SCM 14.93
JIT/Lean Production 4.10 Quality and improvement 10.45
MRP/ERP 4.05 Performance measurement 7.14
Planning and control 3.90 Process technology 6.63
Process design 3.35 Product/service design 6.45
Operations strategy 3.30 Job design 5.06
Capacity 3.30 JIT/Lean Production 3.97
Performance measurement 3.20 Planning and control 3.75
Inventory 3.05 Process design 2.64
Product/service design 3.00 Inventory 1.86
Process technology 2.95 Failure/risk 1.49
Job design 2.95 Maintenance 0.81
Failure/risk 2.15 Capacity 0.63
Maintenance 2.10 Layout 0.33
Layout 1.70 MRP/ERP 0.31

Source: Slack et al. (2004).

 212 R. Alfalla-Luque and C. Medina-López

Table 4. Percentage of SCM-related contributions to conferences.

Conferences SCM-related contributions (%)

EurOMA (1996) 8.57
EurOMA (1997) 8.08
POMS (1998) 8.10
EurOMA (1998) 11.46
POMS (1999) 11.17
EurOMA (1999) 38.33
POMS (2000) 17.57
POMS (2001) 21.48

Source: Alfaro et al. (2001).

(42%) of which corresponded to the aforementioned SCM aspects. At the 2006

EurOMA conference, 60 parallel sessions were organised on 17 topics, with four
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related to SCM aspects (managing supply and procurement; supply and value chain
management; logistics and physical distribution and collaboration) standing out.
Twenty-one parallel sessions (35%) were devoted to these topics. At the 2007
EurOMA conference, 111 parallel sessions were organised, 43 (38.7%) of which
corresponded to aspects of SCM. However, we find numerous SCM-related papers
in parallel sessions devoted to other topics, such as operations strategy, sustainability
and performance management. This can be put down to the fact that SCM is
becoming a focus to work from in a variety of aspects of OM.
If we therefore bear in mind that contributions to conferences are a sample of
ongoing research at any given time and are an indication of future publications in
specialist journals, we can state that SCM is currently becoming consolidated as one
of the most common research topics in OM. It is the line of work that shows the
greatest potential at the current time, in the same way that Just-in-Time and Total
Quality Management did in the past. As can be seen in our analysis, it has a strong
presence in articles and at conferences, and the number of journals specialising in the
subject field has also increased (e.g. Journal of Supply Chain Management, Supply
Chain Management, Supply Chain Management Review and Supply Chain Forum).
Now, given that it is quite a new discipline, we should define whether SCM
researchers are working on topics that companies need, and set out lines for future
research.

SCM research and company needs

From the company point of view, this reflection of the importance and consolidation
of SCM is very evident from the way the Certificate in Production and Inventory
Management (CPIM), granted by American Production and Inventory Control
Society (APICS), the professional association most closely affiliated with OM
practitioners, has developed. In 1997, this certificate incorporated a module on the
basics of SCM for the first time. In 2000, CPIM was reconfigured into five business
process-oriented models which are still in force today and in which master planning
of resources, detailed scheduling and planning, execution and control of operations
and strategic management resources all stand alongside the basics of SCM. But the
importance of SCM goes beyond this. In 2005, APICS announced the creation of a
new industry certification targeted at meeting the changing educational needs in the
 Business History 213

field of SCM: the Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP). In 2006, the first
CSCP exams were offered. The CSCP body of knowledge consists of the following
four domains (Lummus, 2007):

. SCM fundamentals;
. building competitive operations, planning and logistics;
. managing customer and supplier relationships;
. using information technology to enable SCM.

The way this field is developing is so wide-ranging that it is necessary to analyse –

in relation to company needs – what is being researched in SCM and what the topics
that require further research might be. 2 Meredith and Roth (1998) considered three
important focuses of SCM research: supply chain strategy, using electronic links to
improve supply chain performance, and cost reduction in supply chains through the
use of outsourcing. The importance of these three topics for companies has been
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confirmed by later papers that are analysed in the following.

As has already been stated, Alfaro et al. (2002) conducted a study of 12 refereed
journals in the OM area for the period 1995–2001 in which 376 SCM papers were
analysed. When the authors analysed the topics of these papers, they concluded that
by far the most researched subject during the above period was design of SCM
strategies and models. The second topic in importance was information and time
management (the bullwhip effect, lead time information, Electronic Data Inter-
change (EDI), the Internet and so on). The third topic was inventory policies
(techniques to select suppliers, quantity flexibility contracts, the negotiation process,
rating suppliers, and so on), although its importance has fallen in recent years. The
remaining topics were factors affecting SCM success and supply chain relationships.
The least researched topic was environmental issues. Their conclusions are in
keeping with the predictions made by Meredith and Roth (1998).
So what are the areas of interest in SCM that might be targeted in future
research? In the study by Carter, Carter, Monczka, Slaight, and Swan (2000)
purchasing supply executives raised 18 notable areas of concern regarding the
following 10 years (1998–2008). In descending order of consensus, these issues are:

(1) eCommerce;
(2) strategic cost management;
(3) strategic sourcing;
(4) supply chain partner selection and contribution;
(5) tactical purchasing;
(6) purchasing strategy development;
(7) demand–pull purchasing;
(8) relationship management;
(9) performance measurement;
(10) process uncoupling;
(11) global supplier development;
(12) third-party purchasing;
(13) virtual supply chain;
(14) source development;
(15) competitive bidding and negotiations;
(16) strategic supplier alliances;
 214 R. Alfalla-Luque and C. Medina-López

(17) negotiation strategy;

(18) complexity management.

The 18 industry trends reflect an endless quest for a finish line that does not exist.
Only continuous improvement is considered a sustainable philosophy today.
Technological innovation and rationalisation through integration and simplification
throughout the supply chain dominate these issues.
These areas of concern for the industry should be addressed by research for the
betterment of business development. In this regard, through the Alfaro et al. (2002)
study for the period 1995–2001 it is possible to analyse whether the lines of research at
the beginning of the period for which predictions were being made (1998–2008) were
in keeping with company needs. As can be seen, the importance attributed to the
different topics coincides, and centres on the two topics that were most researched –
the design of SCM strategies and models, and information and time management –
which are practitioners’ main concerns. However, for these, information management
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has even greater potential and interest than SCM strategy itself.
For the following years, the study by Ogden, Petersen, Carter, and Monczka
(2005) provides us with the predictions made by key procurement and supply
management executives regarding supply management strategies that may lead to
significant improvements over the next five to ten years. Information and predictions
were obtained from about 100 leading companies worldwide. The results indicate
that strategies such as increased integration, information sharing, globalisation and
collaboration among supply chain members are most likely to be implemented and
will have the greatest impact on companies (Figure 2). The business units would
increasingly collaborate with suppliers and customers to identify and reduce costs
throughout the supply chain. However, this integration will not include joint
investment or asset sharing, will be limited to one tier in the supply chain, and will
not heavily involve e-markets and electronic auctions.

Figure 2. Key findings.

Source: Ogden et al. (2005).
 Business History 215

As well as the four topics of greatest likelihood and impact, the authors found
other topics in a more intermediate position. These would be: performance metrics,
employee training, reporting structures, virtual organisations, the Internet and
electronic orders. With these, on a second level, would be topics of medium
likelihood and impact. Figure 2 shows the topics research needs to target in the
coming years in order to cater for company needs.
SCM can help firms to improve the competitiveness of the supply network, which
should translate into improved competitiveness and benefits for all parties involved,
in terms of more efficient use of resources in achieving the final customer service
goals, improved relationships between supply network members, more precise
planning and control of materials and information flows from suppliers to end users,
reduction in supply network inventories and lead time compression, etc. (Cooper &
Ellram, 1993; Cooper, Ellram, Gardner, & Hanks, 1997; Ellram, 1991; Romano,
2003; Simchi-Levi, Kaminsky, & Simchi-Levi, 2000). The previously indicated main
SCM areas of interest for companies should therefore become priority targets for
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researchers.

Conclusions
Supply Chain Management is a recent field of research but, as has been demonstrated
throughout this paper, also one which is developing rapidly. Although the concept of
SCM had been born at the beginning of the 1980s, research in this field was almost
non-existent until the mid-1990s. Since then, the number of SCM publications has
increased greatly. In recent years, SCM has become very popular and it is now
making the change from being an emerging research field to becoming a consolidated
one. This is evidenced by marked increases in practitioner and academic publications
and conferences. As Burgess et al. (2006) have pointed out, SCM is a relatively
‘young’ field with exponential growth in interest from researchers. However, there is
still a long way to go before the new challenges facing companies and the new
environments they are finding themselves in can be responded to. This is why studies
like the one being presented here, which define the state of SCM and determine the
lines of research that should be tackled, are necessary.
In this regard, SCM is still a topic that needs researching and to be effectively
applied to the business field. It is an area that has far-reaching importance for
researchers since it is an indispensable element for success in OM, as the
improvement of the company’s production process on its own (with no connection
with the rest of the chain) is simply not enough (Meredith & Roth, 1998). SCM
implies greater reliance on information technology, compatibility of planning and
information systems, and a greater need for strategic sourcing and supply
management (Carter et al., 2000). In the coming years, information management,
integration and supply chain strategy will be key research topics in SCM. These are
fundamental areas in the company (Carter et al., 2000; Ogden et al., 2005) and it is
towards them that research studies should be directed in order to respond to
company needs.
A brief analysis of the indicated research topics demonstrates the importance
they have. With regard to the position of supply chain integration, growing evidence
suggests that the higher the level of integration with suppliers and customers in the
supply chain, the greater the potential benefits (Bagchi, Ha, Skjøtt-Larsen, &
Sørensen, 2005; Cagliano, Caniato, & Spina, 2004; Frohlich & Westbrook, 2001;
 216 R. Alfalla-Luque and C. Medina-López

Rosenzweig, Roth, & Dean, 2003). However, some studies show that the majority of
companies that put supply chain integration into practice only do so as far as the first
tier backward or forward (Bessant, Kaplinsky, & Lamming, 2003; Fawcett &
Magnan, 2002; Mejza & Wisner, 2001). McAdam and McCormack (2001) presented
a qualitative study of the relationship between managing business processes and
managing supply chains. They found that there was little evidence of firms actually
exploiting the integration of business processes in their supply chains. Generally, the
two fields were treated separately and most business process management techniques
were applied to one member of the supply chain and their links with immediate
suppliers and customers. Meanwhile, Bagchi et al. (2005) concluded that in most
European firms supply chain integration is more rhetoric than reality. As such, any
attempt at the integration of the various links that make up the supply chain
becomes a key element which needs to be researched in order to help companies
achieve the benefits they are seeking.
For its part, information management is one of the critical elements for the success
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of SCM (Elmuti, 2002; Manrodt, Holcomb, & Thompson, 1997; Mentzer et al., 2001).
This topic is closely linked to supply chain integration, since sharing information with
supply chain partners is a requirement for achieving effective integration (Bagchi et al.,
2005; Frohlich & Westbrook, 2001; Gimenez & Ventura, 2005; Lee, 2000; Narasimhan
& Kim, 2002). As such, by doing research on information management we shall be
contributing to the advance of supply chain integration.
The third topic, supply chain strategy, has become extremely important in recent
years. Some authors (Lummus, Melnyk, Vokurka, Burns, & Sandor, 2007; Melnyk,
Lummus, Vokurka, & Sandor, 2006) state that in the middle of the first decade of the
twenty-first century they are seeing a shift in focus from SCM to strategic SCM. The
theory and practice of SCM is therefore undergoing a major transformation – a
transformation from tactical SCM to strategic SCM. Melnyk et al. (2006) conducted
a Delphi study (with leading academic researchers and supply chain practitioners) to
identify the most critical strategic issues facing supply chain managers in 2010 and
beyond. The results of the study showed these five issues to be the most important in
the future: supply chain disruptions and supply chain risk, leadership within the
supply chain, managing the timely delivery of goods and services, managing product
innovation by drawing on the capabilities of the supply chain, implementing
appropriate technology to enable a seamless exchange of information within the
supply chain. In that study, experts in SCM from industry and academia identified
16 initiatives required to close the gap between current capabilities and future supply
chain requirements. These 16 initiatives were summarised into the following six
strategic initiatives:

. Achieving strategic visibility/alignment and information integration.

. Acquiring exemplary supply chain talent and leaders.
. Using supply chain optimisation models, including optimisation, risk and cost.
. Managing through a process orientation with appropriate measures.
. Focusing on relationship building and trust both between and within
companies.
. Aligning and realigning supply chain architecture and structure.

Closing the gap between current capabilities and future requirements is essential for
excellent supply chain performance in the future. So, these strategic areas are
fundamental to research.
 Business History 217

To conclude, it can be stated that SCM can be considered to be one of the most
important research topics in OM at the beginning of this new century (St. John,
Cannon, & Pouder, 2001).

Notes
1. On June 4, 1982 an article on Booz Allen Hamilton was published in the Financial Times
spreading knowledge of the SCM concept.
2. As will be seen in this section, it should nevertheless be clearly stated that there is a lack of
studies on topics dealt with in SCM research and on company requirements in the area
(especially interesting would be a study to discover any possible differences that might be
found from one industrial sector to another). Further research in this direction might look
more deeply into which SCM topics are being researched, and company needs.

Notes on contributors
Rafaela Alfalla-Luque is Associate Professor of Operations Management and Supply Chain
Management at the University of Seville, Spain.
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Carmen Medina-López is Assistant Professor of Operations Management at the University of

Seville, Spain.

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