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Review
A critical review of empirical of research
research methodology in supply in SCM
chain management
753
Gunjan Soni and Rambabu Kodali
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Received 3 May 2010
Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India Revised 5 April 2011,
15 September 2011,
15 October 2011
Abstract Accepted 9 November 2011
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the extant literature on empirical research in supply
chain management (SCM). It provides a comprehensive assessment of research methodology of
619 empirical research articles on SCM published between 1994 and 2009. In total, 21 journals were
short listed out of 115 journals for the purpose.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviewed a set of 619 empirical research articles in
SCM research with respect to empirical research methodology and its related aspects, using the
empirical research approach given by Flynn et al. The paper demonstrates the present status of
empirical research in SCM.
Findings – It is concluded from the analysis of the results that empirical research in SCM is
increasing at a faster rate than ever, with theory building more in focus than verification. On the other
hand, SCM researchers seems to have left several aspects of empirical research unexplored, such as
action research, significance of triangulation of data and longitudinal data collection. Other significant
findings revealed that SCM research is very scanty in developing countries, the majority of research
papers are written at firm level only and several industrial sectors such as construction, retail, and
agriculture are still unexamined.
Originality/value – There have been a couple of literature reviews in SCM but none of them focused
exclusively on empirical research methodology in SCM. Also the sample size with respect to the
number of papers (619 papers), as well as number of journals (21 journals), is larger than ever
considered for literature review in SCM. The papers spans a longer time period of 16 years (1994-2009).
Keywords Supply chain management, Research work, Empirical research, Research design,
Literature review
Paper type Literature review

1. Introduction
There have been significant attempts in the extant literature to understand
developments in supply chain management (SCM). The concept of SCM was first
introduced by Forrester (1961), who suggested that success of industrial business is
dependent on the “interactions between flows of information, materials, manpower and
capital equipment”. But the term “supply chain” did not become popular until early
1980s (Oliver and Webber, 1982). Only handful of articles mentioned the phrase
“supply chain” in the period 1985-1997 (Giunipero et al., 2008). The acceleration in
development of SCM paradigm took place only in late 1990s, with majority of theoretical
and empirical investigation starting in 1997 (Lambert et al., 1998; Giunipero et al., 2008). Journal of Manufacturing Technology
Management
Vol. 23 No. 6, 2012
The authors would like to thank undergraduate students of BITS-Pilani, Pilani campus; and pp. 753-779
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Mr Amit Rajnarayan and Mr Abhijeet Datta for helping in administration of various aspects of 1741-038X
the review process. DOI 10.1108/17410381211253326
JMTM In a meta-analysis of 405 articles carried out by Giunipero et al. (2008), revealed that
23,6 70 percent of total articles published in SCM were empirical in nature and rest 30 percent
were theoretical. Similarly, many other authors have also established this fact about
empirical research in their literature reviews (Croom et al., 2000; Carter and Ellram,
2003). Empirical studies involve gathering and analysis of data, and subsequent
reporting of findings and conclusions (Minor et al., 1994). Empirical research contributes
754 in the context of theory building as well in validating the proposed theories. From the
practitioners point of view it is easier for business executives to understand empirical
research especially if they do not have advanced training in management science or
operations research (De-Margerie and Jiang, 2011). They also pointed out that
managerial relevance is a major criterion used to judge a manuscript’s quality in the
operations management (OM) discipline. In a recent study, on review of empirical
research in business process management (BPM) highlighted that empirical evidence in
future will be represented in ranked IS journals to a bigger extent (Houy et al., 2010).
These evidences make it essential to periodically review the empirical research literature
so that the literature can develop as per the needs of practitioners and academicians.
SCM literature, being a contemporary of BPM and OM, is also burgeoning with huge
number of articles per year hence the body of empirical research articles in SCM is also
growing. It is thus very important to examine the methodology of empirical research in
SCM so as to assess progress as well as suggest directions for future research. Although
numerous meta-analysis and literature reviews have already been reported in the SCM
literature but none of them has taken empirical research in SCM as focal area of review
and analysis. This paper is written parallel to the study carried out by Soni and Kodali
(2011), which was solely focused on presenting a critique on several issues of SCM
content in empirical research. Since methodology in any form of empirical research plays
a very important role and several critical issues like selection of research design, data
collection methods, data analysis techniques used, etc. form a major part of research.
Hence, in order to address these issues of empirical research methodology in SCM,
a critical review of articles is presented in this paper. The review and classification
process in this article is aided by six stage empirical research methodology presented by
Flynn et al. (1990). This article is targeted towards the audience of empirical researchers
in SCM. The findings of the paper will help the researchers to direct their efforts towards
a standardized approach for carrying out empirical research in SCM.
The objective of the paper is to provide a comprehensive assessment of empirical
research methodology in SCM. The paper starts with review of earlier published
literature review articles in SCM in Section 2. The methodology used for selection of time
horizon for collection of research papers, journals selection, article selection, article
classification and analysis is suggested in Section 3. This suggested methodology is
then used to analyze empirical research articles in SCM in Section 4. Section 5 is devoted
to discussion on significant findings, identification of gaps and future directions for
empirical research in SCM. Finally, the paper is concluded in Section 6.

2. Literature review
There have been several literature reviews in SCM. Croom et al. (2000) proposed a
framework for the categorization of literature related to SCM and suggested how to
review SCM research but they did not carry out the review of literature. It was rather
targeted to contribute to a critical theory debate through the presentation and use
of a framework for the categorization of literature related to SCM. Their analysis of the Review
literature reported that the literature in SCM is primarily empirical and descriptive of research
(57 percent) in nature. They considered a sample of 84 articles to generalize the
findings. in SCM
Ho et al. (2002) reviewed some empirical studies in the extant SCM literature with an
aim of suggesting as to how SCM constructs in empirical research should be developed
in order to strengthen the theoretical grounds of conceptual and empirical studies of 755
SCM. Their effort however did not involve classification or description of the existing
approach towards empirical research in SCM and neither did it cover an exhaustive set
of articles for review. Their approach was highly selective.
Carter and Ellram (2003) classified 774 papers published in JSCM from 1965 to 1999.
They found out that approximately 75 percent of research in the journal is empirical in
nature that included surveys and case studies. Their review is comprehensive in nature
but it classifies research papers published in only one journal. It is thus very confined
in nature, hence no inference can be drawn out about the complete population of SCM
literature. It also does not express any specific intention towards contributing in the
debate of empirical research methodology in SCM.
Sachan and Datta (2005) classified 442 papers published in Journal of Business
Logistics, SPM: An International Journal and International Journal of Physical
Distribution and Logistics Management from 1999 to 2003. They concluded that survey
research is most popular research design in SCM. However, the paper seems to be
falling short of addressing all the issues of empirical research in SCM. Example, which
is the most prevailing way of establishing a theory in SCM, is it theory building or
theory verification? Similarly many other aspects of empirical research methodology
related to research design, data collection methods, implementation, and data analysis
are not addressed. Another shortcoming of their review is the sample size (SS). The
literature published in SCM is immense. Focusing on top three journals surely gives the
focus of SCM research but does not necessarily examine the possible directions in
which current research is growing. Thus, a larger sample from varied population of
journals is necessary for the critical literature review and recommendations.
Burgess et al. (2006) presented a structured literature review of only 100 articles on SCM.
It identified various conceptual and research methodological characteristics of SCM from a
randomly selected journal articles. They came up with various findings in SCM research
predominantly focused on theoretical development of SCM research. In their paper the
suggestions for future research includes the use of larger SS and varied databases. This
review also does not provide greater insight into empirical research in SCM.
van der Vaart and van Donk (2008) analyzed survey based research with respect to
the relationship between SC integration and performance (from 36 articles). The
research effort is very logical and focused. With the outcome of paper, they proposed a
framework for establishing relationships for facilitating supply chain integration.
Their paper is however more concerned about analysis of SCM related issues and not
research methodology used in survey based research.
Giunipero et al. (2008) examined SCM literature (from 1997 to 2006) on the basis of SCM
definitions, subject categories in SCM, empirical vs non-empirical literature, level of
analysis, primary research methods, and data analysis techniques. One of the major
shortcomings of the paper with respect to empirical research is that the analysis is limited
to research methods used and data analysis techniques only. Second, the period before
JMTM 1997 is not considered in the review. Further, the aim of paper is anyway not focused on
23,6 in-depth analysis of empirical research methodology, rather it is two pronged and divided
between empirical and non-empirical literature. Due to such approach, it does not address
several issues of empirical research methodology like research design, data collection
methods, SS, nature of respondents, country or region of study, etc.
Hence, in order to fulfill all the mentioned shortcomings in extant reviews,
756 a literature review methodology is proposed in the next section.
Now order to orient the study at a broader and generic level, the number of articles
considered, as well as the period under analysis has been expanded. The population
of research articles from which empirical research articles are chosen is of size of
2,673 articles published before 2010. The review covers the articles published from
1980 to 2009, i.e. 29 years.
In this paper, some of the same analysis that earlier scholars and researchers have
already conducted (e.g. purpose of empirical research, country of sample industry (CSI),
and level of analysis (in Soni and Kodali (2011)) along with data analysis techniques,
qualitative/quantitative empirical research, etc.) are revisited because the review of
empirical research methodology will be incomplete in absence of these analysis. The
methodology of critical literature review is explained in subsequent section.

3. Methodology
The comprehensive scheme for literature review of empirical research methodology in
SCM is presented in five subsections: time horizon of review, journal selection, article
selection, article classification and analysis of articles.

3.1 Time horizon

We chose to limit our review period between 1980 and 2009, a 29 year time horizon.
The reason for selecting 1980 as the starting point is that the developments in SCM
started only in early 1980s. The end of year 2009 is taken as the terminal point of article
collection.

3.2 Journal selection

The collected articles were taken from four major management science publishers’
namely, Science Direct, Taylor and Francis, Emerald Online and Wiley Interscience
(earlier Blackwell Synergy). These publications were considered for sample collection
because the idea of paper is to represent the average population of articles and majority
of journals publishing SCM research are in these publications. In each publication,
exact phrase “supply chain” was searched in article title. Even though “supply chain”
is not synonymous to “SCM”, but in order to avoid loss of data and to be on the safer
side, phrase “supply chain” was chosen over “SCM”. Same approach was used by
Burgess et al. (2006) and Soni and Kodali (2011) for selection of articles to carry out
literature review in SCM. From all the four publications a total of 115 journals were
found out that published articles in SCM containing “supply chain” in article title. In
total, a figure of 2,673 articles was found in these journals.
But the figure of 2,673 research papers is too large for carrying out a literature review,
also 75 percent of population of articles was found to be published in 21 journals only, so
it was decided by the team of four academicians to truncate the size. To carry out the
process of reducing the number of articles, a consensus was reached to select journals,
which published approximately 75 percent of the total number of articles. The process of Review
truncation is justified as journals whose subject area is not SCM specifically, will of research
obviously be publishing lesser articles in SCM hence they can be isolated from
the sample population of articles. Now, the total number of articles to be reviewed was in SCM
2,013. The journals that included the articles to be reviewed were: Business Process
Management Journal (BPMJ) (32 articles), Journal of Manufacturing Technology
Management ( JMTM) (33 articles), OMEGA (28 articles), European Journal of 757
Purchasing and Supply Management (EJPSM) (33 articles), Logistics Information
Management (LIM) (36 articles), Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) (39 articles),
Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation (TR) (41 articles),
Computers and Chemical Engineering (CCE) (49 articles), Industrial Management
& Data Systems (IMDS) (51 articles), International Journal of Logistics Research and
Applications (IJLRA) (53 articles), Computers and Industrial Engineering (CIE)
(72 articles), Production Planning and Control (PPC) (66 articles), International Journal of
Operations and Production Management (IJOPM) (78 articles), The Journal of Supply
Chain Management ( JSCM) (87 articles), Journal of Operations Management ( JOM)
(93 articles), International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management
(IJPDLM) (133 articles), International Journal of Production Research (IJPR)
(151 articles), European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR) (204 articles), Supply
Chain Management: An International Journal (SCMIJ) (206 articles), The International
Journal of Logistics Management (IJLM) (210 articles), International Journal of
Production Economics (IJPE) (318 articles).
It is noteworthy that number of journals being selected for review is highest
compared to that used in earlier literature reviews in SCM and includes almost all the
journals used by various authors in their literature reviews.

3.3 Article selection

According to the Flynn et al. (1990), “empirical” means “knowledge based on real world
observations or experiment”. Thus, empirical research is used to describe field-based
research, which uses data gathered from naturally occurring situations or experiments,
rather than via laboratory or simulation studies. Flynn et al. (1990) clarified that any
empirical research article can have one or more of the following empirical research designs
namely, single case study, multiple case study, panel study, focus group and survey. We
selected empirical research articles from the selected population of journals on the similar
lines, with an exception of including those articles also which used action research design.
Articles which used either of the aforementioned empirical research designs were
considered as empirical research articles. The articles, which used hypothetical data for a
case or a hypothetical case, were not considered as empirical research articles.

3.4 Article classification scheme

Every selected empirical research article is classified following a classification scheme.
This classification scheme is adopted from a systematic approach for empirical
research given by Flynn et al. (1990). According to them any empirical research
consists of six stages. Table I gives six stages of empirical research.
Selected literature is classified in Stage I on the basis of purpose of empirical
research, i.e. establishing a theoretical foundation by theory building or theory
verification. Stage II involves classification of each article on the basis of selection
JMTM Stage Action Type Comment(s)
23,6
Stage I Establish a Theory building It is possible that an article may involve theory
theoretical (TB) building and verification as well but we will
foundation Theory verification include it in theory building while classifying
(TV) the article
Stage II Select a Single case study Every selected article will have one of the type
758 research design Multiple case study of research design. However, some articles may
Panel study use case study and survey research at tandem
Focus group
Survey
Action research
Stage III Select a data Historical archive Every research article will use on or
collection analysis combination of these data collection method to
method Participant carry out empirical research
observation
Outside observation
Interviews
Questionnaires
Content analysis
Stage IV Implementation Population selection These are generally the steps of
Sample selection implementation of survey research design
Scale development while other forms of research designs involve
Questionnaire population selection, sample selection and data
construction entry only
Pilot testing
Mailing
Analysis of non-
respondent data
characteristics
Data entry
Stage V Data analysis Descriptive statistics If the data is not quantitative in nature then the
Regression analysis analysis is termed as qualitative analysis and
Factor analysis in case studies it is termed as case analysis
Discriminant
analysis
Correlational
analysis
Cluster analysis
Cojoint analysis
MANOVAPath
analysis
SEMOther (e.g. case
study, focus group
and survey)
Stage VI Findings and Reporting the
Table I.
conclusions analysis
Six stages
of empirical research Source: Adapted: Flynn et al. (1990)

of research design, here articles are classified under; single case study, multiple case
study, panel study, focus group, and survey. But besides these conventional research
designs, action research is also considered to be an alternative. However, use of action
research is very scanty in field of SCM and its allied fields. Several authors like
Scudder and Hill (1998), Pannirselvam et al. (1999) and Coughlan and Coghlan (2002) Review
have already highlighted that there is no specific evidence of action research in the area of research
of OM. While on the other hand none of the reviews in SCM has ever considered action
research design in their classification schemes. Hence, in order to search for evidence of in SCM
action research in SCM literature, another category of action research is added under
the classification scheme of research design.
Selection of data collection method is in Stage III. In this stage articles are classified 759
under historical archive analysis, outside observation, participant observation,
interviews, content analysis, and questionnaires. The classification of articles in
Stage IV, i.e. implementation stage is as per sample industry, SS, cross sectional (CS) or
longitudinal (LN) data collection, qualitative/quantitative/triangulated data, type of
respondents and level of analysis. The explanation for each component under which
articles will be classified in implementation stage is given as follows:
.
Sample industry. This refers to the industry which has been used in the paper to
derive the empirical data. Instances when data is collected from multiple
industries, then the article is referred as “multiple” and when source of data
collection is not mentioned then the article is referred as “not mentioned”.
.
Country of sample industry. This refers to the country in which the data collection
has been carried out. There are many instances in the literature when the data has
been collected from various countries. In such cases, the article is referred in the
category of “others”. Also in some research papers the country from which data is
collected is not mentioned, in such cases the article is referred as “not mentioned”.
.
Sample size. It refers to the number of respondents from the selected population.
The SS has been classified into range of size of SS, starting from sample size less
than 100 and going up to higher than 1,000 samples. Instances when SS is not
known, it is referred as “not mentioned” in the classification scheme.
.
LN/CS data. This refers to the time horizon of the research. If the research has
been carried out in a short time-span, observing one sample only once in the
entire period of research, it is called as CS. LN research is where one observes a
single sample for a considerable period of time.
.
Qualitative/quantitative/triangulated data. This refers to the type of data
collected. Quantitative data is the one in which a specific numerical value and a
physical unit is allocated to the variable. Qualitative data is not necessarily
quantified, e.g. yes/no replies, grading of replies like absolutely necessary,
necessary, fine, undesirable, etc. Triangulation of data is done when various
qualitative and quantitative data collection methods are used together.
.
Type of respondents. Respondent is a source from which data is collected. Here, it
means the profile of the people who were subject of the study. At times, type (s) of
respondent(s) is/are not known, then it is referred as “not mentioned” in the
classification scheme.
.
Level of analysis. Several authors like Croom et al. (2000), Halldo’rsson and
Arlbjørn (2005), Sachan and Datta (2005) and Giunipero et al. (2008) have used this
as one of the class for classifying the literature in SCM. Although Croom et al.
(2000) suggested only three levels, i.e. dyadic, chain and network, but Halldo’rsson
and Arlbjørn (2005) have addressed the fourth level as “firm”. Also a similar class
JMTM was proposed by Fabbe-Costes and Jahre (2008) where they used multi echelon,
23,6 single echelon: manufacturers, single echelon: first tier suppliers and single
echelon. However, in this review, the class proposed by Gubi et al. (2003) is adopted
that includes four levels of analysis, i.e. firm, dyad, chain and network.

The classification of all the selected articles is done by reading the article for respective
760 classification and taking down the required data on an excel sheet. For example: data
like sample industry, type of respondent, country, size of sample, etc. is generally found
in instrument development section of the empirical research article. While data
analysis techniques used by authors are found in data analysis and discussion section.
The aim of the article is theory building or theory verification, is found from the
abstract and conclusions. Qualitative/quantitative nature of study is dependent on
research design and data analysis technique used.
Stage VI does not have any classification scheme as it is simply about reporting
findings and conclusions.

3.5 Analysis
The approach of this paper is descriptive in nature. It is not suitable for applying statistical
methodologies for deducing or for any inferential purpose using hypothesis testing. This
piece of research will be engaged in trend and pattern analysis so as to develop better
understanding of empirical research methodology in SCM. It also aims to find out
potential areas for improvement. The results will be presented using tables and charts.

4. Analysis of empirical research in SCM

4.1 Empirical research growth in SCM
It was found that the first empirical research article in SCM appeared in EJPSM in
1994, written by Bessant et al. (1994). Since then a gradual rise in number of empirical
research articles in SCM can be noticed from the frequency of empirical research
articles in SCM published since 1994 (rather than 1980) is tabulated in Table II.
It can be interpreted from Table II that there has been significant rise in empirical
research articles in SCM since 1994. Total number of empirical research articles were
30.75 percent of total articles (619 out of 2,013 articles) (list of the selected empirical
research articles can be obtained from authors via email) published since 1980 in the
selected journals. Highest number of articles is published in IJPE (318 articles) but only
82 (i.e. 25.7 percent) of a them are in empirical research. On the contrary, EJPSM
published 96.7 percent of its articles in empirical research (32 out of 33 articles).

4.2 Purpose of empirical research

Generally empirical research can have one of the two purposes. Either on the basis of
empirical data one can postulates one’s own theory or one can verify an already existing
or newly proposed theory on the basis of empirical data. According to Filippini
(1997), empirical studies can be used either for theory building or to verify theory,
but both cannot be done in the same study. Theory building is meant for consistent
documentation of actual practice and subsequently discovery of relationships between
actual practice and system performance (Flynn et al., 1990). Theory verification utilizes
data gathered using a structured data collection method, for hypothesis testing.
Journal name 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total

SCMIJ 0 0 6 2 7 4 4 3 3 6 10 9 16 15 16 9 110
IJPE 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 5 4 11 7 7 16 25 5 82
IJPDLM 0 0 1 0 2 2 1 3 6 4 4 5 8 7 9 8 60
JOM 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 5 2 2 9 5 20 3 4 54
IJOPM 0 0 0 1 0 2 1 6 4 3 4 5 6 5 0 8 45
IJLM 0 1 2 3 1 1 0 4 2 1 5 5 4 5 2 5 41
EJPSM 1 3 1 0 4 3 8 6 2 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 32
IJPR 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 4 1 2 7 1 8 4 2 31
IJLRM 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 1 3 4 3 3 2 0 0 0 21
IMM 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 1 4 3 3 2 3 1 0 21
IMDS 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 3 5 3 4 20
JSCM 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 1 3 1 1 4 1 0 0 2 18
EJOR 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 1 4 3 0 0 13
PPC 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 6 1 2 1 0 0 13
BPMJ 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 2 2 0 2 2 1 12
JMTM 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 2 3 1 0 2 11
OMEGA 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 3 0 4 0 11
CIE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 1 3 0 8
LIM 0 2 2 0 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8
TR 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 8
CCE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 1 6 14 8 15 21 26 29 45 41 62 65 67 92 77 50 619
of research

research articles in SCM

Frequency of empirical
Review

in SCM

761

Table II.
JMTM While in the theory building research, the aim is to explain the similarities, if they exist,
23,6 between different data sets. They also mentioned several purposes of theory building:
.
it uses data to enrich/modify the theory;
. to refine the definition and the measurement of the variables; and
.
to look for other variables that can be considered and which may influence the
762 phenomena being studied.

Using these trails the articles were segregated into theory building and theory verification
articles. Table III gives number of articles on theory building and theory verification.
Tabulation revels that SCM researchers are more inclined towards theory building
in comparison to theory verification. Although as expected there is continuous growth
in number of articles published for theory building as well as theory verification. But
only 11.79 percent of articles are directed towards theory verification. Such a trend can
tell that SCM discipline is still in evolving stages and researchers have not yet reached
to a consensus of common theory.

4.3 Selection of research design

There are several designs to carry out empirical research. It was found that survey
research is most prominent with 316 papers (55.54 percent) among all research designs.
Case study research (including single and multiple case studies) total up to 270 papers
(40.61 percent). While the papers that employed multiple research designs using survey
research and case study research in tandem were 22 in number (only 3.85 percent).
Only seven articles employed action research for empirical evidence while there were
only two papers on focus group and panel study each.

4.4 Selection of data collection method

Various prominent methods of data collection are historical archive analysis, participant
observation, outside observation, interviews, questionnaires and content analysis. It is
possible to use any of these methods in tandem as well. For example, a combination of
interviews and questionnaires can be used to describe the use of cluster analysis in an
unusual setting to classify a large sample of dyadic, highly interdependent, supply chain
relationships based upon the quality of their interactions (Humphries et al., 2007).
Similarly other combinations can also be used to collect data in different type of
situations.
Historical archive analysis is often used in conjunction with interview for single or
multiple case study design. Wickramatillake et al. (2007) used combination of
interviews and historical archive analysis to explore the performance measurement
methodology used by a real case company, for cost and progress capture for in-house
production, resale material and third party supplied material, in an effort to measure
performance of the supply chain of a large-scale project – the e6 billion London
Heathrow Airport Terminal five construction project. Major advantage with historical
archive analysis is that it is unbiased as the providers of it have no awareness of being
observed (Flynn et al., 1990).
Participant observation is not a widely used technique unlike interviews or
questionnaires. Observer is part of system in order to record the participant’s data. It is
suitable for theory development and framing hypothesis.
 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total %

Theory building 1 6 14 7 14 19 26 28 39 35 55 57 55 79 61 34 530 80.13

Theory verification 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 1 6 6 7 8 12 13 16 16 89 11.79

theory verification
theory building and
of research

Number of articles on
Review

in SCM

Table III.
763
JMTM Outside observation uses an unbiased observer to collect data, often employing some
23,6 methods for ensuring that data is collected systematically (Flynn et al., 1990). Such
data collection method is suitable for single and multiple case studies along with panel
study.
While, interviews are about interacting with members of an organization and taking
notes. They can be used in conjunction with questionnaires, historical archive analysis
764 and sometimes with other data collection methods as well.
Questionnaires are most commonly used in survey research. They are also useful in
single and multiple case studies, panels and focus groups (Flynn et al., 1990). Checking
the reliability, validity and generalizabilty of questionnaires is a very important issue.
Frequency of use of data collection methods in empirical research in SCM is given in
Table IV.
As per Table IV, questionnaire seems to be highly preferred data collection method
(31.98 percent) while in 30.37 percent of papers data collection method is not
mentioned. All the papers in which data collection method is not mentioned are either
single or multiple case study research designs. Interviews are second most popular
method of data collection (21.48 percent). Papers with combination of other types of
data collection methods are also there. Frequency distribution of use of data collection
methods in various research designs is given in Table V.
From Table V, it can be inferred that for survey research, questionnaire is most
preferred method for data collection as 185 survey design papers use questionnaire.
While for single as well as multiple case studies, interview seems to be the most suitable
data collection method. It can also be seen that among combination of various data
collection methods, interviews and questionnaire are most commonly used. However, in
focus group research designs, interviews are used in empirical research in SCM.

4.5 Implementation
The implementation of research design starts with selection of data collection method.
The steps of implementation may not be same for each research design. For example,
historical archive analysis, participant observation, outside observation, interviews
may or may not require questionnaire administration or content analysis. Similarly,
interviews may not require analysis of non-respondent characteristics or pilot testing

Data collection method Number %

Questionnaire (QU) 198 31.98

Not mentioned (NM) 188 30.37
Interviews (IN) 133 21.48
Interviews and questionnaires (IQ) 33 5.33
Interviews and historical archive analysis (IA) 22 3.54
Historical archive (HA) 14 2.26
Outside observation (OO) 7 1.13
Personal observation (PO) 6 0.96
Interviews, historical archive analysis and questionnaire (IAQ) 6 0.96
Table IV. Interviews and outside observation (IO) 6 0.96
Frequency of use of data Interviews, historical archive analysis and outside observation (IAO) 5 0.80
collection methods in Delphi method (DM) 1 0.16
empirical research in SCM Total 619
Design Interview Questionnaire Archive Delphi method IAO IAQ IO OO IA IQ PO Not mentioned Total

Survey 60 185 7 1 0 0 0 2 4 20 3 34 316

Single case study 25 3 4 0 3 3 3 3 8 3 2 96 153
Multiple case study 45 6 3 0 2 2 3 2 9 6 1 38 117
Panel study 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
Combination 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 0 11 22
Focus group 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
Action research 5 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7
Total 133 198 14 1 5 6 6 7 22 33 6 186 619

Frequency of use of data

various research designs

of research

collection methods in
Table V.
Review

in SCM

765
JMTM and mailing. Keeping the above points in mind, a generalized classification scheme for
23,6 implementation step will be used.
The implementation step has been classified into aforementioned classes.
4.5.1 Sample industry. SCM research is not restricted to any particular industry.
Hence, it is important to find out the range of industries from which the data is collected.
We have used the industry classification suggested by Burgess et al. (2006). Table VI
766 represents the frequency of articles for each industry from which data is collected.
In Table VI, manufacturing industry tops the chart (42.16 percent) while studies
which targeted multiple industry segments are at second position (25.69 percent). At
third place is the service industry (10.34 percent) which includes IT, consultancy, health
care, e-business, academia, telecommunication and banking services. Research papers in
which data collected from a particular industry is less than ten in number, are placed in
the category of “others” (7.59 percent). It includes industries such as 3PL, defense,
FMCG, jewelry and SME’s. It can be also derived from Table VI that a significant
percentage of authors in empirical research prefer to take data from manufacturing
industries. Hence, a sub-classification of manufacturing sector is required here so as to
get a deeper insight about the target industries. Table VII represents the frequency of
articles from various manufacturing industry segments.
It is evident from Table VII that data in majority of empirical research articles in
manufacturing sector are taken from “multiple segments of manufacturing industry”
(33.72 percent), however automotive segment and electrical and electronics (13.79 percent)

Industry sector Frequency %

Manufacturing 261 42.16

Multiple 172 25.69
Services 64 10.34
Others 47 7.59
Agriculture 37 5.98
Transportation 21 3.39
Table VI. Retail 13 2.10
Frequency of articles for Construction 13 2.10
each industry from which Not applicable 4 0.65
data is collected Total 619

Industry Frequency %

Multiple 88 33.72
Automotive 36 13.79
Electrical and electronics 36 13.79
Textile 30 11.49
Process 29 11.11
Table VII. Others 28 10.73
Frequency of articles Aerospace 8 3.07
from various Heavy machinery 4 1.53
manufacturing Footwear 2 0.77
industry segments Total 261
seems to be most popular among researchers followed by textile (11.49 percent) and Review
process segment (11.11 percent). There are several segments “like printing, toy, FMCG, of research
furniture manufacturing”, which are mentioned under the category of “others”.
4.5.2 Country of sample industry. Articles in SCM are published in almost every
in SCM
part of the world. But there are places where “empirical research in SCM may be
dominant” compared to other regions in the world. It is thus imperative to find out the
countries/regions dominating empirical research in SCM from the view of data 767
collection. Table VIII shows frequency of countries/regions from where data is collected
in selected research articles.
Table VIII depicts that empirical data is collected in highest amount from USA
(15.67 percent) while 18.42 percent of papers did not tell anything about the country or
region from which data has been collected. The similar problem has been pointed out by
Giunipero et al. (2008) that researchers often failed to report descriptive information such
as SS, frame of reference or even response rate. Majority of the countries in the list are
developed countries. Only India and China seems to be representing a substantial
population of developing countries. However, there are many countries in “Others”
category like Austria, Alaska, Argentina, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore,
Spain, Switzerland, Kazakhstan and Thailand. Such countries are not included in
Table VIII as research papers addressing them are not very significant in number.
Another important observation was made regarding whether data was collected from

Country/region Number Percentage

Asia Pacifica 1 0.18

North Americaa 1 0.18
South East Asiaa 6 0.97
UAEa 2 0.32
South Korea 3 0.48
Turkey 5 0.81
Koreaa 6 0.97
Canada 9 1.45
The Netherlands 10 1.62
Taiwan 10 1.62
India 12 1.94
Scandinaviaa 11 1.78
Sweden 14 2.26
Australia 13 2.10
Hong Kong 12 1.94
Italy 15 2.42
China 21 3.39
Europea 28 4.52
UK 69 11.15
USA 97 15.67
Others 114 18.42 Table VIII.
Not mentioned 160 25.85 Frequency of
Total 619 100 countries/regions from
where data is collected in
Note: aRepresents region or continent from where data is collected selected research articles
JMTM single or multiple countries. Table IX gives frequency of articles in which data is
23,6 collected from single or multiple countries.
It can also be observed that 324 articles are based on data obtained from single
country while in 135 articles the data is gathered from multiple countries. This revels
that the focus of empirical research in SCM is country focused rather than of global
nature. However, such trend may also be explained by the fact that the number of single
768 case studies were more than multiple case studies in the selected sample of articles and
single case studies are generally specific to one location or an organization, hence the
data collected from single country is more. In many articles especially in case studies the
name of the country was not mentioned.
4.5.3 Sample size. Generally speaking, the lager is the SS; the more accurate are the
results in survey research design. It will be interesting to find out the range of SS used
by majority of authors in survey research in SCM. Table X represents the frequency of
range of SS used by authors in survey design.
It is evident form Table X that majority of authors used SS less than
100 (34.49 percent). Only six articles had SS higher than 1,000 while 19 articles did not
give any information about the SS.
4.5.4 LN and CS data. It is obvious that if data is collected at different points in a
timeframe then the results and their interpretation is more fruitful. Such data is known
as LN data, while CS data provides a snapshot of the situation or process. It was
observed that use of CS data outnumbers LN data by a huge margin, i.e. 590 out of
619 (95.31 percent). Such less number of papers using LN data indicate reluctance
of SCM researchers to collect LN data as it is time consuming or effort required to
collect the data is too much. It may also be possible that in some cases there is no
requirement or data collection at multiple times is not feasible.

Frequency %
Table IX.
Frequency of articles in Single country 324 52.34
which data is collected Multiple countries 135 21.80
from single or Not mentioned 160 25.84
multiple countries Total 619

Range of sample size (x) Frequency Cumulative percentage

x , 100 109 34.49

100 , ¼ x , 200 91 63.29
200 , ¼ x , 300 41 76.26
300 , ¼ x , 400 18 81.96
400 , ¼ x , 600 13 86.07
600 , ¼ x , 700 11 89.55
700 , ¼ x , 800 4 90.82
800 , ¼ x , 900 3 91.77
Table X. 900 , ¼ x , 1,000 1 92.09
Frequency of range of x . ¼ 1,000 6 93.99
sample size used by Not available 19 100
authors in survey design Total 316
4.5.5 Qualitative/quantitative/triangulated data. The classification of literature on the Review
basis of qualitative/quantitative/triangulated data has been done as per research of research
design but before that it is important to find the frequency of articles for qualitative/
quantitative/triangulated data. It was found out that quantitative data has been used in SCM
with higher frequency (464 out of 619, i.e. 71.1 percent) in literature compared to
qualitative data (110 out of 619, i.e. 17.7 percent) while triangulation (45 out of 619,
i.e. 11.2 percent) has been used rarely. Table XI gives frequency of use of qualitative/ 769
quantitative/triangulated data for theory building and theory verification in SCM.
A very interesting observation was made that 74.91 percent of articles published for
theory building favors use of quantitative data over qualitative (17.74 percent) and
triangulation (7.35 percent). It is clearly visible that qualitative data is preferred among
researchers for the purpose of theory verification. Also use of triangulated data is more
in theory building compared to theory verification.
4.5.6 Type of respondents. It is very much important for a researcher to find out the
correct type of respondents for any design of empirical study. Hence, it will be very
useful for every SCM researcher intending to carry out empirical research, that which
type of respondents should be targeted. Table XII gives the information about type of
respondents in SCM empirical research.
Table XI.
Quantitative Qualitative Triangulated Total Frequency of use of
qualitative/quantitative/
Theory building 397 94 39 530 triangulated data for
Percentage 74.91 17.74 7.358 theory building
Theory verification 67 16 6 89 and theory
Percentage 8.219 17.98 6.742 verification in SCM

Respondents Frequency %

Not mentioned 347 56.06

Multiple 87 14.05
Managers 77 12.44
Purchasing, logistics and supply chain managers 53 8.56
CEOs 14 2.26
Executive 9 1.45
Director 7 1.13
Employees 6 0.97
Academicians 3 0.48
Farmers 3 0.48
Students 2 0.32
Consultants 2 0.32
Customers 2 0.32
Informants 2 0.32
Retailers 2 0.32
Engineers 1 0.16
Health care personnel 1 0.16 Table XII.
Researchers 1 0.16 Type of respondents in
619 SCM empirical research
JMTM From Table XII, it seems that 56.06 percent (347 articles) of articles did not mention
23,6 type of respondents specifically. Among these 347 articles, 221 articles were on case
study. While a significant amount of papers (14.05 percent, i.e. 87 articles) collected the
data from multiple type of respondents rather than targeting a single type of
respondent. Managers seem to be most popular choice for authors performing
empirical research on single respondent population (12.44 percent) while 8.565 percent
770 of studies involved only managers related to purchasing, logistics and supply chain.
Surprisingly, there is only one paper addressing exclusively researchers, by Sroufe and
Curkovic (2008). Their study utilizes case-based research to address the competing
views of the ISO 9000:2000 standards.

4.6 Data analysis techniques (DAT’s)

Data analysis techniques are required to obtain conclusions from empirical data and
hence generalize those conclusions to establish a new theory or to verify an existing
theory. Sachan and Datta (2005) gave a list of most common statistical techniques used
in empirical research. Using that classification, the frequency of use of empirical data
analysis techniques in SCM research is given in Table XIII.
Table XIII does not specifically represent the quantitative DAT’s alone. It also
represents the population of qualitative analysis like focus group, panel study along
with cases studies and survey handling qualitative data in the category of others
(67.85 percent). The same category of “others” also include several quantitative analysis
techniques like F-tests, content analysis, gap analysis, etc. Descriptive statistics form a
major part of DAT’s in empirical research in SCM, while more advanced DAT’s like
SEM, path analysis, MANOVA and cluster analysis are not used very often.

4.7 Level of analysis

The classification of article on the basis of level of analysis is given in Table XIV.
From Table XIV it is evident that research at the firm level in SCM is still very
dominant which is actually against the philosophy of SCM itself. Although analysis at
chain and network level has picked up but it is still lacking the pace at which it should
grow. However, it can be appreciated that articles at the network level are higher than
at chain and dyad level. Articles at firm level were 65.26 percent while in contrast for
dyad level at 3.55 percent only.

Data analysis techniques Frequency Percentage

Descriptive statistics 76 12.27

Regression analysis 32 5.169
Factor analysis 49 7.91
Discriminant analysis 5 0.80
Correlational analysis 6 0.96
Cluster analysis 5 0.80
Cojoint analysis 3 0.48
Table XIII. MANOVA 2 0.32
Frequency of use of Path analysis 2 0.32
empirical data analysis SEM 19 3.06
techniques in SCM Others 420 67.85
research Total 619
 Review
Year Firm Network Chain Dyad N/A Total
of research
1994 0 1 0 0 0 1 in SCM
1995 3 0 0 3 0 6
1996 10 0 2 1 1 14
1997 5 0 2 0 1 8
1998 7 2 4 1 1 15 771
1999 13 5 3 0 0 21
2000 12 7 3 2 2 26
2001 19 2 3 3 2 29
2002 31 9 2 3 0 45
2003 29 6 1 4 1 41
2004 40 9 10 2 1 62
2005 42 12 8 1 2 65
2006 39 9 11 5 3 67
2007 69 11 5 7 0 92
2008 51 7 7 4 8 77
2009 34 8 5 3 0 50
Total 404 88 66 39 22 619 Table XIV.
Percentage 65.26 14.21 10.66 6.30 3.55 Level of analysis

5. Discussion
There have been couple of literature reviews in SCM as discussed in Section 2 but none
of them focused exclusively on descriptive statistics of empirical research methodology
in SCM. Also the SS of papers with respect to number of papers (2,013 articles) as well
as number of journals (21 journals) is larger than ever considered for literature review
in SCM. The papers spans a longer time period of 16 years (1994-2009). Although
samples were collected from 1980 onwards, but the first actual empirical research
paper appeared in 1994 only in IJPSM. It is possible that several empirical papers
might have been published earlier than this also in any other journal, which is not
present in selected sample of journals. Since the amount of literature published in SCM
is huge and still growing at a faster pace, it was decided to consider an exhaustive set
of data for better introspection and trace the reflections of history and the future of
empirical research in SCM.
The results of classification clearly indicate the growth of SCM literature and
empirical research in SCM since last 15 years. The significant findings, gaps and future
directions for research are discussed subsequently in this section.
5.1 Significant findings and gaps
Empirical research in SCM is growing and it shows highest growth during period of
2000-2004. Theory building is most popular among SCM researchers while theory
verification is also on the rise but percentage-wise the rise is very slow and gradual.
Other contemporary fields in OM also shown growth in number of survey research
articles from year 1994 to 2000 as shown in the study of Rungtusanatham et al. (2003).
In the review performed by Sachan and Datta (2005), the number of empirical
research articles was nearly 55 percent of the total SS while here it is 30.75 percent.
Similarly, Burgess et al. (2006) also reported 54 percent of empirical research articles in a
SS of 100. The reason for lesser percentage of empirical research articles in present case
can be relative increase in desk research articles after year 2003. If an insight into similar
JMTM review of an allied area like TQM is given, then according to Rahman and Sohal (2002),
23,6 35 percent of studies are empirical in nature, where empirical studies displayed a growth
in period 1995-1999. On the contrary empirical studies share higher percentage in area of
new product development, which is 81 percent (Page and Schirr, 2008). While on the
other hand, in the area of manufacturing strategy, empirical studies were only 31 percent
(Dangayach and Deshmukh, 2001). Wolf (2008) emphasized that typically, as a new
772 discipline emerges, the number of papers that generate knowledge based on empirical
(quantitative or qualitative) is less frequent as compared to the number of conceptual
papers that try to provide theoretical frameworks of the field. As a discipline becomes
more established, the number of empirical research papers increases and the
sophistication of methodological design advances (Harland et al., 2006, pp. 734-5). Based
on this evidence if empirical research in new product development area is compared with
that in SCM, then it can be extrapolated that empirical research is SCM is going to grow
more and number of conceptual studies will decline subsequently.
There is a dip in number of empirical research publications in year 2008 and 2009
which may suggest that SCM survey research may be at a juncture where new
directions need to be taken up by SCM researchers. A similar observation was made by
Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002) in the field of TQM, where survey research in TQM
exhibited a downward trend in publications.
Survey and case study research designs are most prevalent among all the research
designs. Survey research is most popular among the empirical research designs. It is
primarily based on quantitative data and very few cases of data triangulation are
reported in the literature. On the other hand in case study research design, single case
studies are in majority. Case studies in SCM employ use of both qualitative and
quantitative data. But overall empirical research in SCM is dominated by research
methods based on quantitative data. Similar finding is reported by Mentzer and Kahn
(1995) (in logistics management research) and Sachan and Datta (2005) (in SCM) that
survey research is dominant over case study research design.
Data collection is preferred mostly via use of questionnaires. Also, it is highly
preferred data collection method for survey research design. Other data collection
methods like Delphi, personal observation and outside observation are less in vogue.
Interviews are found to be most suitable data collection methods for single and multiple
case studies. According to Golicic et al. (2005) researchers need to adopt a more balanced
approach using inductive research methods (typically qualitative) and deductive
methods (typically quantitative) in SCM, so as to accurately describe, truly understand
and begin to explain these complex phenomenon (such as outsourcing,
B2B relationships, strategic outsourcing, demand management, etc.).
Empirical research studies in SCM are very much CS in nature and focused towards
developed countries with highest number of research articles addressing the USA and
the UK. Sachan and Datta (2005) also revealed similar scenario in their literature review
that merely 6 percent of studies were performed in Asia while in contrast there were
50 percent studies in North America and 37.5 percent in Europe. A similar observation
was made by Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002) while reviewing TQM research, that USA,
UK and Australia were the leading countries in publishing TQM research. Hence, more
empirical studies in several regions of world including China, India, South America,
Africa, South Asia and Middle East are needed to see how countries across the world
differ in understanding and implementation of SCM practices. It will present a totally
new perspective while examining the role of country specific factors (like culture, Review
logistics infrastructure, IT infrastructure, political conditions, etc.) on the of research
implementation of SCM practices and to what extent. Such endeavors are becoming
increasingly important with the growth in globalization of markets around the world. in SCM
Size of the samples in the survey research design is very much restricted. The fact is
highlighted by the figure that 63.29 percent of research papers were based on SS less
than 200. In that too, for more than half of the articles, the SS still falls below 100 samples, 773
which is quiet an eye opener. Researcher should try to use larger SSs along with an effort
to achieve higher response rates in survey research. Malhotra and Grover (1998) pointed
out that 30 percent of the OM survey studies suffered from statistical conclusion errors
due to small SSs. Tanner (1999) suggested taking help of trade associations to get more
responses from more companies and hence increase SSs. Giunipero et al. (2008) added
that researchers can get involved with a few companies but examine multiple tiers and
many suppliers within each tier in order to further increase SSs and observe more
network or chain wide phenomena. Although SS above 35 is considered to be suitable for
carrying out statistical analysis but in order to use several multivariate analysis
techniques like structural equation modeling one needs to have at least a SS of 200 or a
ratio of 10:1 (responses: variables). In a research area like new product development,
Page and Schirr (2008) reported increase in more sophisticated data analysis techniques,
such as SEM, which require large data sets due to which in a span of four years the
median SS reported increase of almost 31 percent. Similar trend can be expected in SCM
when techniques like SEM become more popular. Hence, in order to appropriately use
such advanced statistical techniques one needs to aim for higher SSs. Addressing this
issue will ensure that a more system-wide perspective of SCM within academic research
and which will also counter the small SS problem.
Researchers are generally more inclined towards collecting data from manufacturing
industry. Wolf (2008) also commented that the manufacturing industry and to a limited
extent, the logistics and transportation industries are the most important data sources
for empirical analyses in SCM. In fact data collection is highly skewed towards
manufacturing sector alone. Such trend may be attributed to the fact that SCM as a
discipline originated from manufacturing industry itself and majority of its concepts are
adopted from literature on manufacturing. However, it does not mean that SCM is
confined to manufacturing sector alone. A significant number of articles are also found
in services industry as well. But still empirical research in SCM is not very abundant in
several industry sectors like agriculture, transportation, retail, construction, etc. Hence,
this fact actually opens up new avenues for research in these sectors of industry.
Many survey articles missed the data on the respondent’s demography which included
their designation and industry. Authors communicating empirical studies should report
several characteristics of respondents like industry, work experience of respondents,
designation, etc. Such characteristics help the reader to judge the quality and reliability of
the reported facts and theories. Although getting complete demographic data is not an
easy task but researchers may take help of survey professionals in order to overcome this
problem.
Data analysis techniques used in SCM research are univariate/bivariate and
multivariate as well. But greater number of papers is found in univarite/bivariate
studies and that too using descriptive statistics. While case studies are analyzed
mostly by qualitative tools/techniques unlike surveys which are performed using
JMTM quantitative data. Several other authors like Mentzer and Kahn (1995), Sachan and
23,6 Datta (2005) and Giunipero et al. (2008) indicated similar trend stating that descriptive
analysis covered 66.7 , 39.8 and 42.04 percent of studies, respectively.
Level of analysis which indicates the complexity of the situation handled. Ideally,
analysis must be carried out at network level such that implications of any action in
supply chain can be analyzed at network level. On the contrary, it was observed that
774 level of analysis at firm level is still most dominant despite reports of authors like
Sachan and Datta (2005) and Croom et al. (2000). It was also found out in several other
reviews as well that larger number of articles (54 percent in Sachan and Datta (2005)
and 37 percent in Giunipero et al. (2008)) involved level of analysis at firm level only.
However, analysis at network level is higher 14.21 percent in this article than what was
reported by Giunipero et al. (2008) as merely 5 percent only.

5.2 Directions for future research

Based on the review performed in the previous sections of the paper, following points
reveal some directions for further carrying out empirical research in SCM:
.
There exists a huge gap between theory building and theory verification. The
rate at which theory building is progressing is far ahead of theory verification.
When a discipline reaches maturity stage the rate of theory building and
verification are more or less same or theory verification overtakes theory
building. According to Maanen’s (1979) life cycle theory, research in a new field
starts with a non-empirical focus, and then moves to adopt more empirical
studies. From the findings of this article it can be seen that initially very few
empirical research articles in SCM were published in early 1990s as the field was
new but now rate at which empirical research body is growing at a faster pace.
Giunipero et al. (2008) also indicated that it would appear that the field of SCM is
entering, or has moved from its infancy to a more mature state. Hence, in order to
advance the SCM discipline to the next level, especially when the debate on
whether SCM is in infancy or maturity stage is going on, researchers must strike
accurate balance between theory building and theory verification.
.
Research designs like action research, panel study and focus group are rarely
used by the researchers. SCM being strategic in nature should be supported by
such research designs as well. Such research designs use qualitative data based
on experience of respondents. Many researchers have pointed out that there
exists a gap between theory and practice in SCM research. In order to bridge this
gap, panel studies and focus group research designs which involve SCM,
practitioners can greatly enhance practicability of studies in SCM.
.
Several authors like Müller (2005), Koplin (2005), Prockl (2005)and Bichou and
Gray (2005) have emphasized on use of action research in SCM. Wood-Harper
(1985) accentuated that action research is one of the most effective research design
for technique development or theory building. Müller (2005) clarified that action
research is often confronted with lot of criticism because most scientists in OM and
logistics follow positivistic paradigm, however SCM being a young field, gives
ample opportunities to researchers for using action research. Thus, it is advised
to look at the possibilities of using action research in SCM besides other prevalent
research designs.
.
There is inadequacy in the use of LN data collection in SCM research. Since LN Review
studies span a longer period of research, they can provide better picture of the of research
system and its dynamic nature compared to CS data based study. Although these
studies require considerably longer time-frames, following a group of firms in SCM
longitudinally would provide significant data in developing megatrends in the
supply chain (Giunipero et al., 2008). Additionally, Giunipero et al. (2008)
suggested that advances in supply chain research could best be funded through 775
multi-year grants with associations, government agencies and businesses so that
LN studies can be carried out.
. Empirical research in SCM is predominantly performed in the developed countries
of Northern America and Europe while merely 5 percent of the research is
performed for developing countries. Countries like India and China are
outsourcing hubs for global supply chains of apparel, automobile and electronic
consumer goods. Hence, there is higher need of developing and examining the
supply chain frameworks for such countries. One of reasons for the lack in
empirical research in these countries may be difficulty in carrying out survey and
action research or it may be lack of knowledge in SCM. However, these reasons
need proper examination and factual support before they can be established.
Moreover, globalization is becoming a powerful force within corporations and the
world community. Thus, it is critical that researchers work to examine global SCM
research questions, regardless of data access issues (Giunipero et al., 2008). Sachan
and Datta (2005) pointed out in their review that most of the MNCs are targeting
developing and underdeveloped countries either as new market for their products
or for sourcing the raw material due to low cost. It would be better if researchers
focus on these countries also. Thus, it is high time for the researchers to conduct
studies on these avenues of cost reduction and profit making.
.
In quantitative DAT’s, descriptive statistics takes the highest position in
comparison to other DAT’s. Descriptive statistics are important but for
establishing a theory, inferential statistics (hypothesis testing) is even more
essential. It is thus imperative for researchers to adopt higher forms of DAT’s
along with descriptive statistics. Although multivariate DAT’s like structural
equation modeling are being used in SCM empirical research but the amount does
not seem to be sufficient enough (only 3.34 percent). Researchers should give more
attention to multivariate DAT’s as well and not neglecting univariate/bivariate
DAT’s at the same time. Giunipero et al. (2008) also highlighted the similar
limitations of present data analysis techniques, that the analysis techniques in
SCM are predominantly limited to correlation analysis where multiple regression
or SEM would have provided much better explanation of the situations. Similar
observation was made by Sachan and Datta (2005) where they too emphasized use
of SEM for more in-depth analysis.
.
Researchers should explore the realm of triangulation as it is found to be suitable
for theory verification. It also improves the judgmental accuracy of the researcher.
van Hoek (2001) and Giunipero et al. (2008) also argued that triangulation is a good
way to mix qualitative and quantitative methods, resulting in cross-method
synergies and an improved approach for studying SCM.
JMTM .
As far as performing research at network or chain level is concerned, researchers
23,6 may venture into using already existing studies which were performed at dyad
or firm level. Such endeavour may be dedicated to generalizing the results at
higher level of analysis. It will also give two pronged solution. On one hand, it
will help in removing the gap of analysis at network or chain level, while on the
other hand it will instigate the purpose of theory verification as well.
776
6. Conclusions
The paper reviewed a set of 619 empirical research articles in SCM research with
respect to empirical research methodology and its related aspects. The paper started
with identifying empirical research articles out of 2,013 research articles. It was
observed that the number of empirical research articles in SCM is increasing. Later, all
619 articles were classified at each stage of systematic approach to carry out empirical
research. The articles were found to be highly biased towards theory building and CS
studies. Survey research design was found to be most preferred research design among
researchers and use of questionnaires is the most prominent method of data collection.
Descriptive statistics ruled the data analysis techniques with research based on
quantitative data higher than qualitative data. Later, gaps were identified in current
empirical research along with suggesting directions for further research and
enumerating significant findings of review. From complete discussion it can be
concluded that empirical research in SCM is increasing at a faster rate than ever but at
the same time researchers should break the monotony in their research purpose for
theory building and its related aspects and start focusing on various realms of theory
verification, significance of triangulation of data, alternate research designs like action
research, and all the points for future research suggested in the paper.
The limitation of this study is that only four publishing houses are considered for
article selection. It is possible to carry out research at even larger scale as SCM
literature has become very vast. Second, there is certain amount of subjectivity
involved in classification of articles as it depends on the author and his understanding.
Although the article classification process is performed with utter care but still chances
of inadvertent errors cannot be ruled out. Thus, in order to consolidate on these
findings future attempts must be directed to validate the findings of this article.

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About the authors

Gunjan Soni obtained his BE from University of Rajasthan and M.Tech from IIT, Delhi. He is
presently pursuing a PhD from BITS-Pilani, Pilani campus and working as a Lecturer with the
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BITS-Pilani, Pilani campus. He has over six years of
teaching experience at undergraduate and graduate levels. His areas of research interest are
supply chain management, manufacturing management, operations research and optimization.
Rambabu Kodali is a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department of Birla Institute of
Technology & Science (BITS)-Pilani, Pilani Campus, Pilani, India. He was Group Leader (HOD) of
the Mechanical Engineering Group and Engineering Technology Group from 1994 and 2004,
respectively, to 2010. He has 27 years of teaching/research experience and 16 years
of administrative experience as a Group Leader (HOD). He has published around 200 papers in
various national and international journals and his research areas are: Toyota production system,
lean manufacturing, manufacturing excellence, FMS, innovative product design and development,
supply chain management, manufacturing management. He has supervised nine PhDs and
currently is supervising three more. He has completed 11 research projects in FMS, Computer
Integrated Manufacturing Systems, World-class Manufacturing, and Manufacturing Excellence.
He has developed four on-campus degree programmes and 14 off-campus degree programmes at
BITS, Pilani and has developed and established the state-of-the-art FMS laboratory, as well as
modernizing various Mechanical Engineering laboratories at BITS-Pilani. Rambabu Kodali is the
corresponding author and can be contacted at: proframbabukodali@gmail.com

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