Supply chain management (SCM) has been discussed by researchers as well as business practitioners for more than two decades now, but still surprisingly little of this philosophy can be seen in today’s business practices. One important enabler for taking the SCM philosophy from theory into practice that is often mentioned, but not investigated in-depth, is top management support. The role top management plays in a company’s SCM practices could be an important piece of research that is not yet in place in the big SCM puzzle. The purpose of this dissertation is therefore to describe and explain the role of top management in a company’s supply chain management practices. The purpose is approached with the aid of two studies, where the second is partly built upon the findings from the first. The first study is an explorative, broad survey study aimed at investigating how companies’ SCM practices, here limited to include a focal company’s logistics collaboration with suppliers and customers, are performed. In the second study, which is an explanative, multiple case study, the role of top management is investigated more in detail.The empirical foundation for the survey study is a questionnaire that was constructed based on SCM literature. The questionnaire was sent in November 2004 to 482 logistics managers at Swedish manufacturing companies and a response rate of 177 usable questionnaires (37.8%) was achieved. Apart from purely descriptive statistics such as mean values, standard deviation and frequencies, other tests were used such as factor analysis, cluster analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and cross tabulations with χ-square tests. The results are summarised into five major findings, concluding that (1) existing collaborations are mainly performed at an operational level in the companies, (2) there are differences in the focal company’s attitude and behaviour depending on if the collaboration partner is situated downstream or upstream in the supply chain, (3) increased intensity in the collaboration results in more positive effects, (4) top management involvement is an important driver for increased intensity of the collaboration, and (5) top management involvement in a dyadic collaboration is an important driver for increased collaboration with supply chain members on the other side of the focal company…
Contents
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1 BACKGROUND
1.1 SCM IN THEORY
1.2 SCM IN PRACTICE
1.3 THE ROLE OF TOP MANAGEMENT
1.4 PURPOSE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.4.1 SCM practices: Logistics collaboration
1.4.2 The role of top management
1.5 AN OUTLINE OF THE DISSERTATION
1.5.1 The survey study
1.5.2 The multiple case study
1.6 RESEARCH FOCUS AND DEFINITIONS
2 METHODOLOGY
2.1 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY
2.1.1 Theory generation
2.2 RESEARCH DESIGN
2.2.1 An abductive research process
2.2.2 The choice of research approach
PART II: THE SURVEY STUDY
3 INTRODUCTION TO THE SURVEY STUDY
3.1 BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
3.2 THE DIFFERENT STEPS IN THE SURVEY STUDY
3.2.1 Preparation of a questionnaire
3.2.2 Layout of the questionnaire
3.2.3 The pilot
3.2.4 The sample
3.2.5 Data collection and response rate
3.2.6 Missing data analysis
3.2.7 Analysis methods in SPSS
3.2.8 How the analysis was performed
3.2.9 Further analysis and discussion
3.3 QUALITY
3.3.1 Validity
3.3.2 Reliability
4 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT – A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
4.1 THE SCOPE OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
4.1.1 The functional scope of Supply Chain Management
4.1.2 The organisational scope of Supply Chain Management
4.2 THREE PERSPECTIVES ON SCM
4.2.1 SCM from a functional perspective
4.2.2 SCM from a processual perspective
4.2.3 SCM from an organisational perspective
4.3 LOGISTICS BUSINESS CONCEPTS BASED ON THE SCM-PHILOSOPHY
4.3.1 Efficient Consumer Response, ECR
4.3.2 Vendor Managed Inventory, VMI
4.3.3 Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment, CPFR
4.4 SCM FROM A FOCAL COMPANY PERSPECTIVE
4.4.1 Process approach
4.4.2 Planning of supply chain activities
4.4.3 Information sharing
4.4.4 Supply chain orientation
5 SPECIFICATION OF QUESTIONS TO THE SURVEY STUDY
5.1 THE CONTENT OF LOGISTICS COLLABORATION
5.1.1 The process approach
5.1.2 The planning of supply chain activities
5.1.3 The information sharing
5.1.4 The supply chain orientation
5.1.5 Logistics areas where collaboration is performed
5.2 DRIVING FORCES, BARRIERS AND EFFECTS OF COLLABORATION
5.2.1 Driving forces
5.2.2 Barriers
5.2.3 Effects
5.3 TYPE OF COLLABORATION
6 DATA ANALYSIS
6.1 BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COMPANIES
6.2 THE CONTENT OF LOGISTICS COLLABORATION
6.2.1 The process approach
6.2.2 The planning of supply chain activities
6.2.3 The information sharing
6.2.4 The respondents’ supply chain orientation
6.2.5 Logistics areas where collaboration is performed
6.2.6 Relations between aspects corresponding to the content of logistics collaboration
6.3 DRIVING FORCES, BARRIERS AND EFFECTS OF LOGISTICS COLLABORATION
6.3.1 Driving forces for logistics collaboration
6.3.2 Barriers for logistics collaboration
6.3.3 Effects of logistics collaboration
6.3.4 Relationships between driving forces, barriers and effects of the collaboration
6.4 TYPE OF COLLABORATION
6.5 RELATIONSHIPS AMONG DIFFERENT CATEGORIES
6.5.1 The content and driving forces, barriers and effects of the collaboration
6.5.2 The content in the different types of collaboration
6.5.3 The driving forces, barriers and effects in the different types of collaboration
7 A COMPARISON TO THE LITERATURE
7.1 THE CONTENT OF LOGISTICS COLLABORATION
7.1.1 The process approach
7.1.2 The planning of supply chain activities
7.1.3 The information sharing
7.1.4 The actions undertaken in the collaboration
7.1.5 The respondents’ supply chain orientation
7.1.6 Logistics areas where collaboration is performed
7.2 DRIVING FORCES, BARRIERS AND EFFECTS OF LOGISTICS COLLABORATION
7.2.1 Driving forces
7.2.2 Barriers
7.2.3 Effects
7.3 THE TYPE OF COLLABORATION
7.4 RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE DIFFERENT CATEGORIES
7.4.1 The content of logistics collaboration and experienced barriers and effects
7.4.2 The content and effects on the other side of the company
7.4.3 Differences between types of collaboration
8 FINDINGS FROM THE SURVEY STUDY
PART III: THE CASE STUDY
9 INTRODUCTION TO THE CASE STUDY
9.1 BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
9.1.1 Supply chain orientation
9.1.2 Coordination
9.1.3 Continuous development
9.2 THE DIFFERENT STEPS IN THE STUDY
9.2.1 The theoretical framework on strategy
9.2.2 The selection of case companies
9.2.3 Data collection 140
9.2.4 The analysis
9.3 QUALITY
10 STRATEGY – A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
10.1 STRATEGY CONTENT
10.1.1 The positioning school
10.1.2 The Resource-based view of the firm
10.1.3 Combining the two perspectives
10.2 THE STRATEGY FORMATION PROCESS
10.2.1 Two different perspectives
10.2.2 Planning and strategy
10.3 ABOUT THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND THE ANALYSIS
11 DUSTIN – THE CASE
11.1 THE COMPANY
11.1.1 Organisation
11.1.2 Staff
11.1.3 The IT system Dacsa
11.1.4 The central warehouse
11.1.5 The order and delivery process
11.2 STRATEGY
11.2.1 Vision
11.2.2 Supply strategy
11.2.3 Market strategy
11.3 MANAGEMENT OF THE COMPANY
11.3.1 The management levels and their main responsibilities
11.3.2 Meetings and communication
12 CLAS OHLSON – THE CASE
12.1 THE COMPANY
12.1.1 Organisation
12.1.2 Personnel
12.1.3 The IT system Raindance
12.1.4 The central warehouse
12.1.5 The order and delivery process
12.2 STRATEGY
12.2.1 Vision
12.2.2 Supply strategy
12.2.3 Market strategy
12.3 MANAGEMENT OF THE COMPANY
12.3.1 The management levels and their main responsibilities
12.3.2 Meetings and communication
13 BAMA – THE CASE
13.1 THE COMPANY
13.1.1 Organisation
13.1.2 The IT systems Olfi and Lorry
13.1.3 The physical flow of products
13.2 STRATEGY
13.2.1 Vision
13.2.2 Trading and their strategy
13.2.3 The market divisions and their strategy
13.3 MANAGEMENT OF THE COMPANY
14 SINGLE ANALYSES OF THE CASES
14.1 ANALYSIS OF DUSTIN
14.1.1 Strategy Content
14.1.2 The strategy formation process
14.1.3 Supply chain orientation
14.1.4 Coordination
14.1.5 Continuous development
14.2 CLAS OHLSON – ANALYSIS
14.2.1 Strategy content
14.2.2 The strategy formation process
14.2.3 Supply chain orientation
14.2.4 Coordination
14.2.5 Continuous development
14.3 BAMA – ANALYSIS
14.3.1 Strategy content
14.3.2 The strategy formation process
14.3.3 Supply chain orientation
14.3.4 Coordination
14.3.5 Continuous development
14.4 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS
15 CROSS CASE ANALYSIS
15.1 STRATEGY CONTENT
15.2 STRATEGY FORMATION PROCESS
15.3 SUPPLY CHAIN ORIENTATION
15.4 COORDINATION
15.5 CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT
PART IV: CONTRIBUTION
16 CONCLUSIONS
16.1 SCM THEORY DIFFERS FROM PRACTICE
16.2 THE ROLE OF TOP MANAGEMENT
16.3 THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS
16.4 PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
17 FURTHER RESEARCH
REFERENCES
APPENDICE
Author: Sandberg, Erik
Source: Linkoping University
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