A New Methodology for Supply Chain Management: Discourse Analysis and its Potential for Theoretical Advancement

Abstract

This paper responds to recent calls for methodological diversification and "in-house" theory development within the discipline of SCM, by introducing discourse analysis to readers of the Journal of Supply Chain Management. One of the merits of discourse analysis is the way in which it "problematizes" taken-for-granted aspects of organizational life, including supply chains, to show that what we assume to be natural, inevitable and beneficial is rarely quite so straightforward as it may seem. In addition, through the way in which it emphasizes the interrogation of meaning, discourse analysis can broaden conceptualizations of the supply chain to include actors that have previously been overlooked, such as employees, workers, not-for-profit organizations, regulators, consumers, and the media. Using examples that are familiar to SCM researchers-the discourses of lean, sustainability, modern slavery, and big data-we illustrate how discourse analysis can help to theorize SCM phenomena by problematizing established meanings and revealing how they reproduce power relations among actors. We then show how insights from discourse analysis can complement existing theories of the supply chain and, in so doing, potentially rejuvenate the field of SCM by inspiring novel theory development, opening up different empirical settings, and promoting new ways of analyzing qualitative data.

Dancing the Supply Chain: Toward Transformative Supply Chain Management

“…Although many researchers in the domain of sustainable SCM can agree that the ecological capacity of our planet has been exceeded and that we are faced with substantial social challenges as a result, there is far less agreement about how these challenges should be addressed (Matthews et al, 2016), and most of the studies from that domain subordinate sustainability, a goal that operates at the planetary level, to profitability, a goal that operates at the supply chain level (Hardy et al, 2020). In the following, the link between the planetary level and the supply chain level will be unfolded.…”

From the Editors: Introduction to the Emerging Discourse Incubator on the Topic of Emerging Approaches for Developing Supply Chain Management Theory

“…By “ruling in” some ways of thinking about a topic, a dominant discourse in a field can also “rule out” alternative ways of thinking; thus, the language used to describe a phenomenon shapes how it is experienced as a reality. In “A New Methodology for Supply Chain Management: Discourse Analysis and its Potential for Theoretical Advancement,” Cynthia Hardy, Vikram Bhakoo, and Steve Maguire describe the potential for discourse analysis for developing supply chain management theory (Hardy et al, 2020). They illustrate how, although a discourse does not exist as a distinct entity, researchers can construct a discourse from practices and texts associated with a topic.…”

Re‐imagining supply chain challenges through critical engaged research

“…The focus on power means that critical research emphasizes the political and ethical aspects of social organization, such as within the organization of supply chains (New, 1997). The theoretical lenses adopted by critical researchers are diverse but much critical research tends to be focussed on questioning the dominant ideologies and discourses through which power is legitimized and reproduced (Phillips & Hardy, 2002, Hardy, Bhakoo, & Maguire 2020). Of particular interest within critical research are those ideologies and discourses that are typically unquestioned within a field (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2009).…”

“…The aim of problematization is to “stimulate a rethink of one’s established ideas and facilitate imagination and a creative reframing of how one conceptualizes and reasons around the subject matter and/or uses a theoretical framework” (Alvesson and Sandberg, 2013: 50). In this journal, Matthews et al (2016) and Hardy, Bhakoo, and Maguire (2020) have called for the adoption of a problematization approach within SCM in order to identify those assumptions that hinder the development of novel theorization within the field.…”