An analysis of supply chain management research by topic

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to review logistics and supply chain management topics where theories have been applied to better understand the supply chain management (SCM) discipline identity. The purpose is threefold: to identify research topics in logistics and supply chain management where one or more theories have been examined; provide commentary on the theories that have been applied to the various logistics and SCM research topics; and to provide reference material and direction for future research. Design/methodology/approach This structured literature review (SLR) examines research papers in logistics and SCM from 1991 to 2015 published in eight leading academic journals. Papers in the data set are grouped by topic and further analyzed in terms of research method, purpose, year and journal. Findings This research categorizes papers by the topics that were studied to understand important insights about how these topics have been examined by researchers. Within each topic area, theories that researchers have used to investigate the topics are identified. This method exposes insights such as: how topics have evolved over time, which topics have lost prominence, which topics may be particularly promising for future research and how topics are treated in the literature. Originality/value Despite multiple calls for clarification regarding how theory has been used in logistics and SCM, the logistics and SCM disciplines continue to grow without adequate research on how theory has been used to examine SCM topics. This SLR therefore provides a broad compilation of logistics and SCM research that uses named theories and that is organized by SCM topic to better understand the SCM discipline.

Editorial Design and Management of Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chains

“…Discussions of integrating sustainability with resilience are at a relatively early stage of development (see, for example, [10], [17], [23], [25], [31], [42], and [43]. The issue of supply chain resilience alone has seen extremely limited investigation and has only recently seen publications in some of the leading supply chain journals [42].…”

“…Discussions of integrating sustainability with resilience are at a relatively early stage of development (see, for example, [10], [17], [23], [25], [31], [42], and [43]. The issue of supply chain resilience alone has seen extremely limited investigation and has only recently seen publications in some of the leading supply chain journals [42]. Supply chain resilience studies are lagging more popular research topics such as relationships and collaboration, purchasing and supply management, strategy, supply chain integration, and customer service strategy [42], although at a broader level, many of these topics can include resilience.…”

Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining in Global Supply Chains: A Research Agenda

“…The suggested research agenda on FOA and CB has two major methodological implications for SCM research. Swanson, Goel, Francisco and Stock (2018), reviewing SCM research by subtopic, suggest that sustainability topics tend to be dominated by “analytical modeling and experimental design.” Research on FOA and CB generally requires a more field‐based qualitative investigation. Thus, it may call for a shift from the generally deductive methodologies to more inductive ones—a shift that is also taking place in other disciplines that study global supply chains.…”

Extracting scientific trends by mining topics from Call for Papers

“…A document analysis tool using topic hierarchy and context-based document analysis tool is proposed by Chen et al (2016), which allows the users to explore any multi-topic document based on fine-grained and hierarchical topics automatically mined from it. The supply chain management has been applied on a structured literature review from 1991 to 2015, published in eight academic journals, to understand important insights (Swanson et al, 2018).…”