Case Study Research in Supply Chains — An Outline and Three Examples

Abstract

Supply chain management implies that companies cooperate in delivering products and services to customers. As a consequence, related empirical research should collect data from more than one stage of the supply chain. This has rarely been the case so far, as often only one company is approached, implicitly carrying the problem that statements on the supply chain cannot be validated by a view from other participants. Therefore, it is important to select appropriate supply chains and companies for empirical research on supply chain management. One research method that can be applied in such a setting is case study research. This method allows a flexible data collection, which is appropriate for analyzing supply chains and managerial issues therein. While research in supply chain management imposes further difficulties, it also carries the chance to validate collected data by triangulating information obtained at different stages of the supply chain. This paper will outline some basic issues on case study research, and also portray three examples of how such research has been conducted.