Marketing and supply chain management: a collaborative research agenda

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to establish a two‐part research agenda for marketing in supply chain management (SCM) through the application of an interdisciplinary model, using marketing, operations, logistics/purchasing, and information technology as the nodes for a model.Design/methodology/approachAfter generating a list of the highly ranked and relevant journals in each of the four disciplines, an exhaustive search was conducted of the literature published from January 1999 through December 2002, using the keywords supply chain and supply chain management. The keywords were searched for in any field (i.e. title or abstract). The authors also conducted a Delphi study of experts to identify relevant journals in each field. The resulting articles were sorted by topic and mapped to one of the other remaining three functional disciplines. This yielded six intersections between functions, three of which are examined in this manuscript as dyads with marketing. Thus, it was possible to identify current overlap in topics researched and potential areas of overlap, representing opportunities for collaboration between the disciplines.FindingsFor simplicity and focus, this paper presents only marketing SCM research. The mapping process yielded: topics that are being researched from the marketing perspective but not in the IT, logistics, or operations perspectives; topics that are being researched from the IT, logistics, or operations perspectives but not from the marketing perspective; and similar (or identical) topics that are being researched from both the marketing and the IT perspective, the marketing and logistics perspective, and the marketing and operations perspective. Based on these mappings, an interdisciplinary research agenda for marketing SCM researchers was derived.Research limitations/implicationsUsing an automated extraction of articles from published databases by using keywords may present inconsistencies. The authors have attempted to minimize the inconsistencies by documenting the process and cross‐validating the work in each function with at least two of the research team independently extracting, categorizing, and mapping the articles. Another limitation that arose was in terms of language. Since the research team consisted of researchers from different functional areas, it had to address semantics issues as the study was conducted. The authors also limited the initial endeavor to mapping only as a dyad and only using dichotomous variables. Future work on this model may include an ordinal ranking system or multi‐function mapping.Practical implicationsThis work presents a useful model for determining an interdisciplinary research agenda in marketing. Since business and supply chain integration are increasingly important, concepts in business, academic research should take an interdisciplinary approach, providing the prospects for richer and more applicable results. Interdisciplinary research can also help to combat the silos that people tend to work in, creating new knowledge.Originality/valueThis paper provides the example of a model for determining an interdisciplinary research agenda. Supply chain management has been co‐opted by almost every business discipline. There is much to be learned by working together to bring new ideas and knowledge to bear on the issues related to managing the supply chain.