Supply chain management research using case studies: a literature analysis

Abstract

The concept of supply chain management (SCM), first introduced in a conference paper in the early 1980s, has since been developed in numerous publications. The concept is also widely used in everyday business. Production and operations management research was quick to absorb this "new approach" too: competition in the global marketplace has intensified in every manufacturing sector and competitiveness depends not only on single companies (such as original equipment manufacturers), but is created throughout the entire supply chain. By applying SCM principles, firms aim to increase the effectiveness of the whole chain; improvements include shortening lead times, flexibility, significantly lower total inventory and better customer orientation. This paper analyses case study research results in 55 articles on SCM in refereed journals. Case study research aims to gain a deep understanding from the phenomenon under study using a limited number of observations (companies or supply chains). Our results indicate where and how supply chain research has been conducted. Interestingly, most articles lack a rigorous methodological discussion. Typically, a single case has been examined, and the cases represent only few manufacturing sub-sectors. Our analysis indicates that mostly global manufacturers feature in SCM research. Despite the argumentation in case study methodology literature, we were not able to find any support that a deductive research approach would lead to the use of quantitative methods, and that the use of inductive approach would lead to qualitative methods. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used almost equally, and analyses within and between cases were employed.