The structural impact of supply chain management teams

Abstract

Purpose In today’s constantly evolving global business environment, multidivisional firms (MDFs) require an organizational structure for supply chain management (SCM) that facilitates the development of supply chain agility. This research aims to investigate what structural elements of an MDF’s SCM team contribute to supply chain agility. Design/methodology/approach A two-sample field study was conducted. Four MDFs with top-performing supply chains (Sample 1) were first studied to identify agility-supporting structural elements. Then, quantitative data from 35 MDFs with contrasting levels of supply chain agility (Sample 2) were collected to test the theoretical propositions advanced from Sample 1 findings. Findings The results reveal four structural elements that exert a positive impact on an MDF’s supply chain agility: hierarchical position of the divisional top supply chain executive, scope of divisional supply chain operations, hierarchical position of the top supply chain executive at the headquarters and scope of SCM coordination by the headquarters. Originality/value First, this study provides a comparatively comprehensive understanding of the SCM organization structure in MDFs. Second, this study is one of the first to provide empirically supported theoretical insights about the linkage between an MDF’s organizational structure for SCM and supply chain agility.