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Identifying research gaps in supply chain innovation
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Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics (HICL) – 27
Published in: Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation in Supply Chain Management
Wolfgang Kersten, Thorsten Blecker and Christian M. Ringle (Eds.)
September 2019, epubli
CC-BY-SA 4.0
Identifying Research Gaps in Supply Chain
Innovation
Fatemeh Seidiaghilabadi1, Zahra Seidiaghilabadi1, Aida Miralmasi1
1 – Islamic Azad University
Purpose: In recent years, supply chain innovation (SCI) has become a central char-
acteristic of firms in creating dynamic competitive advantages. The present study
aims to examine the SCI literature in the last five years.
Findings: The study offers useful implications for researchers, managers, market-
ers, and other stakeholders involved in the SCI. The study also motivates the re-
searchers to conduct additional studies in the area of SCI. Furthermore, the results
of this study contribute to building new research agendas concerning SCI.
1 Introduction
A large amount of wealth and creating values occurs in the supply chain
(SC) and supply chain management (SCM). SCM has an indispensable role
in fostering organizational performance and improving supply chain inno-
vation (SCI). SCM is synonymous with combined logistics systems, focusing
upon reducing the storage of goods through the supply chain (Chong et al.,
2011).
The concept of supply chain(SC) refers to the procedures from the early raw
resources to final and completed product connecting across supplier-user
businesses, or as the roles inside and outside a corporation that allow the
value chain to produce goods and offer facilities to the user (Chitale &
Gupta, 2014; Cox, 1999).
cused activities (customer needs), and other related activities (e.g., devel-
oping technologies, creating new knowledge and technical skills) to aug-
ment joint profit (Bello et al., 2004; Jajja, Kannan, Brah, & Hassan, 2017;
Paulraj & Chen, 2004; Wong & Ngai, 2019). SCI is a change in processes, tech-
nology, and network, meaning that SCI improves competitive advantage
and organizational performance.
Hence, in this study we review and analyze the available literature, looking
for an answer to the question of "RQ: how to make the supply chain more
competitive?". Therefore, to reach the aim of the study, in the next section,
an overview of the SCI literature will be given. Then we explain research
methodology and present result of preliminary analyses. Content analysis
by MAXQDA 2018 was applied. Finally, we reflect findings, and highlight
some possible future research perspectives.
300 Fatemeh Seidiaghilabadi et al.
2 Literature Review
SCI has been received many scholars' attention (Abdelkafi & Pero, 2018; Arl-
bjørn et al.,2011; Gao et al., 2017; Iddris, 2016; Munksgaard et al.,2014; Sabri
et al.,2018; Tan et al., 2015; Yoon et al., 2016; Zimmermann et al., 2016) . In
the 1980s, organizations focused on a range of diverse systems to achieve
sustainable competitive advantages. However, since competitors mim-
icked these competitive advantages, they did not have the necessary sta-
bility. Indeed, attempts to optimize organizational processes without tak-
ing into account of external companies, especially suppliers and custom-
ers, seemed ineffective, and meanwhile, organizations in cooperation with
each other had better performance. It was here that the supply chain con-
cept was born. (Stavrulaki & Davis, 2010).
Porter (1990) and Drucker (1985) pointed out that innovation is a character-
istic feature of organizational sustainability, and organizations with high
levels of knowledge in technology are required to pay more attention to in-
novation strategies. Innovation is indeed the process of transforming op-
portunities into new ideas, as well as the application of such new ideas to
foster specific improvements (West & Farr, 1989).
Dubey, Singh, and Tiwari (2012), found that innovation in supply chain pro-
cesses (e.g., sales management and the number of orders) had a significant
effect on the SC performance. Thus, Suppliers and manufacturers required
to transform their business through innovation in SC to gain success among
competitive industries (Wong & Ngai, 2019). According to Shapiro & Wagner
(2009), modeling technologies allow managers to manage data more effec-
tively in their companies, thus creating rationality in a supply chain net-
work.
The supply chains are responsible for including any fast transfer and distri-
bution of technological innovations (Sabri et al., 2018). Cai et al.,(2009),
found that SC-affiliated companies, which produce innovative products for
the general market, might utilize a supply chain model to meet their daily
innovative needs in the supply chain.
Reviewing the supply chain, Wong & Ngai (2019), found that the literature
has tended to focus mainly on the concept of supply chain structures, ig-
noring the development of measures for operationalizing the concept.
Therefore, by conducting in-depth analysis and analyzing the content of
the studies, research gaps in SCI can be identified. As noted earlier, the pre-
sent study examines the SCI literature in the last five years (2014-2019). Ta-
ble 1 summarizes the articles, publication year, and field of study.
Identifying Research Gaps in Supply Chain Innovation 303
Proposes an inte-
grated approach to
Artsiomchyk
help companies man-
& Zhivitskaya, IFAC-PapersOnLine
age innovation and de-
2015
sign sustainable sup-
ply chains.
Examine innovation
Nasr, Kilgour, European Journal of distribution versus
& Noori, 2015 Operational Research protection between SC
partners.
Relationship between
Rajabian different theoretical
Journal of Food
Tabesh, Batt, constructs and how
Products Marketing
& Butler, 2016 they affect SCI and per-
formance.
Comparison of exter-
Stentoft, Supply Chain Forum:
nal and internal prod-
Mikkelsen, & An International
ucts from SCI' perspec-
Jensen, 2016 Journal
tive
Identifying Research Gaps in Supply Chain Innovation 305
Connection between
Stentoft &
Innovation and Supply SCI and organizational
Rajkumar,
Chain Management and market perfor-
2018
mance.
The International
Ted et SCI and sustainable
Journal of Logistics
al.,2018 transport
Management
Ardito,
Messeni Exploring the influence
Petruzzelli, Journal of Business of SC' knowledge
Dezi, & Research sourcing actions on in-
Castellano novation initiatives.
(2018)
Systematically review-
Wong & Ngai Industrial Marketing
ing the construct of
(2019) Management
SCI.
Development of the
Hsin Chang,
conceptual framework
Hong Wong, & Information &
for understanding fac-
Sheng Chiu, Management
tors of business sys-
(2019)
tems leveraging (BSL)
3 Research Methodology
In the first phase, this study collected articles related to SCI. The authors
focused on articles published from January 2014 to February 2019, search-
ing for keywords such as ‘supply chain innovation’ ‘innovation in the supply
chain’ The full text of each article was carefully analyzed in order to remove
articles unrelated to SCI.
In the next phase, articles were selected and collected from accredited da-
tabases such as Science Direct, Taylor & Francis, Emerald, and Springer.
The reason was that these databases publish relevant and appropriate ar-
ticles related to SCI. The study did not include prefaces, editing notes, book
reviews, general reports, BA, MA, and Ph.D. theses, and textbooks. Although
we cannot guarantee that this research is comprehensive, we believe that
the selected journals and articles contain a holistic structure of research
done on SCI. Finally, extensive literature analysis generated 25 articles re-
lated to SCI.
Since the primary purpose of this study was to investigate and identify
Identifying research gaps in supply chain innovation, our search resulted in
25 articles related to the concept. In addition, this study employed the con-
tent analysis, several sections of the literature were analyzed (e.g., Intro-
duction, literature reviews, methodology, and research limitations). Such
classification highlights the growth of research on supply chain innovation.
Identifying Research Gaps in Supply Chain Innovation 311
Database Count %
type
Article 21 84%
Proceedings 2 8%
Review 2 8%
Table 2 shows the structure of SCI literature database ranging from 2014-
2019. As shown in table 2, the majority of publications are articles (84%).
nally, initial codes, emerging categories and related dimensions are deter-
mined in the open coding stage. In the axial coding, the main categories are
identified and elaborated.
After specifying the categories, the axial coding step begins. The axis coding
is the process of connecting categories at the level of features and dimen-
sions. It is called "axial" because the researcher attempts to make a con-
nection among categories. As Corbin & Strauss (2008) observed, categories
that have a logical connection with each other are all subsumed under the
central construct. i.e., supply chain innovation.
Table 3: Extracted Codes from literature
Product characteristics
Supply chain inno-
vation Aggregation of ideas,
Knowledge, and skills
SCI' driving forces
Internal coordination
Workforce training
Focus on knowledge
Interdependence
among companies
Product timing
Intra-organizational
processes
Innovation in logistics
Innovation in business
processes
Innovation in network
structure
Technological innova-
tion
Formulating strategic
goals (general to partic-
ular)
Reduced cost
Competitive advantage
Risk management
Operational perfor-
mance of innovation in
supply chain
Creating values
Delivering value
Gaining values
On the other hand, the rapid growth of the industry, firm size, technological
intensity, and equity are the moderators of SCI. Firm size plays a leading
role in SCI. SCI' functions differently in large sized companies as it gener-
ates portfolios and improves business performance. Technological inten-
sity is effective in improving and adjusting supply chain innovation. Alt-
hough the application of advanced technologies increases costs in the ini-
tial stages, it ultimately leads to improved performance and efficiency.
5 Discussion
SCI because dominant quantitative methods might fail to meet the expec-
tations of individuals and organizations. Therefore, the present study con-
tributes to supply chain and SCI, and provides opportunities for the ad-
vancement of SCI through the employment of content analysis methods.
Although content analysis methods have been used in SCM literature, SCI
studies have not deployed a content analysis methodology.
Additionally, among the 25 articles in this study, only two systematic review
articles dealt with SCI (Gao et al., 2017; Wong & Ngai, 2019). This indicates
a lack of qualitative studies employing content analysis methods. Thus, our
study demonstrates that research gaps in supply chain innovation can be
more effectively studied through qualitative content analysis methods.
The present study has three limitations. First, we focused on those articles
published in the English language, ignoring other articles in non-English
Identifying Research Gaps in Supply Chain Innovation 323
languages. This bias might result in a lack of useful information in the area
of supply chain innovation. Second, we restricted our study to four data-
bases. Local-scientific journals and theses can offer a rich picture of the
supply chain. Third, we did not analyze the articles separately based on the
research setting and industry under investigation. Addressing these limita-
tions, further research can provide rich insights into supply chain innova-
tion
Acknowledgements
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