EDI: Journal of Supply Management presents it's first Emerging Discourse Incubator
This week Journal of Supply Chain Management is delighted to showcase it's first Emerging discourse incubator.
The topic for the first EDI is research where the focal actor in a supply network is not a for-profit firm. The goal is to incubate a discourse where organizations such as NGOs, regulators, and the like are viewed as managers of their own supply networks, rather than as non-traditional members of other firms’ networks. While these networks may contain for-profit firms, the focus is on managing them from the perspective of organizations whose main motivation is not profit maximization (Carter, et al., 2015; Pagell & Wu, 2009).
With the exception of humanitarian logistics, SCM research is almost always based on a for-profit firm as the focal actor in the network, typically with the explicit aim of increasing its profits. This is a major oversight, since actors such as NGOs also manage supply chains, thus, perspectives other than maximizing one actor’s profits may be more relevant (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014). For example, Rodríguez et al., (2016) describe how NGOs use traditional supply chain management practices to alleviate poverty. NGOs and the like are expected to develop unique practices, due to their motivation and resources (Rodriguez, et al., 2016). Research needs to explore this, in order to both improve management of these actors’ networks and enable for-profit firms to better achieve their sustainability goals. Thus, the goal of this EDI is to expand our knowledge so that the SCM field is of value to all organisations involved in managing a supply network.
Professor Mark Pagell one of JSCM's Editors in Chief gives an overview and introduction to this Emerging Discourse Incubator while the papers included in this EDI are linked below.
Delivering Transformational change:Aligning Supply Chain and Stakeholders in Non-Governmental Organisations: Jury Gualndris & Robert Klassen