Collaborative Supply Chain

1
Collaborative Supply Chain Management The
Impact of Information Technologies
Chien-Liang Kuo
October 24, 2003
Note 1 Because it is still in progress,
conclusions of this presentation will be
different with that being reported in my Ph.D.
dissertation Note 2 Part of the materials are
not confirmed by interviewees please do not
distribute the information in this presentation
without approval
2
Introduction

• Background Motivations
• There exist implicit relations between
  information
• system (IS) research and supply chains (SCs)

Boundaries
Relations
Markets
IT
Source Konsynski (1993)
3
Introduction (Cont.)
A combination of a set of separated organizations
IT
SC
Interdependence between upstream and downstream
A simplified market structure
4
Introduction (Cont.)

• Research purpose
• Investigate how IT is planned and used to
  collaborate
• in a SC now and in the foreseeable future
• Research questions
• How do organizations change their boundaries,
• relations and network structures and how is
• IT served and managed in this manner?
• How are new supply chains (SCs) managed and
• how does IT affect SCM?
• Are there any generalizable trends and
  implications?

5
Literature Review

• Composed of 3 parts
• IT-enabled market structures
• Structure, strategy, IT and performance of a SC
• How is the perspective of strategic alignment
• applied?

6
Literature Review (Cont.)

• IT-enabled Market Structures
• Alternative predictions
• E-market hypothesis (EMH) Malone et al. (1987)
• E-hierarchy hypothesis Malone et al, (1987)
• Move-to-the-middle hypothesis Clemons et al.
  (1993)

7
Literature Review (Cont.)

• IT-enabled Market Structures
• Arguments
• Effects of IT / electronic interconnections
• - brokerage, communication, and integration
• Dimensions for distinguish the market structures
• - asset specificity vs. product complexity
• - ownership vs. coordination costs
• The separation of transaction risks and costs
• - the value of outsourcing
• Optimal number of partners / players in a market
• Effects of incomplete contracts / partnerships

8
Literature Review (Cont.)

• Structure, strategy, IT and performance of a SC
• SC and supply networks
• Adopt a wide SC definition by Harland et al.
  (2001)
• The complexity of business network
• Bargaining power effects
• - buyer dominance, interdependence,
• independence, seller dominance

9
Literature Review (Cont.)

• Structure, strategy, IT and performance of a SC
• IOSs in the SC
• First introduced by Barrett Konsynski (1982)
• IOS, in fact, is not a uni-dimensional construct
• Who benefits more from the IOS?
• IOS sharing versus information sharing
• IOS versus integration

10
Literature Review (Cont.)

• Structure, strategy, IT and performance of a SC
• Collaboration, IOSs and SCM
• Effects of IOSs adoption on business
  relationships
• Vary for both short-term and long-term cases
• Mukhopadhyay et al. (1995) proposes a causal
• model depicting the relation between IT,
  business / SC operations, and financial
  performance
• Similar claims are also made by Clark Lee
  (2000)
• B2B technologies help to widen the applicability
• of IOSs with respect to SC coordination.
• Cautions from the magic bullet perspective

11
Literature Review (Cont.)

• Structure, strategy, IT and performance of a SC
• Performance Measurement of a SC
• The importance of having appropriate
• performance metrics
• The performance metrics should fit with
• with the features of a SC
• Ways to measure SC performance

12
Literature Review (Cont.)

• How is the strategic alignment model applied?
• Proposed by Henderson Venkatraman (1993)
• The basic theme / perspective of this study
• Topics being covered include
• Analyzing the impacts of IT on organizations and
  
• business networks
• Examining the explanation power of the original
• strategic alignment models
• Raise the concerns that go beyond organization
• boundaries
• Other relevant approaches for alignment

13
Literature Review (Cont.)
Source Henderson Venkatraman (1993)
14
Research Framework
Market structure
SC network
SCM Firm strategy
IT IOSs
SC Performance
15
Research Model
Company A
Company B
C D E F
Business domain
linking within a company
IS domain
Linking across companies
Source Ribbers Smits (2001) Kuo Smits (2003)
16
Research Method

• Research methods being taken Case study
• Why uses case study?
• This topic is not yet thoroughly investigated by
  a
• single study in the past
• It requires rich and longitudinal data for
  capturing
• the pattern of how SC members interact and
• evolve through the use of IT
• Typical quantitative research methods are hard
  to
• gather how paired players perceive

17
Research Method (Cont.)

• How to select appropriate cases?
• Different from the paradigm of statistics
  sampling
• A case should as least include two paired
  players,
• namely upstream and downstream
• Data sources
• Interview with managers or CEO of firms
• Secondary data over the web
• Internal documents
• Financial reports for firms

18
Research Method (Cont.)

• Strategies for case selection

19
Q A
Comments or suggestions are very welcomed
Remark Complete slides or reference list is
available on request