Citation
Blackhurst, J., Ekwall, D. and Martens, B.J. (2015), "Special issue on supply chain security", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 45 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPDLM-04-2015-0104
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Special issue on supply chain security
Article Type: Guest editorial From: International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Volume 45, Issue 7
In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on security in supply chains both in practice and in academic research. As supply chains become more global, adopting supply chain security measures has become necessary for many organizations. Moreover, the security risks inherent in global supply chains are also a concern for governments (Whipple et al., 2009). Security risks span the entire supply chain and manifest themselves in a variety of predictable and unpredictable ways. Supply chain security issues can be costly and complex and can damage firm reputations and even entire product categories. Effective supply chain security also helps firms to better manage risks. Some firms also recognize that security practices can be a source of competitive advantage and use supply chain security effectiveness as a marketing tactic (Williams et al., 2009). This has led to a growing appreciation for the importance of understanding threats to supply chain security and how to either prevent them from occurring or manage them effectively if and when they do happen.
The aim of this special issue is to promote new insights into supply chain security. In total, 19 initial submissions were received from authors from 15 countries. After a rigorous review process where each paper had at least two reviewers and multiple rounds of revisions, three interesting and informative papers are presented in this special issue.
In the first paper, “The impact of supply chain security practices on security operational performance among logistics service providers in an emerging economy: security culture as moderator,” Zailani and colleagues draw on a sample of Malaysian service providers to investigate the impact of supply chain security practices on supply chain security performance. Security culture is also considered as a moderator. The study findings indicate that four practices: how service providers manage their cargo, facility, human resources and information management functions impact supply chain security performance. The insights from this paper can help supply chain managers to better understand how to set up and implement supply chain security practices and then manage and measure supply chain security performance. Insights into developing a culture of supply chain security are also provided.
The next paper, “Developing supply chain security design of logistics service providers: an analytical network process-quality function deployment approach” authored by Lam and Dai combines analytical network process (ANP) with quality function deployment (QFD) to understand, prioritize and translate customer wants and needs for supply chain security into actions and metrics for logistics service providers. The approach is unique as it exploits QFD to understand customer needs and translate those needs into actions using the voice of the customer. This approach is augmented with ANP to allow the user to determine customer preferences for criteria and to then rank and quantify those criteria. ANP also has the additional benefit of allowing for interdependencies among customer requirements.
The final paper, “Exploring company ability to meet supply chain security validation criteria” authored by Chang and Wu investigates the validation process for authorized economic operator (AEO) status. AEO is a standard issued by EU customs administration and is used to validate the security of international supply chains and to confirm compliance with customs procedures. AEO status is similar to the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program in the USA. The study measures the most difficult (and easiest) items for firms to accomplish in the AEO validation process.
We hope that this Special issue on supply chain security highlights this rich research area and piques the interest of researcher to further explore this relevant and timely topic.
Dr Jennifer Blackhurst, Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
Dr Daniel Ekwall, School of Engineering, University of Borås, Borås, Sweden, and
Dr Bobby J. Martens, Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
References
Whipple, J.M., Voss, M.D. and Closs, D.J. (2009), “Supply chain security practices in the food industry”, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 39 No. 7, pp. 574-594
Williams, Z., Lueg, J.E., Taylor, R.D. and Cook, R.L. (2009), “Why all the changes?”, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 39 No. 7, pp. 595-618