Elaborating a dynamic systems theory to understand collaborative inventory successes and failures
The International Journal of Logistics Management
ISSN: 0957-4093
Article publication date: 16 August 2010
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a holistic paradigmatic lens through which the supply chain collaboration phenomena – including collaborative inventory management – can be understood and explained.
Design/methodology/approach
As theory‐building research, the paper explores the environmental conditions and managerial processes that promote or hinder supply chain collaboration from a variety of theoretical lenses including contingency theory, the resource‐based view of the firm, the relational view of the firm, force field analysis, constituency based theory, social dilemma theory, and resource‐advantage theory.
Findings
To demonstrate how an integrated theoretical framework can help us understand the dynamics of supply chain collaboration, the paper uses the framework to explicate the evolution and state of collaborative inventory management.
Practical implications
The framework can accurately depict and explain highly publicized collaborative failures and successes. It is also possible to draw from the model's core propositions to design prescriptive remedies for the challenges managers encounter as they seek to build collaborative inventory management capabilities.
Originality/value
Supply chain collaboration is a complex and dynamic phenomenon; however, existing management theories only describe locally observed phenomenon. As a result, it is a struggle to both explain existing “collaborative” behavior and provide prescriptions for leveraging collaboration to achieve differential supply chain performance. This holistic, integrative model delineates the path to collaborative success by exploring the connections among motivations, goals, mechanisms, resistors, and learning loops.
Keywords
Citation
Fawcett, S.E., Waller, M.A. and Fawcett, A.M. (2010), "Elaborating a dynamic systems theory to understand collaborative inventory successes and failures", The International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 510-537. https://doi.org/10.1108/09574091011089835
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited