Supply Chain Management for Micro and Small Firms in Latin America

Abstract

The field of Supply Chain Management (SCM) has mainly focused on applications for large firms, where significant amount of theory has been developed in the last decades. Little attention has been received by micro and small enterprises (MSEs) that in Latin America represent approximately 99% of all businesses and are the key for the development of the economy, employment, and growth of the region. Due to MSEs' lack of productivity, only a fraction of them survive and thus contribute to Latin America's economic growth. In this chapter, we discuss the connection between MSEs' productivity growth and SCM. We present key takeaways from the literature and summarized different research approaches used to study this emerging field, specifically related to the impact of the size of the company, the use of surveys to gather data, and the importance of field interventions. We also present a large-scale project (i.e., MIT GeneSys) that focuses on improving survival of MSEs in developing countries and discuss some preliminary learnings gained via conducting shadowing/immersion of ∼250 MSEs from Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. We conclude the chapter by presenting some recommendations for the future research agenda for the emerging field of SCM for MSEs in Latin America.

Citation

Velázquez-Martínez, J.C. and Tayaksi, C. (2020), "Supply Chain Management for Micro and Small Firms in Latin America", Yoshizaki, H.T.Y., Mejía Argueta, C. and Mattos, M.G. (Ed.) Supply Chain Management and Logistics in Emerging Markets, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 197-214. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83909-331-920201009