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The objective of this paper is to further the understanding of netnography as a research method for supply chain academics. Netnography is a method for gathering and gaining insight from industry-specific online communities. We prescribe that viewing netnography through the lens of the supply chain will permit researchers to explore, discover, understand, describe or report concepts or phenomena that have previously been studied via survey research or quantitative modeling.

To introduce netnography to supply chain research, we propose a framework to guide how netnography can be adopted and used. Definitions and directions are provided, highlighting some of the practices within netnographic research.

Netnography provides the researcher with another avenue to pursue answers to research questions, either alone or in conjunction with the dominant methods of survey research and quantitative modeling. It provides another tool in the researchers’ toolbox to engage practitioners in the field.

The development of netnography as a research method is associated with Robert Kozinets. He developed the method to study online communities in consumer behavior. We justify why this method can be applied to supply chain research, how to collect data and provide research examples of its use. This technique has room to grow as a supply chain research method.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how to implement mixed methods research in supply chain management.

A review of past journal analyses on research methods used in supply chain management‐related disciplines is conducted to demonstrate the low incidence of mixed methods research in supply chain management. Drawing from literature on multiple and mixed methods research, the paper provides guidelines for designing and reporting such studies.

Knowledge development in logistics and supply chain management relies primarily on single‐method quantitative research designs, while mixed methods approaches are rarely used. Thus, there is a significant opportunity to advance the discipline through the rigorous application of mixed methods research.

Supply chain management phenomena are complex and dynamic. Thus, the application of mixed methods research would serve the advancement of the discipline as these approaches provide richer understanding and more robust explanations of such phenomena.

If supply chain research is to keep up with the dynamic business environment, research methods must be applied with the capability to fully explain supply chain phenomena. The application of a single‐method research approach is not always adequate for this task.

This paper is the first to draw on research from various disciplines to investigate the use of mixed methods in logistics and supply chain management research. It examines its prevalence in the discipline, provides examples of its application from the supply chain management literature, prescribes how to implement mixed methods research, and describes the benefits and limitations of such designs.

Content analysis is a methodology that has been used in many academic disciplines as a means to extract quantitative measures from textual information. The purpose of this paper is to document the use of content analysis in the supply chain literature. The authors also discuss opportunities for future research.

The authors conduct a literature review of 13 leading supply chain journals to assess the state of the content analysis-based literature and identify opportunities for future research. Additionally, the authors provide a general schema for and illustration of the use of content analysis.

The findings suggest that content analysis for quantitative studies and hypothesis testing purposes has rarely been used in the supply chain discipline. The research also suggests that in order to fully realize the potential of content analysis, future content analysis research should conduct more hypothesis testing, employ diverse data sets, utilize state-of-the-art content analysis software programs, and leverage multi-method research designs.

The current research synthesizes the use of content analysis methods in the supply chain domain and promotes the need to capitalize on the advantages offered by this research methodology. The paper also presents several topics for future research that can benefit from the content analysis method.

The objective of this paper is to investigate systematically the discipline of supply chain management (SCM) within the context of sustainability. The two concepts are increasingly aligned, and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) represents an evolving field where they explicitly interact. Given their complex and holistic nature, breaking down the literature to understand its structures, processes, connections and limitations can provide an objective view of the status of research in these highly important fields, identifying key areas for future research/theory development.

A systematic review of current SCM literature is carried out, specifically in relation to the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability.

SSCM and the integration of sustainability into supply chains is a significant but evolving field evidenced by a current bias in the literature towards theory development and highly qualitative research methods. The environmental dimension is significantly better represented in the literature through specific processes at all stages of the supply chain. The social dimension is recognised, but receives less emphasis than expected given SCM's focus on interaction, relationships and communication. These two dimensions are treated separately in the literature with limited insight on how to integrate them and current SCM and sustainability research provides limited practical outputs.

The review focuses on environmental and social sustainability within supply chains without explicit consideration of the economic dimension.

The review highlights the key themes and issues for supply chain managers faced with implementing sustainability. It also illustrates a number of areas for future research, along with the need for researchers to develop more practical tools for implementing SSCM.

Indicates the extent to which sustainability is integrated within SCM and where the research emphasis currently lies. The environmental dimension is significantly more defined and developed in the literature. SCM literature emphasises the importance of long‐term supplier relationships, but this “people‐focused” approach does not appear to translate into socially responsible supply chains. It suggests that the more process‐driven nature of environmental sustainability makes it easier to put into supply chain practice. There is also limited research or evidence on how the two dimensions can be integrated despite recognition of their inter‐relationship.

Development of theory remains an essential step in the evolution of supply chain management as an integrative business discipline. Supply chain research often involves phenomena possessing complex behavioral dimensions at both the individual and organizational levels. Such complexity can require the utilization of holistic and inductive approaches in order to more fully understand the behaviors associated with the phenomena. This paper aims to provide a step‐by‐step guide intended to increase researchers' understanding of the use of grounded theory (GT) methodology in supply chain contexts.

The paper argues for GT as an appropriate method for studying emerging supply chain phenomena using an inductive, holistic approach.

GT is positioned in a holistic framework of research methodologies. Next a step‐by‐step explanation of the grounded theory process is offered, illustrated by examples from the authors' own research.

This paper links the complex “system of systems” nature characteristic of supply chains to the need for a holistic research approach such as grounded theory. It also provides a guide for researchers, reviewers, and editors to judge sound GT. Moreover, from a practical perspective, the in‐vivo nature of GT provides recognizable solutions to managerial problems.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse a methodology for studying the practice of logistics and supply chain management (SCM), namely the mystery methodology.

Many SCM and logistics researchers share methodological presuppositions concerning the “reality status” that are usually unspoken and deviating from presuppositions of the methodology here investigated. By proposing an alternative methodology, the paper stimulates further ideas that will advance the discussion of research methodologies in SCM.

The methodology facilitates exploration and elaboration of anomalies in theory and in practice. The mystery construction process facilitates SCM research in three ways: as a consistent methodology for practice research; for learning and responsiveness to new insights; and with the problem of bounding the case.

The methodology is delimited by its constructivist/interpretivist assumptions in order to provide accurate representations. It makes possible richer insights into, and the meaning of, SCM phenomena in which social action can be understood in an intelligible way.

Construction of mysteries opens up for learning during the research process by refining the research question and the literature base. Under the assumption that the researcher is knowledgeable about the literature in a variety of areas, the methodology implies rigour and relevance in SCM research.

This paper is grounded in contemporary supply chain integration problems and develops the discipline further with its alternative approach in which practice of action is in focus.

Organisations need to have a profound level of understanding of their supply chains if they are to successfully find sources of competitive advantage within them. Current methodologies for analysing supply chains, such as the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model, are not sufficiently comprehensive, particularly when it comes to understanding the complex social and political factors that are an integral part of any supply chain. This paper aims to use a case study of a supply chain from the public utility industry sector in Australia to develop an integrated framework for analysing supply chains within a multi‐disciplinary and multi‐method research paradigm.

The case study supply chain was mapped with the SCOR modelling tool which provided insights into the physical characteristics and value points along the supply chain.

Analysis of the SCOR model map also helped identify 31 key “actors” in the chain, who were then interviewed in depth. These interviews provided insights into the social and political factors which determined the supply chain performance.

The outcome of this study is a framework that provides two primary benefits. First, it shows the relationships between relevant variables from different disciplines (i.e. corporate governance, infrastructure, operations knowledge, social climate and innovation), and how they impact on performance. Second, the framework provides a way forward in synthesising multi‐disciplinary and multi‐method research into a coherent whole.

Introduction: This study investigates the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on the sustainability of the supply chain. It investigates how modern supply networks and procedures were equipped for such a catastrophe, and the pandemic’s effects on the environment, highlighting the significance of studying resilience and sustainability concurrently.

Purpose: The study acknowledges the importance of environmental sustainability for businesses and the need to examine trends in organisational, customer, policy, and distribution networks.

Need for the Study: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted supply chains. This study aims to provide insight into the long-term repercussions of the crisis and the importance of incorporating environmental considerations.

Methodology: The study uses a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply networks and environmental sustainability indices. Data from industry reports, governmental publications, polls, and qualitative research techniques have been gathered.

Findings: The results of this study advance our understanding of how to preserve supply chains in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights the need for enhanced resilience and sustainability measures, expose the flaws and weaknesses of contemporary supply networks, and uncover developing patterns and tactics in customer behaviour, policy frameworks, distribution networks, and supply chain management.

Practical Implications: The COVID-19 pandemic has provided businesses, decision makers, and researchers with guidance on handling its potential and challenges – increasing the supply chain’s resistance to future interruptions, incorporating environmentally friendly practises, developing policies to support resilient and sustainable supply chains, adapting to changing consumer tastes, increasing effectiveness, and minimising the environmental impact of distribution networks.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the sharing of sustainability and social responsibility-centric values along the export-oriented organic dry food supply chain (ODFSC) using an institutional lens.

To understand the perceptions of the shared ethos of the organic food industry along the entire supply chain, the research employed a multi-tier qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews and observations. The study focussed on supply chain actors including farmers and traders from the Indian sub-continent, and traders and retailers based in Europe and North America.

Isomorphism, brought about by the vertical channelling of consumer preferences and values resulted in a higher degree of responsibility within the industry. The responsibility-centric ethos of the supply chain affected the responsibility-orientation of the supply chain actors and their operations.

The research focused mainly on the ODFSC actors in Kerala, a state in India, and this focus of the research could be a significant limitation in generalizing the findings to the rest of the emerging economy context because of cultural and educational differences.

Literature lacks in the studies of sharing of responsibility-centric values in supply chains through an institutional lens and this investigation contributes to the scant literature on isomorphism, shared values and responsible supply chain management.

Adopting additive manufacturing (AM) on a large-scale requires an adoption in company value chains. This may happen through product innovation and require interorganizational cooperation, but the value-adding potential of cooperation and application recognition is still poorly understood. This study aims to investigate the progress of AM adoption in innovation projects featuring AM application recognition and interorganizational cooperation in the value chain.

A multiple-case study was implemented in successful metallic AM adoption examples to increase the understanding of AM adoption in value chains. Primary data were collected through interviews and documents in three AM projects, and the data were analyzed qualitatively.

All three AM projects showed evidence of successful AM value chain adoption. Identifying the right application and the added value of AM within it were crucial starting points for finding new value chains. Interorganizational collaboration facilitated both value-based designs and experimentation with new supply chains. Thereby, the focal manufacturing company did not need to invest in AM machines. The key activities of the new value chain actors are mapped in the process of AM adoption.

The cases are set in a business-to-business context, which narrows the transferability of the results. As a theoretical contribution, this paper introduces the concept of AM value chain adoption. The value-adding potential of AM is identified, and the required value-adding activities in collaborative innovation are reported. As a practical implication, the study reveals how companies can learn of AM and adopt AM value chains without investing in AM machines. They can instead leverage relationships with other companies that have the AM knowledge and infrastructure.

This paper introduces AM value chain adoption as a novel, highly interactive phase in the industry-wide adoption of metallic AM. AM value chain adoption is characterized in multi-company collaboration settings, which complements the single-company view dominant in previous research. Theory elaboration is offered through merging technology adoption with external integration from the information processing view, emphasizing the necessity of interorganizational cooperation in AM value chain adoption. Companies can benefit each other during AM adoption, starting with identifying the value-creating opportunities and applications for AM.