Today’s article is actually not an article on it’s own, but an editorial to a special 2009 issue of the Journal of Operations Management, dedicated to supply chain risk. Although An introduction to road vulnerability: what has been done, is done and should be done by Ram Narasimhan, and Srinivas Talluri aims mostly at presenting the articles in this special issue, they also look to the side and draw linkages to related research. As such, the editorial serves both as a literature review and and a pointer for further study.
Quality Content
The special issue of Journal of Operations Management contains five articles, two of which have already been reviewed on this blog. I can only assume that “less is more” meaning “less articles, more quality”, since I would expect a special issue to contain more than just four articles.
Braunscheidel, M., & Suresh, N. (2009). The organizational antecedents of a firm’s supply chain agility for risk mitigation and response Journal of Operations Management, 27 (2), 119-140
Knemeyer, A., Zinn, W., & Eroglu, C. (2009). Proactive planning for catastrophic events in supply chains Journal of Operations Management, 27 (2), 141-153
Neiger, D. , Rotaru, K., & Churilov, L. (2009) Supply chain risk identification with value-focused process engineering. Journal of Operations Management, 27 (2), 154-168
DOI: 10.1016/j.jom.2007.11.003Jiang, B., Baker, R.C., & Frazier, G.V. (2009) An analysis of job dissatisfaction and turnover to reduce global supply chain risk: Evidence from China. Journal of Operations Management, 27 (2), 159-184
DOI: 10.1016/j.jom.2007.09.002
The last two articles will be reviewed on this blog in due time.
Why is supply chain risk important?
The authors give the following reasons for making a special issue on supply chain risk and relate the rise of the importance supply chain risk to the following trends:
increase in strategic outsourcing by firms
globalization of markets
increasing reliance on suppliers for specialized capabilities and innovation
reliance on supply networks for competitive advantage
emergence of information technologies that make it possible to control and coordinate extended supply chains
These are the same reason found in much of today’s supply chain risk literature, except for the last one, perhaps. I haven’t seen that one before. It’s true, though, the lack of control and coordination is definitely a supply chain risk, and thus, the ability to control and coordinate is an important issue to consider in supply chain (risk) management.
The authors give the following aims for the special issue on supply chain risk:
to highlight supply chain risk management as an important area of investigation in operations and supply chain management.
to present a compendium of articles that break new ground in addressing methodological and theoretical issues dealing with supply chain risk management.
While the first aim has been satisfied, even though there are only four articles, I’m not so sure about the second aim. Yes, they do break new ground, as I have said in my reviews, but a “compendium“? Well, perhaps it is; the editorial most definitely is, which is probably why I have seen it cited by many researchers.
Better than me?
Like I said above, the editorial presents (and positively reviews) the above articles, and in other terms, can also be seen as an “executive summary” or “compendium” of its own. I doubt that I would be able to do a better job, not even in my lecture on supply chain risk.
Conclusion
Although this is an editorial, and not a stand-alone article per se, it is well-worth reading, particularly if one doesn’t have the time to, or like me, doesn’t fully understand the actual articles.
Reference
Narasimhan, R., & Talluri, S. (2009). Perspectives on risk management in supply chains Journal of Operations Management, 27 (2), 114-118 DOI: 10.1016/j.jom.2009.02.001
Author links
- msu.edu: Srinivas Talluri
- msu.edu: Ram Narasimham
Related
- husdal.com: Proactive planning for catastrophic events in supply chains
- husdal.com: Supply chain agility for risk mitigation and response
- husdal.com: Supply Chain Risk 2009
