Uta Jüttner

Supply chain risk management: Understanding the business requirements from a practitioner perspective

– This paper seeks to understand business requirements for supply chain risk management (SCRM) from a practitioner perspective., – Based on the findings from an exploratory quantitative survey and qualitative focus group discussions with supply chain managers, some issues of SCRM are derived and structured along the three conceptual levels of “philosophy”, “principles” and “processes”., – The survey showed that 44 per cent of all eight responding companies expect the vulnerability of their supply chains to increase in the next five years. However, the concept of SCRM is still in its infancy., – The paper contributes to our knowledge on SCRM by presenting the business requirements from a practitioner perspective and by deriving a structure for an integrated approach to SCRM which can guide further research.

Supply chain resilience in the global financial crisis: an empirical study

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to conceptualise supply chain resilience (SCRES) and to identify and explore empirically its relationship with the related concepts of supply chain vulnerability (SCV) and supply chain risk management (SCRM).Design/methodology/approach – From a review of the literature the conceptual domain of SCRES is defined and the proposed relationships with SCRM and SCV are derived. Data from a longitudinal case study with three supply chains are presented to explore the relationship between the concepts in the context of the global financial crisis.Findings – The empirical data provide support for a positive impact of supply chain risk (SCR) effect and knowledge management on SCRES and from SCRES on SCV. SCR effect and knowledge management seem to enhance the SCRES by improving the flexibility, visibility, velocity and collaboration capabilities of the supply chain. Thereby, they decrease the SCV in a disruptive risk event. The positive effects manifest themselves in upstream...

A strategic framework for integrating marketing and supply chain strategies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review and structure the literature on the integration between marketing and supply chain management (SCM) and to contribute to the body of knowledge by developing a framework for integrating marketing and supply chain strategies.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws its insights and conclusions from a review of the literature in both fields, marketing and SCM, followed by an interaction research approach which helped to refine and validate the theory‐derived framework from the perspective of practitioners.Findings – In the existing body of literature on marketing and SCM integration, three perspectives can be differentiated: the interfunctional perspective, the process perspective and the perspective of integrated business concepts. The proposed framework builds on these perspectives and moves them onto a strategic level. Integrating marketing and supply chain strategies involves the management of four integration levels: corporate integration; strategic ...

Supply Chain Relationships: Making the Transition to Closer Integration

The development of closer relationships in supply chains is investigated from a change management perspective. Based on theory and previous research, five critical elements of the interaction process between parties in the supply chain are identified. Specifically, these elements relate to the interface between organisation-internal processes and the inter-company relationship transformation. A case study focusing on the relationship transformation process of a retailer and 40 of its suppliers is used to explore these elements empirically. Drawing upon the insights gained, a framework is developed encompassing the most important areas for advancing the state-of-practice and for guiding further research.

Strategy and Relationships: Defining the Interface in Supply Chain Contexts

The emergence of the network organization is a phenomenon that has given rise to much comment and analysis. These virtual organizations are characterized by a confederation of specialist skills or capabilities provided by the network members. It is argued that in turbulent environments such collaborative arrangements can provide a more effective means of satisfying customer needs at a profit than the single firm undertaking multiple value‐creating activities. The implications of the network organization for relationship management are considerable. In particular, the challenges to logistics management are profound. The analysis of relationships is clearly linked to competitive strategy in a network context, yet the exploration of the interface between relationships, strategy and supply chain management is far from complete. Therefore, this paper seeks to conceptualize the relationship strategy interface in supply chain contexts. A framework is proposed and its basic principles illustrated through an analysis of the development of relationship strategies between leading market players in the UK brewing industry.

A network approach to strategy

Abstract The task of environmental analysis has a key role to play in formulating strategy and the strategic management process. How the process should be organised, however, depends largely on the theoretical perspective applied to both the nature of the business environment, and a corresponding understanding of strategic action within that environment. The objective of this paper is to develop a strategic analysis framework which incorporates the theoretical propositions in the markets-as-network model. The Swiss energy industry is used to provide the context to illustrate the frameworks application. Finally we examine what it contributes to moving the markets-as-network model towards the explanatory level of inquiry.

Customer service experiences

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and apply the sequential incident laddering technique as a novel approach for measuring customer service experiences. The proposed approach aims to correspond with the concepts theoretical foundation in the extant literature.Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies the sequential incident laddering technique to measure customer service experiences. The technique integrates two well‐established methods in service marketing: sequential incident and laddering techniques. The data collected from 41 customers in a hotel and restaurant experience context illustrate that the method corresponds with the key themes of the proposed experience concept and experience formation process.Findings – Applying the proposed technique reveals first, the customers cognitive and emotional responses to company stimuli. Second, the salient customer cognitions and emotions across several episodes of the service interaction process are identified. Third, the personal value...

Helping managers to identify the key strategic issues

Abstract This article proposes an analytical procedure which management can use in assessing the long-term driving forces in complex business environments. A set of models for strategic decision-making is developed and a cross-impact matrix is used to evaluate how the main factors in the business environment interact with each other. Further analysis identifies the critical factors. These are ranked according to managements ability to influence them. The factors which will have a dominant impact on the industry are selected to establish priorities for action. The energy industry is used to illustrate the application of the approach.

The role of marketing in creating a supply chain orientation within the firm

The purpose of this paper is to identify, conceptualise and operationalise the role of marketing in creating a supply chain orientation (SCO) and the development of a supply chain management (SCM) philosophy. A survey design was employed and data from 116 supply chain managers from a cross-industry sample was collected in order to test four propositions regarding the contribution of marketing to the firms’ SCO. The findings provide empirical support for marketings contribution to, firstly, the structural, secondly, the strategic and, thirdly, the structure–strategy fit dimensions of the SCO concept as proposed in the literature. They provide managers with insights on how organisational units at different hierarchical levels within organisations need to coordinate actions for a marketing-supported SCO. The paper takes the firm and not the supply chain as the unit of analysis. Further research designs should extend our perspective and test marketings role to the proposed SCO–SCM link across firms by using supply chains as the unit of analysis.

Investigating corporate strategies for supplier management in retailing companies- a framework for analysis

Though a process perspective has been adopted in the emerging conceptualization of strategic marketing, little attention has been given to the development of relational exchanges from a strategy process perspective. In this paper we propose a framework for the investigation of corporate strategies for the management of suppliers in retailing companies. It focuses on retailer initiatives to transform arms length relationships with suppliers into closer relational exchanges. By considering the interorganizational relationships at a subunit basis, it also integrates the role of relationships into the process. Using a case research approach, the authors derive research propositions for further investigation within the framework proposed.