2017 CSCMP Academic Research Symposium
I spent the last couple of days in Atlanta, where the 2017 CSCMP Academic Research Symposium (ARS) took place. I truly enjoyed all the interesting discussions. Among the highlights of the conference were the best paper presentations. This year’s Bernard J. LaLonde Best Paper Award (best paper published in the Journal of Business Logistics) goes to Murfield and her co-authors, Supplier Role Conflict: An Investigation of Its Relational Implications and Impact on Supplier Accommodation. The two runner-ups are Fawcett et al., Sweating the Assets: Asset Leanness and Financial Performance in the Motor Carrier Industry, and Zaremba et al., Strategic and Operational Determinants of Relationship Outcomes With New Venture Suppliers. These articles are certainly good candidates for your reading lists. In Atlanta we also announced the CfP for the 2018 CSCMP European Research Seminar (ERS), which is ARS’s European counterpart. It will be held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands next year. As the new ERS Co-Chair I welcome your submissions.
Fisher’s Supply Chain–Product Match/Mismatch Framework
I have been using Fisher’s (1997) supply chain–product match/mismatch framework (What Is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product?) in my teaching for years! Herein, the author argues that functional products require a physically efficient supply chain strategy, whereas innovative products require a market-responsive supply chain strategy. Fisher’s framework finds empirical support: Wagner et al. (2012) demonstrate that “the higher the supply chain fit, the higher the Return on Assets (ROA) of the firm”. Interestingly, a majority of the firms from their sample achieve a negative misfit, i.e. they target high responsiveness for their supply chain although their products are functional. Extensions of the framework exist, for example by Lee (2002), who adds a “supply” dimension, and more recently Gligor (2017), who argues that “benefits generated by perfect supply chain fit might be offset by the resources deployed to achieve that fit”. Research presented by Perez-Franco et al. (2016) helps to “capture, evaluate and re-formulate the supply chain strategy of a business unit”.
Fisher, M.L. (1997). What Is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product? Harvard Business Review, 75 (2), 105-116.
World Bank Study: Global Shortage of Logistics Skills (Guest Post by Kai Hoberg, KLU)
My guest post today comes from Kai Hoberg from the Kühne Logistics University (KLU) in Hamburg. Together with his co-authors, Alan McKinnon and Christoph Flöthmann, he has just published a new report, which is commissioned by the World Bank and analyzes the shortage of qualified logistics personnel.
Qualified logistics personnel is in short supply worldwide. This is the conclusion of our new report, titled Logistics Competencies, Skills, and Training: A Global Overview. While there are too few well-trained executives in the logistics sector in emerging countries, there is an acute shortage of qualified staff at the operational level in developed economies. We argue that this skills shortage is likely to worsen in the absence of new initiatives. There are two aspects that deserve further elaboration: First, physically, there are too few people available to cover vacant position in the logistics sector. Second, the currently employed workforce is partially lacking the skills demanded for their job. Based on an empirical analysis, we derive multiple recommendations for relevant stakeholders, i.e. companies, governmental institutions and logistics associations. The proposed measures include innovative training methods like logistics-related business games that can be employed without requiring high upfront investments or long implementation lead-times.
Kai Hoberg is Associate Professor of Supply Chain & Operations Strategy at KLU. In his academic career he was a visiting scholar at Cornell University, Israel Institute of Technology, University of Oxford and National University of Singapore. He is on the scientific advisory board of the German Logistics Association (BVL) and has been working with companies like Procter & Gamble, McKinsey & Company, Jungheinrich and Zalando on supply chain innovation projects.
