What the 2024 Nobel Prize Means for SCM Research

This year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Daron Acemoğlu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson for their research on how political institutions affect long-term economic prosperity. Their work shows how colonial-era institutions continue to influence whether countries develop inclusive systems that foster growth or extractive systems that benefit elites and perpetuate inequality. I thought about what our discipline could learn from these findings. Future research in our discipline could benefit from examining how institutional frameworks in different countries affect global supply chains. For example, SCM research could explore the role of outsourcing to regions with extractive institutions in reinforcing exploitative labor practices, the extent to which outsourcing can be interpreted as neocolonialism, or the role of inclusive practices in supply chains (e.g., fair wages, equitable treatment, and respect for local governance) for development. And I am sure there is much more to learn from this work.