Title: Towards a use of network analysis: quantifying the complexity of Supply Chain Networks

Authors: Daria Battini, Alessandro Persona, Stefano Allesina

Addresses: Department of Management and Engineering, University of Padova, Stradella San Nicola, 3 36100 Vicenza, Italy. ' Department of Management and Engineering, University of Padova, Stradella San Nicola, 3 36100 Vicenza, Italy. ' Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to quantify the complexity and organisation level of an industrial network working towards the development of a |Supply Chain Network Analysis| (SCNA). By measuring flows of goods and interaction costs between different sectors of activity within the supply chain borders, a network of flows is built and successively investigated by network analysis, a tool widely applied in ecosystem ecology. The result of this study supports the idea that an ecosystem approach can provide an interesting conceptual perspective in which the modern supply network can be framed, and that network analysis can handle these issues in practice.

Keywords: supply chain management; SCM; supply networks; industrial systems; network analysis; supply chain complexity; supply chain performance; material flows; interaction flows; average mutual information; AMI; network indices; graph theory; customer relationship management; network flows; ecosystem approach.

DOI: 10.1504/IJECRM.2007.014427

International Journal of Electronic Customer Relationship Management, 2007 Vol.1 No.1, pp.75 - 90

Published online: 05 Jul 2007 *

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