Title: Supply chain management and logistics complexity: a contingency approach

Authors: Peter Wanke; Henrique Correa

Addresses: COPPEAD Graduate Business School, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rua Paschoal Lemme, 355, Cidade Universitária, Rio de Janeiro, CEP 21.949-900, Brazil ' Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College, 1000, Holt Avenue – 2722, Winter Park, Florida 32789-4499, USA

Abstract: By empirically exploring the correlation between logistics complexity-related contextual conditions and supply chain management (SCM) objectives and decision areas/practices, this study aims to investigate whether, and the means by which, supply chain managers of large manufacturing companies adopt a contingency approach in their supply chain decisions. This study involves a comprehensive literature review followed by an analysis of survey data using cluster analysis, factor analysis and binary logistic regression. Statistically significant relationships were found between logistics complexity-related contextual conditions and supply chain objectives and decision areas. Although some prescriptive context-dependent models for supply chain management can be found in the literature, this research tries to fill a gap by empirically demonstrating that large manufacturing companies actually tend to make their supply chain choices contingent upon their logistics complexity-related context.

Keywords: Brazil; contingency approach; logistics complexity; supply chain management; SCM; manufacturing industry; supply chain decisions; decision making; literature review; supply chain objectives.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLEG.2012.051414

International Journal of Logistics Economics and Globalisation, 2012 Vol.4 No.4, pp.239 - 271

Published online: 11 Aug 2014 *

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