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Abstract
Purpose - To examine the state of logistics and supply chain management (SCM) research in the last five years from the standpoint of existing methodologies. The state of research is assessed by examining the research design, number of hypothesis testing, research methods, data analysis techniques, data sources, level of analysis and country of authors.
Design/methodology/approach - The review of SCM and logistics research is based on 442 papers published from 1999 to 2003 in the following three academic journals Journal of Business Logistics, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, and Supply Chain Management: An International Journal.
Findings - Major findings show that there is an increase in the direct observation methods like case studies. In general, the research is more interpretive in nature. Survey method is still holding the highest position. More advanced techniques are being used for data analysis in empirical studies and there has been an increase in hypothesis testing. The trend in survey research is moving from exploratory to model building and testing.
Research limitations/implications - The gaps identified in the review were: there are very few inter disciplinary studies; innovative application of secondary data is lacking, (c) research at inter organisation level is scanty; and the current state of research has failed to integrate all the firms in the value chain and treat them as a single entity.
Originality/value - The methodological review will provide increased understanding of the current state of research in the discipline.
Keywords Supply chain management, Research, Literature
Paper type Literature review
1. Introduction
Logistics research is influenced by economic and behavioral approaches. The economic approaches focus its attention on cost minimization and profit maximization while behavioral approaches focuses on psychological and sociological aspects (Mentzer and Kahn, 1995). Owing to the influence of two entirely different thoughts many researchers have shown their concern towards research methods in supply chain management (SCM) and logistics, either by giving suggestion on quantitative side (positivist paradigm or analytical school) or on the qualitative side (interpretive paradigm or behavioral school). The primary purposes of our paper are to examine the status of logistics and SCM academic research in the last five years, to compare current research trends with past research directions in terms of methodologies applied, and to...