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Keywords Supply-chain management, Marketing, Management theory, Logistics
Abstract Supply chain management (SCM) emerged in the early 1980s as a result of the rapidly changing and challenging business environments in many industries. SCM is a consequence of the increased necessity for holistic considerations in, between and across companies' business activities and resources in and between marketing channels, in order to improve the overall performance towards the ultimate consumer in the marketplace. SCM's generic theoretical foundations are derived from time-, functional-, and relationship-dependencies in, between and across companies' business activities in marketing channels. There are major similarities and minor differences in the theoretical boundaries between SCM and Alderson's interpretation of a functionalist theory of marketing. The author argues that the theoretical origin of SCM is derived from, and underpinned by, a part of this functionalist theory of marketing. Furthermore, there is a need for a generic re-definition and expansion of the theoretical boundaries of SCM towards the incorporation of horizontal dependencies between marketing channels in the marketplace.
Introduction
The significance of SCM has been of substantial importance since the early 1990s, although the approach, or rather the concept, was introduced back in the early 1980s (Oliver and Webber, 1992). SCM is an influential ingredient in today's literature and thinking in the field of logistics. It may also be an influential ingredient in the field of marketing theory, since there is a close interrelationship between marketing activities and logistics activities in marketing channels (Mentzer et al., 2001; Chandra and Kumar, 2000; Levy and Grewal, 2000; Lings, 2000). Bartels (1976) argues that marketing and distribution are not separate. Min and Mentzer (2000) develop an integrative conceptual framework that acknowledges the role of marketing in SCM and argue that the concepts of the marketing concept, market orientation, relationship marketing, and SCM are not separate.
The link between marketing and logistics has been acknowledged for almost a century (e.g. Shaw, 1912; Weld, 1916). Traditionally, Shaw (1912) is considered the founder of the functional school of marketing and Weld (1916) is the founder of the institutional school of marketing (Sheth et al., 1988). These schools recognize the close relationship between marketing and logistics. Converse (1954, p. 114) states that:
Physical handling and distribution in the marketing of goods create time...