Article Title

The Collaborative Supply Chain

Authors       : Togar M. Simatupang and Ramaswami Sridharan

Journal        : The International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 15-30, 2002.

Abstract      :

Collaboration in a supply chain helps different members of the chain match demand with supply more effectively than they could alone. Although collaboration promises mutual benefits to the members, those benefits are rarely realised due to differences in interest among them. This paper argues that managerial inertia manifested in local perspective and opportunistic behaviour of chain members contribute to mismatch between supply and demand. Identifying the managerial inertia of various chain members that prevents them from gaining mutual benefits, and studying the underlying reasons for self-interested behaviour are very important research issues. A collaborative supply chain is proposed to simultaneously consider information sharing incentive alignment in consonant with appropriate performance measures and integrated policies as initiatives to mitigate the detrimental effects of managerial inertia on chain performance.

Keywords: supply chain management, collaboration, incentive alignment, information sharing, and asymmetric information.