A critical review of empirical
research methodology in supply
chain management
Gunjan Soni and Rambabu Kodali
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the extant literature on empirical research in supply
chain management (SCM). It provides a comprehensive assessment of research methodology of
619 empirical research articles on SCM published between 1994 and 2009. In total, 21 journals were
short listed out of 115 journals for the purpose.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviewed a set of 619 empirical research articles in
SCM research with respect to empirical research methodology and its related aspects, using the
empirical research approach given by Flynn et al. The paper demonstrates the present status of
empirical research in SCM.
Findings – It is concluded from the analysis of the results that empirical research in SCM is
increasing at a faster rate than ever, with theory building more in focus than verification. On the other
hand, SCM researchers seems to have left several aspects of empirical research unexplored, such as
action research, significance of triangulation of data and longitudinal data collection. Other significant
findings revealed that SCM research is very scanty in developing countries, the majority of research
papers are written at firm level only and several industrial sectors such as construction, retail, and
agriculture are still unexamined.
Originality/value – There have been a couple of literature reviews in SCM but none of them focused
exclusively on empirical research methodology in SCM. Also the sample size with respect to the
number of papers (619 papers), as well as number of journals (21 journals), is larger than ever
considered for literature review in SCM. The papers spans a longer time period of 16 years (1994-2009).
Keywords Supply chain management, Research work, Empirical research, Research design,
Literature review
Paper type Literature review
1. Introduction
There have been significant attempts in the extant literature to understand
developments in supply chain management (SCM). The concept of SCM was first
introduced by Forrester (1961), who suggested that success of industrial business is
dependent on the “interactions between flows of information, materials, manpower and
capital equipment”. But the term “supply chain” did not become popular until early
1980s (Oliver and Webber, 1982). Only handful of articles mentioned the phrase
“supply chain” in the period 1985-1997 (Giunipero et al., 2008). The acceleration in
development of SCM paradigm took place only in late 1990s, with majority of theoretical
and empirical investigation starting in 1997 (Lambert et al., 1998; Giunipero et al., 2008).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1741-038X.htm
The authors would like to thank undergraduate students of BITS-Pilani, Pilani campus; and
Mr Amit Rajnarayan and Mr Abhijeet Datta for helping in administration of various aspects of
the review process.
Review
of research
in SCM
753
Received 3 May 2010
Revised 5 April 2011,
15 September 2011,
15 October 2011
Accepted 9 November 2011
Journal of Manufacturing Technology
Management
Vol. 23 No. 6, 2012
pp. 753-779
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1741-038X
DOI 10.1108/17410381211253326