Supply Chain Management in Emerging Economies and Developing Countries
Stefan Seuring, Marcus Brandenburg, Kristina Petljak, Sadaat Ali Yawar, Daniel Jugend
Emerging economies and developing countries offer large potential for supply chain management research (Jia et al., 2018; Sodhi and Tang, 2014) and especially issues concerning sustainability (see, e.g., Mani et al., 2018; Monzer et al., 2018; Silvestre, 2015). Previous research on operations and supply chains in emerging markets has mostly focused on topics within the context of base of the pyramid settings which somewhat restricts the potential application of (sustainable) supply chain management (Khalid and Seuring, 2019; Tate et al., 2019; Fawcett and Waller, 2015).
A key question warranting attention is whether supply chains and supply chain management are context-specific and if so, how and to what extent do they differ in saturated markets operating in developed countries to that of the markets in emerging and developing economies. A number of arguments can be made in relation to both types of markets using grand theories such as transaction economics or resource-based view. However, supply chain management theory needs to further advance in order to comprehensively reflect all aspects of operations and supply chains in base-of-pyramid context (Zomorrodi et al., 2019).
Empirical studies reveal that managing diverse logics of formal and informal structures is a key aspect in base-of-pyramid markets (Rosca et al., 2019), which in turn strengthens the need for context-specific analyses. Empirical research is ridden with challenges such as strict adherence to the top-down hierarchical structures of the participants and their skepticism towards the importance of their operations and supply chains for the researchers from the global North. Such challenges impede the access to the empirical field and respective data. Recent research faced such challenges when conducting interviews of farmers and employees from advanced stages of operations in various developing countries (e.g. Brix-Asala and Seuring, 2019). It might in many cases lead to inconclusive results that are hard to explain (Khalid et al., 2020) and, thus, add little to the understanding of managing supply chains in emerging and developing countries. Therefore, these aspects merit further attention from researchers and practitioners.
Motivated by these observations and experiences, we call for papers on a wide range of logistics and supply chain management issues in emerging economies and developing countries. The call is not limited to certain theoretical or methodological approaches, but it should have a clear link to the topic of this call. Starting from established theories and concepts in settings of emerging economies and evaluating or developing them further might add to a better understanding of the supply chains in such settings. Suitable topics may include but are not limited to the following:
• Green, social and sustainable supply chain management in base-of-pyramid markets;
• Supplier development and buyer-supplier relationships in developing countries;
• Approaches to supply and demand network management in emerging economies;
• Impacts of digital technologies on managing supply chains in emerging markets;
• Enabling logistics management in environments with limited infrastructure;
• Supply chain management context to poor communities and base-of-pyramid;
• Micro-entrepreneurial production and operations in developing regions;
• Offshoring and reshoring operations from industrialized countries and its impact on emerging economies;
• Circular supply chain in emerging economies;
• Human resource and supply chain management in emerging economies;
• Food supply chains in developing regions;
• Impacts of COVID 19 on supply chains in emerging economies.
Theoretical contributions that propose conceptual frameworks or mathematical approaches that model the complex interplay of different constructs are welcome. Further, empirical studies, both qualitative and quantitative, that reveal new insight on relevant factors for the management of value chains, supply networks and demand markets in emerging economies and developing countries. We would even consider publishing results of certain explanations not holding as long as they are presented in a sound manner and respective theoretical grounding.
Keywords: Logistics, Production, Operations, Supply Chain Management, Base-of-Pyramid, Emerging Economies, Developing Countries
Important dates:
• Begin of submissions: November 1, 2020
• Deadline for submission: September 30, 2021
• Tentative publication of the special issue: October 1, 2022
Guest Editors:
Stefan Seuring
Chair of Supply Chain Management, Faculty of Business and Economics
University of Kassel
Kleine Rosenstr.
1-3 34117 Kassel
Germany
phone +49 561 804 7515
fax +49 561 804 7514
seuring@uni-kassel.de
www.uni-kassel.de/go/scm
Marcus Brandenburg
School of Business
Flensburg University of Applied Sciences
Kanzleistr. 91-93
24943 Flensburg
Germany
phone +49 461 805 1368
fax +49 461 805 1496
Marcus.brandenburg@hs-flensburg.de
https://hs-flensburg.de/hochschule/personen/brandenburg
Kristina Petljak
Department of Trade and International Business
Faculty of Economics & Business
University of Zagreb
Trg J. F. Kennedyja 6
10 000 Zagreb
Croatia
phone + 385 1 2383 376
fax + 385 1 233 5633
kpetljak@efzg.hr
www.efzg.unizg.hr/kpetljak
Sadaat Ali Yawar
Newcastle Business School
Northumbria University,
CCE
Newcastle upon Tyne, NNE1 8S
https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/our-staff/y/sadaat-yawar/
Daniel Jugend
Production Engineering Department
Sao Paulo State University (UNESP)
Av. Eng. Luiz Edmundo Carrijo Coube, 14-01
17033-360 Bauru, SP
Brazil
phone +55 1431036122
fax +55 1431036122
daniel.jugend@unesp.br
https://www.feb.unesp.br/#!/pos-graduacao/ppgep/corpo-docente/
References:
Brix-Asala, C., Seuring, S. (2019): Bridging institutional voids via supplier development in base of the pyramid supply chains, Production Planning & Control, 31 (11-12), 903-919.
Fawcett, S. E., & Waller, M. A. (2015). Designing the Supply Chain for Success at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Journal of Business Logistics, 36(3), 233-239.
Jabbour, C. J. C., & de Sousa Jabbour, A. B. L. (2016). Green human resource management and green supply chain management: Linking two emerging agendas. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, 1824-1833.
Jia, F., Zuluaga-Cardona, L., Bailey, A., & Rueda, X. (2018). Sustainable supply chain management in developing countries: An analysis of the literature. Journal of Cleaner Production, 189, 263-278.
Khalid, R. U., & Seuring, S. (2019). Analyzing base-of-the-pyramid research from a (sustainable) supply chain perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 155(3), 663-686.
Khalid, R.U., Seuring, S., Wagner, R. (2020): Evaluating supply chain constructs in the base of the pyramid environment, Journal of Cleaner Production, 270, 122415.
Mani, V., Gunasekaran, A., & Delgado, C. (2018). Enhancing supply chain performance through supplier social sustainability: An emerging economy perspective. International Journal of Production Economics, 195, 259-272.
Monzer, D. A., Rebs, T., Khalid, R. U., & Brandenburg, M. (2018). Sustainable supply chain management at the base of pyramid: a literature review. In: Social and Environmental Dimensions of Organizations and Supply Chains, Springer, 235-257.
Rosca, E., Möllering, G., Rijal, A., & Bendul, J. C. (2019). Supply chain inclusion in base of the pyramid markets. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 49(5), 575-598.
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