Theoretical Debates on Strategic Supply Management

Building on the critical review of the supply chain management literature provided in Chapter 2, this chapter focuses on the evolving debates on supply management’s strategic role. Business strategy and manufacturing strategy pre-dated supply strategy and provided the basis for the two main streams of thinking examined here – supply strategy as ‘design/content’ and as ‘process’. Supply strategy is positioned as a somewhat ‘fuzzy’ area, mainly because of difficulties in bounding the area and the diffuse nature of strategic decision-making in networks. Attempts to ‘fit’ supply strategy with business strategy are problematic as they present an ‘apples and pears’ dilemma, in that business strategy is largely a firm-based domain, while supply strategy is relationship, chain, network or sector based. To resolve this, this chapter distinguishes two perspectives – supply strategy as a plan and supply strategy as a process, both of which are analogous to approaches to business strategy. This resolution allows a development of the supply strategy concept to involve the adoption of a configuration intrinsically coherent and fitted to the competitive priorities of the (extended) enterprise, requiring involvement of purchasing and other boundary spanning units in the decision-making process and development of a strategic plan, with sufficient flexibility to adjust to emergent contingencies. The current debate in supply strategy is less about design rationality and the function, and more about adapting to emergent conditions.