Adding Relevance to Rigor in Research: The JBL Practitioner Panel

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jbl.12147
• Date: 01 December 2016
• Published date: 01 December 2016
• Author: Walter Zinn,Thomas J. Goldsby

Editorial

Adding Relevance to Rigor in Research: The JBL Practitioner Panel

Thomas J. Goldsby and Walter Zinn

The Ohio State University

The logistics and supply chain fields find themselves at an interesting point in time, where disruptive technologies and innovative business

models reframe our notions of relevance. Business professionals face unprecedented challenges for which academic research can enlighten

and lead practice. We call for the research community to take up this challenge, and we feature a new JBL Practitioner Panel that can help to

illuminate the most pressing issues calling for research focus.

Keywords: logistics; supply chain management; research; rigor; relevance

We have reported on the many ways that the fields of logistics and

supply chain management are being radically transformed, espe-

cially by new technologies and by changes in customer demand

for service (Goldsby and Zinn 2016). Evidence of this transforma-

tion is ubiquitous, either in conversations with industry profes-

sionals or as published in the nonacademic press. A few examples

illustrate the point.

One new technology to possibly transform supply chains is

driverless vehicles. Their potential to reduce transportation

expense by cutting labor cost is clear. But, there is also the

potential that their impact will be significant enough to affect the

balance among modes and to influence the design of networks,

because transportation cost would be lowered with respect to

warehousing cost. Similarly, 3D printing could eliminate—or at

least greatly reduce—the need to keep inventory of “C”parts.

Why pay to carry inventory of slow-moving parts if one can be

printed locally on-demand? Moreover, the massive investment in

new processes, information systems, and service capabilities

required by omni-channel implementation is also transforming

supply chains in a fundamental way. Finally, the pressure for

very short delivery times and the cost of last-mile delivery forced

upon the market by Amazon and others is certainly a concern to

retailers and their suppliers.

In short, we are in the midst of a supply chain revolution dri-

ven by technology and strict customer service requirements. The

examples above, and others, are pressing issues to practitioners

and should be pressing to academics as well. While not entirely

absent from JBL, these issues are currently under researched. A

substantial majority of manuscript submissions to JBL—and

likely to other top academic publications—still show a preference

for researching topics that have been successful in the past and

for which there is an extensive body of literature. Let us refer to

these as “safe topics”with marginal contribution potential to the

state of the art. In much of the current research being published,

we build on previous work, which is fine, but limiting in terms of

impacting next-generation logistics and supply chain management

practice. Perhaps we should also focus more on the concerns of

practice and lead by offering insights. Applied research was

always, and still is, one of the fundamental pillars of JBL research.

We are currently undergoing an effort to steer more research

in our field toward issues of current concern to logistics and sup-

ply chain management. As part of that effort, we are assembling

a virtual panel of practitioners who we will periodically consult

about issues of interest to our field. The panel, numbering about

15 strong, will be composed of experts from a diversity of back-

grounds, including shippers, service providers, and both domestic

and international representatives.

Consultation with this panel of experts will follow a modified

Delphi process, where panelists answer individually to a question

posed to them. The answers will then be summarized by the Co-

Editors into a single text and sent back to panelists for a final

round of comments. A report is then composed and disseminated

to the research community in various forms. These reports will

serve as the basis for future editorials, calls for Special Topic

Forums, or presentations made by the Co-Editors at conferences

and universities.

Corresponding author:

Thomas J. Goldsby, Department of Marketing & Logistics, Fisher

College of Business, The Ohio State University, 2100 Neil Avenue,

Columbus, OH 43210, USA; E-mail: goldsby.2@osu.edu

Journal of Business Logistics, 2016, 37(4): 310–311 doi: 10.1111/jbl.12147

© Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals