Everything Old is New Again: The Age of Consumer‐Centric Supply Chain Management

• Author: Xiang Wan,Thomas J. Goldsby,Anníbal Sodero,Kate Ren,A. Michael Knemeyer,Keely L. Croxton,Steven DeNunzio,Vincent E. Castillo,Terry L. Esper,Walter Zinn
• Date: 01 December 2020
• Published date: 01 December 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jbl.12267

Everything Old is New Again: The Age of Consumer-Centric

Supply Chain Management

Terry L. Esper

1

, Vincent E. Castillo

1

, Kate Ren

1

, Ann



ıbal Sodero

1

, Xiang Wan

1

,

Keely L. Croxton

1

, A. Michael Knemeyer

1

, Steven DeNunzio

1

, Walter Zinn

1

, and

Thomas J. Goldsby

2

1

The Ohio State University

2

University of Tennessee

Over the past several decades, the disciplines of marketing and logistics grew apart from their common historical origins as marketing

became more behavioral and more quantitative, while logistics leaned toward a more operational orientation. We argue in this editorial

that social and technological changes in the past 20 years, coupled with the effects of the COVID pandemic, have created the conditions for the

two disciplines to reconnect. We propose that scholars and practitioners consider a consumer-centric approach to supply chain management.

Such an approach advocates that the entire supply chain should focus on consumer experience rather than mere customer service and that expe-

riences might include issues such as last-mile delivery, supply chain visibility, and consumer values. We also introduce the papers appearing in

this issue of the journal.

Keywords: marketing; logistics; consumer experience; consumer-centric; last-mile; visibility; consumer values

INTRODUCTION

Like all disciplines, logistics continues to evolve, requiring that

we regularly scan our environment for changes and trends in

order to seize emerging opportunities for insightful research and

enhanced practice. One approach to move forward, as Confucius

suggests, is to “Study the past if you would divine the future.”

We propose, to both fellow academics and those in industry, that

now is the time to refocus on the historical relationship between

marketing and logistics. The history of logistics demonstrates a

shift over the last 50 years, from being closely aligned with mar-

keting to now being more aligned with the operations discipline.

We assert that the gradual technological and social changes of

the last 20 years, along with the punctuated changes brought on

by the COVID-19 pandemic, place a spotlight on the value cre-

ation possibilities associated with the integration of marketing

and logistics. Hence, we argue that now is the ideal time for

members of our discipline to reconnect with marketing, and we

specif‌ically call for reconnecting through a consumer-centric

approach toward supply chain management. Let’s take a look

back to recognize how we might move forward.

From the Past...

The years following the Civil War marked a watershed moment

for the histories of marketing and logistics in the United States.

Industrial production expanded quickly and, for the f‌irst time,

sellers needed to seek out buyers instead of the other way

around, as was typical of the prewar years (Smykay, Bowersox

and Mossman 1962). This created a need to promote products,

instead of merely physically bringing them to market (Jones

1953). Thus, during those years, marketing and logistics were

integrated as one, with early perspectives on the study of market-

ing suggesting the areas of distribution and logistics as vital to

an integrated ability to effectively “market.”Terms like “trade

and distribution”and “demand creation and physical supply”

were used to describe activities designed to generate demand and

to bring products to market (Shaw 1912).

As a result of this close connection between marketing and

logistics, the study of the two disciplines was integrated in the

same department at many universities. Similarly, many of the early

marketing courses and textbooks combined marketing and logistics

topics. In fact, in the post-WWII 1950s, an average of 25% of mar-

keting textbook pages were dedicated to logistics-related topics

such as channels of distribution and physical distribution (Stock

and Whitney 1989). This integration also led to the cross-fertiliza-

tion of logistics and marketing research, highlighted by the

research streams dedicated to distribution channels, customer ser-

vice, and logistics outsourcing relationships, to name a few.

However, during the 1960s and 70s, the disciplines of marketing

and logistics began to slowly diverge (Bartels 1976). Marketing

became more specialized into the areas of consumer behavior,

quantitative marketing, and marketing strategy, with a decreased

focus on distribution. At the same time, logistics saw the develop-

ment of the “total cost”or “systems”approach, which focused on

customers through the narrower lens of logistics service variables,

such as delivery time, inventory availability, and the lowest total

costs to provide logistics service (LaLonde and Dawson 1969).

This focus on integrating logistics cost areas to minimize total cost

would become a driving tenet of logistics scholarship over the fol-

lowing decades. And, as a result, the focus of logistics moved

away from heavily integrated connections to marketing and more

toward emphasizing operational eff‌iciency, not only within indi-

vidual f‌irms, but across multiple f‌irms, which encapsulated the

emerging concept of the “supply chain.”

Corresponding author:

Terry L. Esper, Department of Marketing and Logistics, The Ohio

State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; E-mail: esper.9@o-

su.edu

Journal of Business Logistics, 2020, 41(4): 286–293 doi: 10.1111/jbl.12267

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