INTRODUCTION TO THE THOUGHT LEADER FORUM

• Author: CRAIG R. CARTER
• Published date: 01 January 2011
• Date: 01 January 2011
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-493X.2010.03208.x

EDITORIAL

INTRODUCTION TO THE THOUGHT LEADER FORUM

CRAIG R. CARTER

Co-Editor-In-Chief

The essays in this forum originated from a panel dis-

cussion, held during ISM’s 20th Annual North American

Research Symposium in March 2010. The purpose of that

panel was to focus on the cross fertilization of ideas,

concepts and theories from disciplines that span and/or

are closely aligned with the field of supply chain man-

agement. We invited thought leaders from the fields of

strategic management (Michael Hitt), marketing (Robert

Lusch) and social networks (Joseph Galaskiewicz) to

participate in the panel discussion, and to address the

following three questions:

1. What theories from your field (strategic management/

marketing/social networks) are particularly relevant

for interdisciplinary supply chain management re-

search? More specifically, what new/emerging theo-

ries are particularly germane? Are there any existing

theories from yourfield that have been overlooked by

supply chain management scholars?

2. What supply chain management problems and ques-

tions are especially fruitful for study from the (strategic

management/marketing/social network) perspective?

3. What are the state-of-the-art empirical methodologies

and research design in your field?

These three luminaries agreed to encapsulate their

thoughts and discussion from the panel into the three

invited essays that compose this thought leader forum.

The essays that follow call for supplychain management

researchers to consider:

new paradigms,

new theories,

fresh perspectives of theories which have already been

employed in our field,

new research problems and questions, and

innovative data sources and empirical methodologies,

which can be used to develop propositions, test hy-

potheses and answer the above questions. I challenge

readers to consider the concepts and suggestions that

follow, and to then implement these ideas in their own

research as we continue to advance supply chain man-

agement research.

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