Supply Chain Management in Emerging Markets: Critical Research Issues

• Author: Xiande Zhao,Xiaowen Huang,Barbara Flynn
• Published date: 01 January 2015
• Date: 01 January 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jscm.12069

EDITORIAL

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IN EMERGING MARKETS:

CRITICAL RESEARCH ISSUES

BARBARA FLYNN

Indiana University

XIAOWEN HUANG

Miami University

XIANDE ZHAO

China-Europe International Business School

In today’s global economy, it would be difficult to

find a supply chain that does not cut across national

boundaries at some point. Global supply chains offer

many significant advantages to multinational custom-

ers, including access to diverse sources of knowledge

and innovation, access to new customers and materi-

als, and cost advantages due to less expensive labor,

and bolstered by government incentives. Some of the

most attractive locations for suppliers are in emerging

markets, which are characterized by companies and

governments that are eager to attract global customers.

However, these emerging markets benefits may come

at a price.

This special topic forum (STF) focuses on critical

research issues surrounding supply chain management

in emerging markets. Recent news events related to

quality in global supply chains have called heightened

attention to the need for more research on global sup-

ply chains, particularly in emerging economies. Such

economies are often characterized by a blending of

new and traditional approaches, as they transition.

This may render typical approaches for managing sup-

ply chains ineffective, often to the confusion of multi-

national customers.

For example, in “Implementing Supply Chain Tech-

nologies in Emerging Markets: An Institutional Theory

Perspective,” Saldanha, Mello, Knemeyer, and Vijayar-

aghavan describe what they refer to as the juxtaposi-

tion of traditional and modern supply chains in

India. The traditional supply chains are driven by the

logic of social welfare, providing jobs to employees

with low levels of skills. This logic is common in

emerging markets, supported by their governments,

which ban modernization initiatives that are taken for

granted in Western countries, such as automated toll

booths and self-service gas, to provide jobs. Although

such initiatives are common in Communist and for-

mer Communist countries, whose governments are

strongly focused on supporting individual workers,

they are also seen in other emerging markets, such as

India and Brazil.

Juxtaposed with traditional supply chains are mod-

ern supply chains, which are driven by market logic

and dominated by the desire for increased competi-

tiveness, attraction of multinational customers, and

support for domestic industry. Countries such as

India, Russia, Brazil, and China have developed mod-

ern supply chains at a rapid pace, to support compa-

nies that do business as suppliers of multinational

customers. Both traditional and modern supply chains

often exist side-by-side in emerging economies, a situ-

ation which Saldanha and coauthors describe as

incompatible, yet inevitable. The logic of both the

social welfare perspective and market logic is attractive

to emerging market governments; however, they work

at cross purposes in many supply chains.

This issue of the juxtaposition of traditional and

modern supply chains is at the heart of the two arti-

cles that comprise this STF. Both use in-depth case

research, driven by a strong theoretical foundation, to

investigate critical issues related to dealing with the

juxtaposition of traditional and modern supply chains

in emerging markets. While these articles make a

strong contribution to advancing theory related to

their topics, they also have important practical impli-

cations for multinational companies that are working

with suppliers in emerging economies.

Saldanha and coauthors examine the implementation

of supply chain technologies in emerging markets, par-

ticularly among early adopters in those countries. They

January 2015 3