EXPLOITING SCM AS SOURCE OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: THE IMPORTANCE OF COOPERATIVE GOALS REVISITED
authors
keywords
- Competitive advantage
- Cooperative relationships
- Logistical and marketing collaboration
- Physical distribution
- Strategic partnership
- Supply Chain Managment SCM
document type
ARTabstract
The majority of studies on supply chain management (SCM) emphasize the importance of cooperative relationships for improving the integration of business processes into a supply chain. It seems accepted that SCM will be a source of competitive advantage if, and only if, firms that participate in it formalize a strategic partnership between each other beforehand. This article questions whether this really is the case, given that the corporate cultures currently in place are largely founded on a tradition of adversarial relationships, the creation of large groups and the development of vertical concentrations. SCM could, in contrast, in such a case be the catalyst for powerful future strategic partnerships that could gently break arm’s-length competition.
