Purpose -Supply chains directly influence the differentiation and cost of a firm's products and services and its exposure to risk. The purpose of this paper is to use secondary financial data to explore the relationship between supply chain and firm performance by developing a unified proxy for supply chain performance. Design/methodology/approach -Established econometric techniques were used to validate the proxy using a sample frame comprising the annual reports of 117 publicly traded UK manufacturing firms from the period 1995 to 2004. Findings -Increases in change in the proxy lead to an increase in change in the rate of return on capital employed and a change in the rate of cash-to-cash cycle length, both of which are traditional measures of improved supply chain management. Moreover, as the rate of change of the proxy increases, so does enterprise value at a level that is statistically significant, indicating that improving supply chain management practices has a positive impact upon improved firm performance. Research limitations/implications -As annual financial results were used the analysis is at a high level so there is a lack of resolution in identifying discrete causes. The use of annual financial results also means that the research can only take yearly snapshots of firm performance. Practical implications -The paper indicates that the supply chain is an enabler, not an impediment, to superior organisational performance. Originality/value -The originality and value of this paper is that it develops a proxy to explain the relationships between supply chain and an organisation's financial performance taking into account the three imperatives of profitability, liquidity, and productivity.

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Although empirical studies show that supply chain integration is associated with high levels of business and operational performance, some authors argue that there is no need to pursue total end-to-end supply chain integration and different or relationship-by-relationship approaches are needed. This paper introduces the first step in the development of the business process model, which might facilitate the building of closer relationships among businesses and therefore endorse supply chain integration. The aim of this paper is to determine whether there is some generic set of supply chain processes, which support material and information flows in a dyadic relationship. Through the literature review, two supply chain process frameworks (SCPFs), namely supply chain operations reference and global supply chain forum, have been identified together with nine evaluation criteria. Evaluation results provide evidence on the generic set of supply chain processes together with the insights into specific advantages and common shortcomings of these two widely recognised SCPFs.

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is: a). to highlight the limitations of current accounting practices in inter-organisational context; b). to introduce contemporary costing approaches used in inter-organisational costing (IOC) programmes and c). to identify the inhibitors of successful implementation of IOC programmes. Methodology/Approach-The research uses a structured review of empirical and theoretical literature. Findings-Traditional accounting practices do not adequately fulfil their role in the interorganisational context. Contemporary accounting practices overcome only some limitations of traditional accounting practices. The study uncovers part of the complexity surrounding the implementation of IOC programmes and suggests that we are dealing with a broad interdisciplinary phenomenon. Research limitations-Conclusions are drawn on a conceptual level and further empirical investigation is encouraged. Practical implications-The research raises the awareness of the complexity the surrounds the implementation of IOC programmes. The broad set of inhibiting factors could be effectively used by managers to assess the readiness of organisations involved in implementation of interorganisational costing programmes. Originality/value-This research is the first that systematically addresses the problem of inhibitors in the implementation of inter-organisational costing programmes. The broad scope of the paper sets the foundations for more focused research into specific inhibiting factors.