A Digital Strategy Development Framework for Supply Chains

Abstract

Digitalisation has provoked the rapid proliferation of changes in the operational landscape, thus requiring prompt decision making across end-to-end supply chains. Notwithstanding the fact that technology is the epicentre of digital transformation, more often than not, organisations fail to effectively adopt innovative applications, harness their full potential and realise growth and competitiveness. Therefore, this research argues that a unique strategy formulation process is required to embrace digitalisation in manufacturing supply chains. However, within the context of manufacturing networks, strategy formulation approaches are limited. To this end, this research adopts a case study approach to extract tacit knowledge across twelve multinational companies within the theoretical boundaries of corporate strategy development.Research findings and a theoretically derived framework demonstrate that there are three typologies of digital strategy development approaches for manufacturing supply chains, namely: (i) top-down; (ii) bottom-up; and (iii) mixed. Every identified typology is supplemented with three determinant criteria for digital supply chain strategy formulation, i.e., number of suppliers, market demand, and product types.Noteworthy, the aforementioned strategies are context-dependent. This research contributes to the Operations Management field by formulating a novel strategy development framework for digital supply chains. The proposed framework, synthesised via strategic management theoretical views and primary evidence, can provide a reference point as companies chart their current and future digital supply chain strategy state.

Activity-to-Skills Framework in the Intellectual Property Big Data Era

“…Our findings relate to stable economic conditions, and a longitudinal study could be helpful to identify whether changes caused by Covid-19, its immediate uncertainties and the subsequent recovery needs have affected also the IP skillset required. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has also caused a noticeable acceleration toward digitalization and immediate adoption of new technologies identified [6], [92]. Therefore, we anticipate that data skills will be even more important in the future.…”

“…igitalization and the advent of big data are gaining attention across industries and transforming the industrial landscape [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] and the Covid-19 pandemic has only accelerated this process [6]. The heightened emphasis on data and information is present also inside intellectual property (IP) processes as an important part of the innovation processes [7].…”

Research on digital transformation of supply chain: research status and recommendations

“…So digital transformation of the supply chain is necessary, both in terms of corporate and environmental sustainability. [7] The other factor is business operations-supply chain performance. Enterprise using digital technology can improve its operational performance in the supply chain.…”

Digital Supply Chain: Conceptualisation of the Research Domain

“…In addition, robotics and automation can enable real-time data collection of material flow, improving production and replenishment. Also, Bluetooth, sensors and RFID are real-time location sensing as they provide the ability to track the flow of information along SCs through real-time data analysis (Büyüközkan and Göçer 2018;Ho et al 2022). The keyword 'literature review' also appears in this cluster.…”