A review of supply chain transparency research: Antecedents, technologies, types, and outcomes

Abstract

The growing popularity of “Supply Chain Transparency” (SCT) as an idea has motivated its use as a “buzzword,” leading to a lack of terminological clarity. Terms like visibility, transparency, and traceability are used colloquially or as synonyms for one another, yet often without a proper conceptual basis. We argue that the absence of a clear understanding of SCT limits the ability of scholars and practitioners to fully understand the role played by transparency in supply chains and to study its antecedents, technologies, types, and outcomes. Therefore, transparency research is at the point where a scoping review of literature on SCT is particularly useful. Our review first provides a formal conceptualization of SCT, allowing us to identify how transparency has been understood, the building blocks of SCT, and what distinguishes SCT from other concepts. In the review, we initially identify relevant concepts underlying SCT with a view to establish a unifying and nuanced framework for SCT. Second, using that unified conceptualization as a basis, primary outcomes such as the benefits and risks of SCT are determined. Third, we systematically detect and classify future research opportunities arising from the building blocks of SCT.

The impact of supply chain transparency on financing offerings to firms: the moderating role of supply chain concentration

“…On the one hand, the availability of supply chain information exposes the strategies and partnerships of supply chain members to their competitors, creating an opportunity for dissecting revealed information. Competitors may then replicate successful strategies or develop targeted strategies to undermine the market positions of supply chain members (Sodhi and Tang, 2019;Budler et al, 2023). On the other hand, public disclosure puts supply chain members in the spotlight, triggering increased scrutiny and questioning (Bateman and Bonanni, 2019).…”

“…2. Literature review and theoretical background 2.1 Supply chain transparency SCT refers to the extent to which a firm discloses information about its supply chain to external stakeholders, relating to aspects such as raw material sources, manufacturing processes, transportation, product distribution, partners and environmental practices (Sodhi and Tang, 2019;Mollenkopf et al, 2022;Budler et al, 2023). In response to the sustainability emphasis, the empirical literature on SCT has mainly focused on transparency in sustainable or environmental practices (Gligor et al, 2022;Villena and Dhanorkar, 2020;Gualandris et al, 2021).…”

“…However, potential risks may arise from SCT. For example, SCT entails great investments and thus harms firms' profit margins (Budler et al, 2023;Gligor et al, 2022). Marquis et al (2016) argued that supply chain disclosure can potentially attract unwanted attention and accusations.…”

“…While extant research has shed light on the impact of SCT on firm performance or customer reactions, the demands and responses of other critical stakeholders, such as financing providers, remain largely under-explored. Moreover, as SCT involves disclosing information across different dimensions (Gligor et al, 2022), various SCT initiatives could impact stakeholders differently (Budler et al, 2023). This underscores the need to extend empirical exploration to other SCT practices.…”

Guest editorial: Supply chain transparency: opportunities, challenges and risks

“…The demand for SCT has been driven by the concerns of stakeholders (Sodhi and Tang, 2019;Wang et al, 2024) and the normative pressures of regulations (Budler et al, 2024). Firms' disclosure is a crucial component of SCT, yet the extent of such disclosure is a highly subjective decision (Gardner et al, 2019).…”