Network analysis of supply chain systems: A systematic review and future research

Abstract

Supply chains are continuously evolving and adapting systems driven by complex sociotechnical interfirm interactions. Traditional engineering and operations management modeling approaches have primarily focused on technical issues and are not well suited to effectively capture the many complex structural and behavioral aspects of supply chain systems (SCSs). There is growing recognition by the supply chain community of the significant benefits a network analytic lens can provide to understand, design, and manage SCSs. We systematically review and analyze the relevant literature and, drawing on a multidisciplinary theoretical foundation, develop an integrative framework. Our framework identifies three distinct, but interdependent themes that characterize the study of SCSs: SCS network structure (i.e., system architecture), SCS network dynamics (i.e., system behavior), and SCS network strategy (i.e., system policy and control). We elaborate on these themes, review key findings, identify the current limitations and knowledge gaps, and discuss the fundamental benefits derived from adopting an integrated SCSs perspective. We conclude with future research directions for network analysis in SCS design and management, in particular, and complex enterprise systems, in general. and Sussman, 2011; Bartolomei et al., 2012], a comprehensive understanding of the performance and behavior of supply chain systems (SCSs) therefore requires consideration of both technical and social issues. Traditional engineering and operations management modeling approaches have primarily focused on technical issues [Min and Zhou, 2002]. These approaches, however, are not well suited to effectively capture and describe the structural and behavioral complexities inherent in SCSs.An emerging interdisciplinary lens promising to overcome this theoretical and methodological gap is the use of network analysis approaches [Basole et al., 2011]. Network analysis draws on theories from the social, organizational, and complexity sciences and leverages graph theoretic methods to model, analyze, and visualize the structure, dynamics, and strategies that shape SCSs. There has been a surge in scholarly studies modeling an SCS as a complex network of interactions between system entities since the seminal work by Choi and colleagues [Choi, Dooley, and Rungtusanatham, 2001;Choi and Hong, 2002] and more recently Borgatti and Li [2009]. However, there is no organizing framework to facilitate an understanding of the plethora of supply chain management (SCM) issues examined using network analysis. Moreover, previous work on the use of network analysis in systems engineering (SE) is quite sparse. Notable exceptions include the work by Batallas and Yassine [2006], Braha and Bar-Yam [2006], Collins, Yassine, and Borgatti [2009], and Bartolomei et al. [2012], where the focus is almost entirely on product development; there are no SE studies that have used network analysis for the study of SCSs. Consequently, there is a window of opportunity to review and illustrate the va...

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