Supply chain management: an analytical framework for critical literature review

Abstract

There can be little dispute that supply chain management is an area of importance in the "eld of management research, yet there\nhave been few literature reviews on this topic (Bechtel and Mulumudi, 1996, Proceedings of the 1996 NAPM Annual Academic\nConference; Harland, 1996, British Journal of Management 7 (special issue), 63}80; Cooper et al., 1997). This paper sets out not to\nreview the supply chain literature per se, but rather to contribute to a critical theory debate through the presentation and use of\na framework for the categorisation of literature linked to supply chain management. The study is based on the analysis of a large\nnumber of publications on supply chain management (books, journal articles, and conference papers) using a Procite( database from\nwhich the literature has been classi"ed according to two criteria: a content- and a methodology-oriented criterion.