Order from chaos: Dealing with supply chain complexity

Editor’s note: This video is collaboration between the Journal of Supply Chain Managementand Supply Chain Management Review. Each month, we bring SCMR readers a video interview from the pages of JSCM.

Supply chains, in particular global supply chains, were contending with varying customer requirements, extended product lines, uncertainty regarding supplier performance, trade wars and tariffs and myriad related factors before COVID. They have grown even more complex over the last two years.

Understanding supply chain complexity is at the heart of research from Melek Akın Ateş, Robert Suurmond, Davide Luzzini and Daniel Krause. In this month’s video, Ateş and Suurmond discuss their article titled: Order from Chaos: A Meta‐analysis of Supply Chain Complexity and Firm Performance. Among their conclusions, the authors found that although supply chain complexity has a negative effect on operational performance, it also has a positive effect on innovation performance and financial performance. Furthermore, we also distinguish among different levels of supply chain.

Be sure to click on the video to learn about their conclusions. And, you can access the full article here.