ARTICLE IN PRESS
doi:10.1016/j.pu
Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 12 (2006) 105–106
www.elsevier.com/locate/pursup
Book review
H. Kotzab, S. Seuring, M. Muller, G. Reiner (Eds.),
Research Methodologies in Supply Chain Management,
Physica-Verlag, Germany, 2005, ISBN 3790815837
(632pp., £69)
This book is a large collection of papers aimed atcollating a supply chain management approach to researchmethods. The editors pose the question whether there is aneed to develop research methods that deal particularlywith supply chain management issues. They rephrase theirown question, what are the characteristics of scm researchthat require modified or extended research methods?Except for a short introduction from the editors the readeris left to come to their own conclusions.
The book has the equivalent of 36 (papers) chapters,featuring around 70 authors. This variety and the diversityof approaches that flow from this quantity of authors is thebest feature of the book. The structure is quite simple, thereare five sections: a scene setting first part on general theorybuilding, then sections on survey, case study and actionresearch in scm, with a final chapter on modeling in supplychains. Four of the sections are of approximately the samesize, with the final modeling part awarded a bigger share.This allocation should not put anyone off, because papersin this section deal with substantive and broad topicsbefore discussing modeling issues, for example, topicscovered include game theory, modularity and contracttypology.
Before reading this book exactly who the target audiencewould be was a puzzle. It is not the intention of the editorsor authors to offer sufficient depth in any one chapter to bea sole source for a topic. However, reading all the papers inone part probably would give a masters student sufficientgrasp of any one of these research approaches (andcritically, a gold mine of references). There is a marketfor the book then for masters students, and possibly yearone Ph.D.s, who could be given the book and asked tocritique each section or methodological approach. There isalso a target market of academics who appreciate a brief‘update’ in a concise and readable form on variousmethods, without having to turn to the depth andcomplexity of a specialist text. With the caution that anyserious study would need to supplement the material herewith further study, the text is a useful initial referencepoint.
For example, chapters that stress the value of bothqualitative and quantitative approaches, used appropri-
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ately, cover very familiar ground to those who research.But it is still useful to be reminded of the basics, and howthey should be applied, and often to be supplied with newreferences. Having a text that discusses methods set entirelyin supply contexts should increase student interest. There ismuch that will be new to many, for example, the use ofQ-sort techniques to cluster subjective judgements, and thechallenge of complexity theories to the assumptions ofsupply chain management.Thus, the book is quite packed with content and
explanation. For example, we are introduced to researchmethods across a vast spectrum, e.g. structural equationmodeling, case studies, object-oriented simulation, gametheory, triangulation, contract typology as a researchmethod. Perhaps this diversity reflects that there really isan international list of authors, most of the Europeancountries, but also Brazil, New Zealand, South Africa andThailand. The editors have done a really good andimportant job here in opening up scm to contributionsfrom around the world.In some sense though the sheer volume of material
presented is the weakness of the book. It is possible that theeditors were a little too lenient and a few chapters couldhave been rejected or worked up further. More importantlythough, the sheer length of individual’s material presentedhighlights the lack of response within the chapters to theoriginal question posed by the editors. In essence, do weneed specific supply chain research methods (or specificadaptations of existing methods)? In order to answer thatquestion, we need an understanding of what is uniqueand different about supply chain approaches that couldmandate innovative research methods.For example in business networks Halinen and Tornroos
(2005) have recently set a new standard in evaluating thefeatures of networks that impact research methods andmethodologies. As well as drawing attention to the issues onemight anticipate such as how to draw a boundary for researchpurposes around a network, they also cover issues such as timein network research. In comparison, this book suffers from alack of a coherent over view, and from a fragmentation ofperspective that leads to a less informed, and less analyticalapproach. We are not presented with the characteristics of scmresearch that require modified or extended research methods inthe way that Halinen and Tornroos attempted in businessnetworks. A less important negative is that the standard of theEnglish is variable, and surprisingly probably at its poorest inthe editors’ own introduction.
ARTICLE IN PRESSBook review / Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 12 (2006) 105–106106
Overall though, this is a useful reference book, one thatyou would dip into or loan to a student rather thanreread from cover to cover. It is a very useful andconcise text for updating one’s knowledge in a number ofareas. The editors only appear in the introduction, they shyaway then from answering their own question. Thisreader’s view was that not enough of a case was madefor specific supply chain research methods, perhapsbecause of the lack of an integrative chapter to draw the
various contributions together. But perhaps as well that isthe editors’ intention, to force the reader to answer thequestion for themselves.
Nigel CaldwellCRiSPS, School of Management, University of Bath,
Bath BA2 7AY, UK
E-mail address: [email protected].
