Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Although still modest, the research community in operations and supply chain management has recognized the relevance of this particular field and the requirements to further investigate due to fundamentally different competitive dynamics and previously predominant dyadic views on supply chain management. However, the field is still missing a general overview which makes it difficult to fully grasp the context and implications of the existing contributions as well as convincingly anchor the relevance of new research questions. Based on recordings from three consecutive Academy of Management (AOM) professional development workshops (PDW) on Multi-Tier Multinational Supply Chains, the author conducts qualitative analysis, applying descriptive simultaneous coding in four cycles. As a result, five second order themes emerge, covering the clustered relevant phenomena within the research field as well as two additional themes covering potential research design decisions and theoretical lenses to research multi-tier supply chains. Additionally, deduction of third order theoretical dimensions allows further structuring of findings in multiple levels and perspectives within a respective conceptual framework. The framework identifies a large number of identified themes as interdependent contingencies of multi-tier supply chain management within complex-adaptive multi-tier supply chains, comprehensible only from a multi-tier perspective. Conflicts between multi-tier supply chain contingencies of multiple actors on a multi-tier level emerge as issues or hotspots within supply chains, when individually perceived as problematic from a single actor perspective. The responding approach to sub-supplier management is initiated at a single actor perspective with potential to change contingencies on the multi-tier supply chain-level, therefore offering further potential for understanding multi-tier supply chains as complex-adaptive systems.