Specifically, there is a room for researchers to pay attention to a
specific context under which SCM practices are implemented.
For example, the research problems should include how the
implementation processes of SCM in situation X diverge from
situation Yû, and ùwhy it happens that wayû.Thus, research that
develops a meaningful and insight understanding of SCM
practices and implementations is needed.
Conclusion
As this paper demonstrates, it was a goal of this study to
create a research agenda for a more understanding of SCM
practices. The literature review that intersects the insights on
practices supports the need for future research in this field.
Overall, this study has proposed a set of three recommendations
in SCM research. The first one is that combining upstream and
downstream processes in the supply chain becomes very
important for the current research because it is not enough to
focus only on either supply or demand processes in the supply
chain. The second one is the need to focus more on different
factors or practices in SCM research. This is because SCM
involves a big picture, which includes various social aspects such
as human resource, marketing and so on. The last one relates to
the needs to emphasize on the theory-driven or case study
research. It is important to understand the questions such as
ùhowû and ùwhyû in SCM implementation.
Like other studies, this study also has its limitations.
To generalize its findings, future study is required to replicate this
study in other industries or contexts. In addition, the replication
should be conducted with a multiple case study in order to obtain
not only more evidence but also more understanding in SCM
practices. More importantly, one should extend the scope of
literature survey to include work in other disciplines such as
marketing, economics, or engineering. In addition, we believe that
the intersection of these finding from different disciplines will
help in expending our research directions and knowledge of
supply chain management.