Guest editorial

Citation

Walters, D. and Glaser, S. (2008), "Guest editorial", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 38 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpdlm.2008.00538iaa.001

Guest editorial

Article Type: Guest editorial From: International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Volume 38, Issue 9

About the Guest EditorsDavid Walters BA (Alberta), MSc (Bradford), PhD (Cranfield) is Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management at the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, University of Sydney. Previously he was Professor of Management (Business Systems) and Director of the Australasian Centre for Value Chain Management in the School of Management, University of Western Sydney. Prior to joining UWS he was head of the Business Studies Department in the Division of Economic and Financial Studies at Macquarie University. He has held posts at Cranfield School of Management, Templeton College Oxford, Stirling University and The European Business School. He has published a number of textbooks in business and marketing subjects, the most recent “Strategic Operations Management: A Value Chain Approach” was published in 2007. In addition, he has published over 30 articles in professional journals. He is the Australasian editor for the International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management. David Walters has teaching experience in a wide range of continents including North America, The Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa. In addition to his wide teaching experience he has acted as a consultant for a number of international companies. These include: BOC, CSR, Harrods, Laura Ashley, The Kingfisher Group, Storehouse, British Oxygen Company, Marks and Spencer, Tesco and a number of others.

Stan Glaser is a professor in the School of Marketing and International Business at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. He formerly held academic position at Macquarie University and The University of New South Wales. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford, The Stockholm School of Economics and Cranfield University. Before his university career he had extensive business experience in Australia and the United Kingdom. This included SmithKline Beecham’s head office in England and Australia’s largest advertising agency, George Patterson Bates. He is a foundation member of the Australian Psychological Society and a member of the International Society of Hypnosis. His articles have appeared in a range of journals such as Business Horizons, Internet Research, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Economic Psychology, Human Relations, Advances in Behavioural Medicine, Management Decision, Systems Practice and he is a joint author of two books, “Health Care and Lifestyle” and “Business to Business Negotiation”. Professor Glaser is a very active business consultant and provides a problem solving capability to a large number of organisations in both the public and private sectors. These have included Westpac, BOC, Endeavour Credit Union, Telstra, NSW Dept. of Health, Federal Airports Commission, Roche Products, TNT, AstraXeneca, Marketing Frontiers International, The Reserve Bank of Australia, Pacific Equity Partners, Castrol, Northern Territory Tourist Commission, NSW Crown Solicitor’s Office, etc. He also acts as an adviser to legal firms on matters arising from the Trade Practices Act and on advertising regulation. He has been on the boards of MGSM Pty Ltd and an Israeli start-up company, Rooster Notification Technology Ltd.

The new business models that are appearing are variations on the generic value chain and underlying each of these new approaches are two facilitating processes. Magretta (2002) argued that this chain has two parts; one includes all the activities associated with making something: designing it, purchasing raw materials, manufacturing and so on the other includes all the activities associated with selling something: finding and reaching customers, transacting a sale, distributing the product or delivering the service. The value chain is firmly based in the disciplines of logistics management, i.e. the management of flows of information, information, and transactions. This issue of the International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management (IJPDLM) contains five articles that are comments on current issues within this rapidly expanding area. Each paper was reviewed by the Guest Editors, with the exception of their own contributions, which were subject to external review.

Kenth Lumsden and Vahid Mirzabeiki open an interesting topic within the value chain management topic. The authors explore the value of information as perceived from the perspective of different stakeholders within the supply/value chain. In the paper reviewed the study considered a conventional supply chain but the findings identify a number of points of interest for network based value chains. Using contributions from the literature the authors review the essential basic requirements/qualifications of information in a distribution management context, qualifying this with a review of the most important types of information in a supply chain such as, the location and condition of products in supply chain, positioning and sequencing of products in shipment or inventory, inventory levels and point-of-sale of stocks at retail locations, pertinent details of alternative suppliers for each product, history of sales, warehouse operation information, offers of companies on their websites, and, sharing shipment quantity information in the supply chain. These are supported with current examples and reasons for their importance. The empirical research has been conducted by industrial personnel. While more detail concerning the content of the information sets and the impact this has had on decision making would be useful the paper does offer some guidance for information design that will become useful as “real time” information systems are adopted by inter-organisational business models.

A paper from Elizabeth Barber has attempted to tackle the difficult task of measuring inter-organisational performance activities. The author conducts a review of the past literature contributions and developments in supply chain management, identifying with SCOR, BSC and PBL and discusses the relevant attributes (and lack thereof) of each of these. The discussion concerning measuring value chain management performance addresses the complexity of looking across the whole network/web/chain. As the value chain network converts inputs, via organizational processes, to create strategic outcomes and as the organizational structures and processes of these value chains become more and more complex, so too will the understanding and subsequent measurements of the strategic outcomes. The author applies the logic behind the balanced scorecard approach to measuring this type of performance, as these outcomes are critical value adding components from the various stakeholders who are members of the total value chain. This paper can only identify the issues; it does so and is useful in that it considers the need to measure the performance of tangible and intangible assets. By considering the conventional supply chain performance measurements and then moving into the problems introduced by holistic structures the author has created an awareness of a problem that is growing in its importance.

Alan Win discusses developments in fourth-party logistics and addresses some topical issues. Ever since the term 4PL was introduced by Accenture in the late 1990s there has been a suspicion it is a consultant’s fad. Observation suggested the term was poorly understood, even by those well into logistics management, and the economic benefits had certainly not been evidenced. Despite this the Singapore based YCH has suggested that 4PL is too restrictive and has busily promoted 7PL. This paper attempts to tackle the issues of the “value” that 4PL adds to the firm. The author does this by a considering the various notions of “value” and opts for employing financial/economic criteria. It also has an informed discussion of the differences between 3 and 4PL, pointing out the strategic shifts that seem to be taking place in the market. The paper provides recent example of the concept at work.

David Walters addresses the increasing interest in demand led response management offering a different perspective to that given by an increasing number of consulting organisations to a changing business environment. They identify these as technologically driven and also influenced by changing attitudes by business to inter-organisational relationships. While this paper is dominated by a conceptual model, it does provide evidence to support the fact that the current environmental changes are being identified by business and are evoking responses. The author offers a comprehensive review of the current contributions to the demand chain management literature; again this is supported by examples. Included in this section is an argument that explores the relevance and roles of value drivers and value builders, both of which are becoming noticeable in the academic and applied literature.

Stan Glaser starts from the assumption that corporate alignment is a real issue in managing the value chain. He then discusses the various mechanisms that can be used to encourage alignment, starting off with the conventional mission and vision statements. The argument is that these are examples of management rhetoric and the intra-chain behaviour (e.g. between supplier and buyer) simply contradicts the rhetoric. An example of e procurement is used as an illustration of the return to a transaction based mentality. In seeking a common element between the members of the supply and demand chain the author concludes it is the people and their social ties. The particular commercial element of these ties that the author focuses upon is the brand as evidence suggests that it is the only element of social life that is common to the participants in both the demand and supply chains.

We would take this opportunity of thanking the editors of IJPDLM for allowing us to pursue our interest in this increasingly important area of distribution management and we also thank the other authors for joining us in this venture. We hope that we have, in some small way, contributed in the development and understanding of this increasingly important topic.

Finally, we would like to dedicate this issue to the memory of our dear friend and colleague, the late Professor Michael Halliday (8 October 1947-30 March 2008). His loss is palpable.

David Walters, Stan Glaser