Supply Chain Collaboration: A one-best-way practice?

Supply chain (SC) collaboration in supply chain management literature is commonly considered a one-best-way recipe to improve performance. The basic assumption is “the more collaboration – the better the management of the supply network”. This article challenges this assumption, by introducing explanations that different forms of supply chain collaboration exist and different aspects of collaboration might be important under different conditions. Using Galbraith’s contingency theory as its starting point, and case-study method, this article proposes a contingency theory of SC collaboration in logistics processes. It is suggested that specific conditions – i.e. goals of the collaboration, products sold by companies involved in the collaboration, elasticity of demand, number of potential partners, and stage of development of the collaboration - can affect the information processing required to implement SC collaboration. In turn, the characteristics of the information processing determine the information and communication technologies and liaison devices used to support collaboration