Managing business processes across supply networks: the role of coordination mechanisms

The theory of coordination across networks provides the theoretical basis to explain how companies of the same supply network can overcome their organisational boundaries and constraints to jointly manage business processes whose activities are worked out by different interacting units. In particular, this paper analyses the Collaborative Planning Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) process, which requires individual members of the supply network to participate in decisions on the demand that will drive their activities. By discussing three case studies of CPFR implementation in supply networks of different industries - i.e. pharmaceutical, automotive and mechanical - the paper provides a theoretical model that contributes to explaining the relations between inter-firm coordination mechanisms, and types of interdependence among the actors involved in CPFR implementation