Guest editorial

Citation

Glenn Richey, R. (2009), "Guest editorial", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 39 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpdlm.2009.00539eaa.001

Guest editorial

Article Type: Guest editorial From: International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Volume 39, Issue 5

About the Guest Editor

Glenn Richey(PhD – The University of Oklahoma) is an Associate Professor of International Marketing and Supply Chain Management and the Robert C. and Rosa P. Morrow Faculty Excellence Fellow in The Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business at The University of Alabama. His research interests broadly include international and domestic inter-organizational exchange relationships, business logistics and supply chain management, marketing and management strategy, retailing strategy and finance, resource management, and disaster preparedness and recovery. He has published in peer reviewed scholarly journals including but not limited to Business Horizons, Industrial Marketing Management (IMM), International Journal of Logistics Management (IJLM), International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management (IJPDLM), Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP), Journal of Business Logistics (JBL), Journal of International Management (JIM), Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS), Journal of World Business (JWB), Management Decision, Organizational Dynamics, Supply Chain Management Review, Thunderbird International Business Review, and Transportation Research (TRE). Prior to entering academe, He worked for ten years in purchasing/procurement management, operations management, sales management, retail consulting and supply chain management. Currently he is on the boards of the Commonwealth Yogurt LLC, GreenLightMarketing Group, the Supply Chain Management and Industrial Distribution Symposium (SCMID), and School Page.Net.

In October of 2007, I approached Professor Mike Crum about developing an International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management special issue to generate interest in the publication of disaster management and crisis strategic planning issues relevant to twenty-first century supply chain management and business logistics. Following the call for papers, I received an amazing 41 submissions from all corners of the globe and across multiple academic and industrial disciplines. Manuscripts were submitted from countries including Australia, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Norway, Spain, the UK, the USA, Taiwan, Turkey, and Sweden. Additionally, authors bridged the academic fields of agricultural economics, business logistics, engineering, industrial distribution, management, marketing, operations management/management science, supply chain management, and varied industry and consulting positions. Given this huge response and the quality of the research submitted, it was decided that a three-issue set of manuscripts was warranted. I am very proud of all the authors who submitted to this critically important area of research.

The three special issues include:

1. 1.

   studies that examine the current strategies being deployed for supply chains in times of crisis;

2. 2.

   a focus on humanitarian issues relevant to current and continued study in supply chain management and business logistics; and

3. 3.

   overview of the scope of research published related to the management of supply chains in times of crisis with the goal of building a conceptual base and encouraging additional research.

This special issue is the first of three discussed above. It was organized to canvass major areas of supply chain strategic disaster planning and recovery related research. As such this issue, titled Supply Chain Management in Times of Crisis: Examining Advances in Strategy, focuses on the strategies currently being developed and employed by firms to better manage their supply chains in desperate times.

Stewart, Kolluru, and Smith of the National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies Institute at the University of Louisiana wrote the first manuscript “Leveraging public-private partnerships to improve community resilience in times of disaster.” Their study addresses the increasingly important issue of supply chain relationships in crisis situations. Here, they specifically address the multi-level importance of public-private partnerships and impacts of community resilience related to supply chain disaster management. They point to the logistical importance of the people with their feet on the ground at the “lowest jurisdictional level present within the impacted area.” This work contributes to the literature by examining the role of supply chain relationships across both government agencies and private sector partnerships creating a community network. Their study contributes to the literature by integrating economics, behavioral sciences, supply chain management, and infrastructure research streams in developing a strategic framework for shaping national supply chain disaster resilience.

The second manuscript comes to us from the The Food Industry Center at the University of Minnesota and includes members of the University Food Industry Coalition associated with the National Grocers Association. In this study, Degeneffe, Kinsey, Stinson, and Ghosh focus on the food industry in further examining how supply chain partners and government agencies need to improve communications with consumers and customers before, during and after times of crisis. Focusing on the interconnection between the supply chain and end consumers, effective communication is vital to creating a seamless exchange especially in times of crisis. They provide an important contribution to the literature by detailing that the incorporation of consistent communications into supply chain management planning will enhance recovery efforts from potentially disastrous events. Moreover, their findings detail that attitudes about terrorism provide information about the development of targeted and effective crisis communications. This is an area that is ripe for future study across the entire supply chain.

The third manuscript written by Skipper and Hanna is titled “Minimizing supply chain disruption risk through enhanced flexibility.” This research paper examines the important issue of strategic contingency planning firms use to minimize risk exposure in instances of supply chain disruptions. Their focus is on determining how to maximize relationship flexibility minimizing firm risk exposure in times of crisis. The result is a unique and important contribution of the field relevant to understanding the primary planning attributes levered to increase flexibility for crisis management.

The final manuscript in this special issue gives us our first look at humanitarian issues in procurement, making a nice bridge to the second special issue which focuses exclusively on humanitarian issues. Trestrail, Paul, and Maloni use a mixed-integer programming (MIP) to examine strategic bid preparation and procurement of “food aid” vital to effective humanitarian logistics across the globe. The authors detail the USDA bid process and offer a tool that will assist in the practical application of food aid bid pricing. Their achieved goal is to advise food suppliers and ocean carrier clients of price variability before the submission of procurement bids. Ultimately, they provide managerial implications for humanitarian logistics and point out important research opportunities.

This and the other two forthcoming special issues are designed to develop a foundation for continued research in the use of supply chain management and business logistics as strategy and structure for managing crisis situations. This area of research is of utmost importance to both academia and practice. I hearten our entire community to consider examining this essential and emergent research domain.

R. Glenn Richey JrGuest Editor