A word from the co-editors of IJPDLM

Citation

Ellinger, A.E. and Glenn Richey Jr, R. (2012), "A word from the co-editors of IJPDLM", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 42 No. 10. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpdlm.2012.00542jaa.001

A word from the co-editors of IJPDLM

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Volume 42, Issue 10

Greetings from The University of Alabama! This editorial introduces the final issue of the second year of our tenure as co-editors of IJPDLM. As another volume of IJPDLM is completed, we would like to re-emphasize and reflect upon IJPDLM’s mission “to be the principal home the world comes to for leading edge research bridging strategic areas of business-to-business management, physical distribution, business logistics, marketing channels and supply chain management,” by briefly addressing our efforts to work towards this “best in class” goal through fairness, inclusiveness, innovativeness and timeliness in the editorial process.

Fairness

Despite a marked increase in submissions – we expect to receive more than 350 by end of 2012 – we consistently ensure that each manuscript is reviewed by at least one reviewer from outside North America. To this end we continue to proactively invite scholars from outside North America to review manuscripts in their specific areas of expertise. We are most grateful for the ongoing dedication of our reviewers and the EAB, and would especially like to thank scholars from Europe and Asia for being so willing to help us make this differentiating aspect of our review process a reality. We are impressed with the high quality developmental reviews provided to authors. Although the majority of manuscripts received by IJPDLM are not accepted for publication, approximately 90 percent of submitted manuscripts are entered into the review process. We sincerely hope that the developmental feedback provided by reviewers provides a resource that helps prospective authors more effectively craft future submissions for IJPDLM and the other major strategic supply chain and logistics (SCML) journals.

Inclusiveness

The overwhelming majority of submissions to IJPDLM come from outside North America. Therefore, it is not surprising that most of the manuscripts published in 2012 are authored by scholars from outside North America. During 2012, our Regional Editors for Europe (Drs Gyongyi Kovacs and Karen Spens), our new Regional Editor for Asia (Dr Ruth Banomyong) as well as the Editors of special issues (NOFOMA: Drs Hammervoll and Jensen; Interfaces: Drs Lasch and Schultmann; Qualitative Research in Logistics and SCM: Drs Flint and Gammelgaard and Managerially Relevant Models: Dr Chad Autry) have shared their perspectives on SCML research by writing editorials for the journal. Over its 42-year tenure, IJPDLM has developed a unique niche with SCML scholars and the journal continues to proactively encourage submissions from all regions. Most notably, we continue our productive association with the NOFOMA conference, are inviting Best Papers on Strategic Logistics and SCM from several other international conferences like ISL, and have a Special Issue on Supply Chain Management in Latin American underway edited by Drs Blanco and Pavia. To further encourage submissions from all over the world, we plan to appoint several additional Regional Editors during 2013.

Innovativeness

We believe that a major differentiating strength of IJPDLM is the journal’s focus on publishing innovative special issues. We are particularly proud of the Interfaces and Qualitative Research special issues published this year. The Interfaces special issue (42:6) offers interesting perspectives from European scholars on arguably the most important strategic issue in logistics and SCM: supply chain integration. We therefore anticipate that these research studies will be widely read and cited. The Qualitative Research special issue (42: 8 and 9) provides a valuable methodological resource for logistics scholars and PhD students. We are most appreciative of the great efforts made by Drs Flint and Gammelgaard to tailor this body of knowledge to create a valuable context-specific resource for our field. The coming year will see the publication of special issues on Sustainability, Defense Logistics and Service Dominant Logic in SCM as well as the annual special issue from the 2012 NOFOMA conference in Turku, Finland co-edited by Drs Ojala, Lorentz and Toyli.

Timeliness

As logisticians, we strive to “keep the trains running!” We try to operate a lean review process and reduce wear and tear on reviewers by assigning two reviewers per manuscript (usually one EAB member and one other subject matter expert). In situations where conflicts between reviewers arise, we either make the call ourselves or seek the opinion of a third subject matter expert from the EAB. This streamlined (but rigorous) review process ensures that authors can expect to receive decisions within six to eight weeks of submitting manuscripts.

We hope this brief overview of how the IJPDLM editorial team is addressing the key criteria for achieving the journal’s mission is insightful for prospective authors and reviewers. To further communicate our editorial perspectives, the first editorial for 2013 will offer some important pointers for authors to consider when preparing manuscripts for submission to IJPDLM.

The four manuscripts published in this issue reach across several important realms of strategic SCML research. First Wieland and Wallenburg examine a topic of rising importance in our field – governing risks in supply chain relationships. Their research titled “Dealing with supply chain risks: linking risk management practices and strategies to performance” examines some 270 firms employing both qualitative and quantitative analysis in an attempt to make an empirically grounded assessment of the influence of risk management strategy on performance. The results of their study indicate that both agility and robustness are important for improving performance. Agility has a positive impact on customer value alone while robustness has a positive impact on creating value for both the customer and the firm. These important findings set the stage for a deep stream of future studies on risk management. We hope everyone will take the time to read this manuscript.

Next, a group of our Greek colleagues provide us with a theoretically strong discussion of supply chain seasonality in “Critical realism in supply chain research: understanding the dynamics of a seasonal goods supply chain.” Adamides, Papachristos, and Pomonis do what we continue to ask all authors to do – embed specific theory into their work. Additionally, this observational ethnographic approach details how the critical realist perspective and its pluralistic research methodology can support root cause analysis related to very complex supply chain phenomena. Of particular emphasis is the importance of accounting for both the promotional bias of the manufacturer and the risk management attitude of resellers. We applaud the authors for working through the rather difficult review process on this manuscript and we ask readers to note that the IJPDLM editorial team is truly open to nearly any form of methodology.

Another emerging topic area of increasing importance is SCML public-private partnerships. Juntunen, Juntunen, and Autere examine, “Outsourcing strategies of the security sector through acquisition procedures” using their governmental security expertise to examine the sometimes cloudy world of outsourcing. The findings of their work indicate that negotiating power and relationships do not always impact direct costs in public sector contexts. As such, the costing of such activities is attributed to improved service levels and thus indirect logistics costs. Given that public sector bidding and costing is often predicated on direct costs alone, researchers and practitioners are warned to move beyond the obvious to assess costs that are more “indirect.”

Finally, IJPDLM is a strategic journal meaning that mathematical modeling and experiment-based manuscripts are published less frequently. This is not because of the chosen method. Rather, over the past two years, the fatal flaws with most of these type of manuscripts submitted to IJPDLM have been related to major limitations in study research implications and practical managerial takeaways due to unrealistic constraints. However, as mentioned earlier, IJPDLM is open to most methods and the final manuscript by Hussain, Drake, and Lee is an example of a model targeted to the needs of our SCML readership. Their research titled, “Quantifying the impact of a supply chains design parameters on the bullwhip effect using simulation and Taguchi design of experiments,” looks into causes of the bullwhip effect while quantifying cause impact and interactions. Ultimately they suggest how managers may address these issues.

In closing, we would like the readers and authors of IJPDLM to note that these four papers present four different methods across four different important topics in strategic SCML. The authors of just these four manuscripts reside in the Finland, Germany, Greece, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and the UK. Additionally, the reviewers of these manuscripts call Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Spain, and the US home. This is just a bit more evidence that we at IJPDLM continue to strive to be the most inclusive and global journal for SCML research. Please continue to send us you best work!

Alexander E. Ellinger, R. Glenn Richey Jr