Assessing Performance and Risk in Complex Supply Chains and Tying Performance Measures to Strategic Concepts

ABSTRACT Despite the popular notion that ‘supply chains rather than individual firms compete’, an intensive review of supply-chain performance metrics proposed in published works reveals that most measures apply to individual supply-chain participants and relationships with specific supply-chain partners, rather than to the supply chain as a whole. Indicators of supply-chain risk (or stability) tend to have a broader view but are less developed and receive less attention by managers of supply-chain functions. Tying measures to strategic concepts helps to show interrelationships among strategic goals and the trade-offs that can occur as particular strategies are employed to improve supply-chain performance. We find that more research is needed on how to assess competitive dynamics and opportunism within supply chains and to assess the costs and risks associated with international business activity.