Multidisciplinary and Multimethod Research for Addressing Contemporary Supply Chain Challenges

o achieve differential performance in today’s marketplace, supply chain decision makers must manage complex, multifaceted, andnuanced issues. To help decision makers, and advance the supply chain discipline, researchers need to consider how multidisciplin-ary and⁄or multimethod research can provide greater insight into today’s and tomorrow’s challenges and opportunities. We explorequestions related to the supply chain–finance interface and global supply chain management to exemplify how multidisciplinary andmultimethod research can increase the insight and influence of our research contributions.Keywords: supply chain management; research methodology; multidisciplinary; multimethodTHE EVOLVING LANDSCAPEThe competitive landscape is changing. The challenges man-agers face—for example, globalization, process integration,risk management, and sustainability—are more complex andnuanced than in the past. For us to remain relevant as a dis-cipline, our research must provide insight into an evolvingenvironment and help decision makers develop the logisticsand supply chain capabilities needed to manage these chal-lenges successfully.Unfortunately, discipline-focused (i.e., myopic, siloed, orsingle-perspective) views limit our ability to address the com-plex, interdependent, and multidimensional research chal-lenges ahead. Likewise, single-method research is oftenunable to provide the rigorous breadth and depth of under-standing needed to generate research that is both ‘‘interestingand influential’’ (Fawcett and Waller 2011). Together, multi-disciplinary and multimethod research creates complementar-ity that adds richness to problem understanding.Importantly, logistics research, focused on operational topicssuch as order management, inventory, warehousing, andtransportation (Bowersox et al. 2010), has given rise to anintegrated focus across the organization and the supply chain(Frankel et al. 2008). Likewise, supply chain research hasincreasingly taken on a more strategic, boundary-spanningorientation toward value creation. We believe that a morepurposeful application of multidisciplinary and multimethodresearch approaches can help advance the logistics and sup-ply chain disciplines. Our purpose is therefore to call for,and exemplify, the use of multidisciplinary and multimethodapproaches.LEARNING VIA MULTIPLE LENSES AND METHODSSupply chain management (SCM) is a strategic discipline thatrequires internal and external integration of the flows of mate-rials, information, and funds (Chopra and Meindl 2010), andmust extend traditional competitive strategic priorities, suchas cost, quality, delivery, flexibility, and innovation (Wardet al. 1998) to areas such as globalization, sustainability, andrisk. To make a more meaningful contribution, researchers areincreasingly required to go beyond traditional perspectivesand take multidisciplinary and multimethod approaches.Multidisciplinary research is research that involves bring-ing together research from two or more disciplines in anintegrative manner (Klein 1996; Ausburg 2006). Similarlymultimethod research involves the utilization of multiplemethodologies, either from the same or different disciplines,to study a phenomenon (Roth 2007; Boyer and Swink 2008;Davis et al. 2011). The research complexities of SCM war-rant the increased use of multidisciplinary perspectives offer-ing the opportunity to draw from broader sources of data,methods, and expertise. Reliance on multiple methods tostudy a phenomenon enhances rigor and reliability of find-ings. The result is greater insights into research problems,reduction in the myopic, disciplined-based perspective, andgreater potential for innovative SCM breakthroughs.Table 1 depicts four contemporary SCM topic areas andhow multidisciplinary and multimethod approaches can beapplied to develop more complete and holistic solutions. Wenext explore questions related to the supply chain–financeinterface and global SCM to provide exemplars of multiper-spective multimethod use.Supply chain–finance interfaceWhile researchers have extensively studied supply chain per-formance measurement (Griffis et al. 2004) and the variouscomponents of working capital (and in particular inventory)(e.g., Eroglu and Hofer 2010; Protopappa-Sieke and Seifert2010), there are numerous topics at the supply chain–financeinterface that warrant further study.Corresponding author:Nada R. Sanders, College of Business and Economics, Depart-ment of Management, Lehigh University, 621 Taylor Street,Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA; E-mail: nrs209@lehigh.eduJournal of Business Logistics, 2011, 32(4): 317–323 Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals