Seeing past the first tier
Supply chain transparency, traceability and visibility appear on 83 recent papers, and the topic is fading, with 16 in the last quarter against about 19 per quarter before. Most disruptions and most forced-labour and emissions problems sit beyond the first tier of suppliers, where firms rarely look. How far can visibility be built, and does it pay?
What prompted this
Since October 2025, 83 papers carry a supply-chain-visibility, supply-chain-mapping, multi-tier, supply-chain-transparency or traceability keyword (24 in management journals, 20 in AI, 17 in operations research): "supply chain transparency" on 35, "traceability" on 15, "supply chain traceability" on 8, "supply chain visibility" on 5. Sixteen were published in July–September 2026 against about 19 per quarter earlier.
Questions
- When firms map their suppliers' suppliers, how often do they find shared sub-tier suppliers that make their alternative sources less alternative than they thought?
- Do firms that mapped deeper before 2020 recover faster from disruptions, and do investors reward disclosed mapping?
- Can shipping manifests and customs data reconstruct sub-tier networks well enough for risk management, without suppliers' cooperation?
Data that could help
Bill-of-lading and customs data (for example from Panjiva or ImportGenius), supplier disclosure lists, and disruption event records.
Next step
Reconstruct the two-tier supply network of a set of electronics firms from shipping manifests and measure how concentrated the second tier is.