8 research idea notes tagged “supply chain”. Read them as Markdown, JSON or an Atom feed.
Trade credit appears on 112 recent papers, but only 3 of them carry an interest-rate or monetary-policy keyword. When bank credit gets dearer, firms lean on their suppliers and delay paying them. Does trade credit carry monetary tightening down the supply chain, and who ends up financing whom?
Papers in the last 30 days — trade credit: 3 · financial constraints: 28
Supply chain concentration and supply chain relationships are among the fastest-growing keywords across the tracked journals. Finance papers treat a dominant customer as risk; management papers treat it as dependence, through resource dependence theory. The two rarely meet. Does depending on one big customer make suppliers more innovative or more fragile?
Papers in the last 30 days — supply chain concentration: 2 · resource dependence theory: 4
Supply chain finance appears on 101 recent papers, mostly in the finance and operations research journals, but only 32 of them carry a risk, default, disclosure, accounting or fintech keyword, and reverse factoring on one. Since the Greensill collapse, firms must disclose these programmes. Who bears the risk, and does disclosure change pricing?
Papers in the last 30 days — supply chain finance: 6
Child labour, forced labour, modern slavery and human rights due diligence appear on 41 recent papers, with 13 in the last quarter against about 9 per quarter before, and 12 of them carry a supply-chain or supplier keyword. Germany's supply chain law, the EU directive and import bans on forced-labour goods now require firms to check suppliers. Do the checks find anything, and do suppliers change?
Remanufacturing and closed-loop supply chains are growing in the operations research journals, and the first large wave of electric-vehicle batteries is reaching the end of its first life. Should a used battery go to stationary storage, to remanufacturing or straight to recycling, and who should decide?
Papers in the last 30 days — remanufacturing: 2 · closed-loop supply chain: 4
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?
Papers in the last 30 days — supply chain transparency: 2 · traceability: 2
Agent-based modelling is rising in the operations research journals, and firms are starting to let AI agents place orders. The bullwhip effect, where small swings in demand grow larger up the supply chain, appears on only 9 recent papers, and just one of them carries an agent or AI keyword. Do AI ordering agents dampen the bullwhip, or amplify it when they all react to the same signals?
Papers in the last 30 days — bullwhip effect: 2 · agent-based modeling: 2
Supply chain coordination is growing in the operations research journals, along with emissions trading and carbon pricing. For most firms, the Scope 3 emissions of their supply chains dwarf their own, yet "Scope 3 emissions" appears on only 9 recent papers. Which contracts get suppliers to decarbonize, and who pays?
Papers in the last 30 days — supply chain coordination: 12 · Scope 3 emissions: 1