Research and Management Insights

Effective management of supply chains requires integration and synchronization of processes across suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, and stores. When successful, supply chain projects (such as, electronic data interchange, vendor managed inventory, and consignment warehousing) present significant opportunities for channel partners to achieve this requirement. Hence, supply chain project success—for example, the timely attainment of project goals within budgetary constraints—necessitates closer examination. To do so, Andreas Brinkhoff, € Ozalp € Ozer, and G€ okc e Sargut interviewed representatives of large manufacturing firms and retailers (with annual revenues in excess of 250 Million Euros) and collected extensive survey data on successful and unsuccessful projects. The data was used to test a model of success that explores the effects of trust and dependence between partners, as well as factors directly related to projects such as betweenfirm communication and within-firm commitment. The authors empirically show that trust between partners is important in shaping communication and employee/top management commitment within each firm, leading to project success. Another finding is that dependence between partners – generally assumed to pose significant challenges for partnerships – has very little influence on project success. The authors also categorize supply chain projects according to their decision rights configuration. This categorization provides a powerful conceptual tool in determining how success factors can have different impact on performance based on the characteristics of a project. The findings provide insights on how to effectively manage supply chain projects.