Agile Supply Chain Management: International Differences in Its Identified Enablers and Outcomes

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Agile supply chain management: International

differences in its identified enablers and outcomes

Student name: Tom Krikke
Student number: 2056992
E-mail address: tomkrikke3@gmail.com
Name of the thesis supervisor: Drs. K. Heijnen
Faculty: FEWEB
Program: International Business Administration

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Purpose: The body of literature about agile supply chains has been growing since its conception in
1994. With it, the amount of identified enablers and outcomes of the technique has steadily been
increasing. A comprehensive study of these enablers and outcomes has, to my knowledge, never been
executed. The purpose of this literature review therefore is to study the international differences in
identified enablers and outcomes of agile supply chain management, in order to find whether there is
consensus within the field of research. A conclusion about the degree of consensus can provide
context to the done research, and can contribute possible ways in which the field of study could or
should continue.
Design/methodology/approach: This paper is a literature review of published articles about agile
supply chain management, based on a search for literature performed in the ISI Web of Science
database on April 10, 2013. The study is partitioned in a qualitative and quantitative section. The
qualitative section investigates the international differences in identified enablers and outcomes in 77
articles, published in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. The quantitative section aims to identify the trends
in the international sources of agile supply chain literature using 315 articles, published from 1994
until April 10, 2013.
Findings: In the case of enablers, authors from developing Asia focus more on issues within the
boundaries of firms or their departments, and authors from the western world are more interested in
enablers spanning the boundaries of firms and their departments. This leads one to believe that the
degree of consensus internationally regarding enablers is low. In case of outcomes, nothing can be said
about the degree of consensus. In addition to this, the influence of authors working in the US or the
UK is decreasing, literature from developing Asia is becoming more and more abundant, and the share
of published literature from the western world by countries other than the US and the UK is surpassing
the share of the US and the UK.
Conclusions: This study is limited by the scope of both the qualitative and quantitative parts. Other,
more valid conclusions might have been drawn if more literature would have been reviewed. The
described trends lead to a future where the field of agile supply chain management is likely to be
dominated by practical papers from developing Asia, rather than theoretical papers from the US and
the UK. It is important that the reasons for and the consequences of the apparent trends are
investigated, in addition to reconciling conflicting views of the topic. This might create a body of
knowledge about agile supply chains that focuses on all aspects of the technique, can be evaluated,
and can be put in context.
Keywords: Agile supply chain management, agile manufacturing, enablers, outcomes, international
differences

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Since the early 1990s, the concept of supply chain management has gained popularity (Cooper et al.,
1997; Mentzer et al., 2001). This is reflected in the exponential increase in the amount of literature on
this subject in the past two decades. During this period, multiple methods and techniques emerged
within the discipline. Lean and agile supply chain management (ASCM) are examples of these
methods. This paper will focus on the literature regarding agile supply chains and will provide an
encompassing review of this body of literature covering several of the concepts aspects.
In this review, the definition of supply chain management coined by members of the Council
of Supply Chain Management Professionals is used. This council defines supply chain management as
encompassing the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement,
conversion, and all logistics management activities. According to this leading association of supply
chain professionals, supply chain management also includes coordination and collaboration with
channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third party service providers, and customers.
(Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, 2013).
The concept of agility in the supply chain, the subject of this study, was also introduced in the
early 1990s (Kidd, 1995; Nagel and Dove, 1991). Naylor et al. (1999), however, stated a
comprehensive definition of agility for the first time. They defined the term as using market
knowledge and a virtual corporation to exploit profitable opportunities in a volatile market place. The
emphasis on the word volatile was further clarified by Martin Christopher, who identified flexibility as
a key factor in the concept of agility (Christopher, 2000). Flexibility in this sense refers to a
companys ability to meet the demands of customers for ever-shorter delivery times and to ensure
that supply can be synchronized to meet the peaks and troughs of demand (Christopher, 2000).
Responsiveness is thus an important element of the agile supply chain.
This literature review will investigate whether there is consensus within the literature about
ASCM regarding the enablers and outcomes of its use. In special, this paper will examine whether the
differences found within the literature exist along international borders. These international differences
are interesting to research, since the economic center of gravity in the world we live in is shifting.
International differences in the literature about ASCM might therefore say something about the future
of research assessing agile supply chains. If structural holes are identified within the network of
literature, this could provide avenues for further research, which could help create a common body of
knowledge. The purpose of this paper can thus be captured in the following research question:

What are the international differences in the research of agile supply chains regarding the method's
identified enablers and outcomes?

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In order to fully answer this question, this study is divided in a qualitative and a quantitative literature
review. Both parts of the study use papers found in a structured search for ASCM literature.
The qualitative section will examine the two highlighted aspects of literature about agile
supply chains. First, the international differences in the identified enablers of agile supply chains will
be assessed. Then, the same will be done for the identified outcomes of agile supply chains.
The quantitative section will identify the international sources of agile supply chain literature
and empirical research on the topic. Here, the most influential references and the origins of ASCM
literature throughout the years will also be investigated. This part of the review is used in an attempt to
clarify and explain some of the conclusions of the qualitative analysis.
The paper will end with a discussion of the results of the literature review and several
propositions about the international differences in the research of agile supply chains. In addition to
this, the limitations of the study will be discussed and suggestions for further research will be named.
Finally, a conclusion to the work will be described.

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In order to do the qualitative literature review, a complete view of the existing literature about agile
supply chains needed to be gained. This oversight was obtained by searching the ISI Web of Science
database.
In this database, the search was limited to the areas of Business & Economics and Operations
Research & Management Science. This efficiently excluded possibly irrelevant literature from other
areas of research. The topics used in the search were Supply Chain and Manufacturing. The reason for
this is that literature from before the concept of supply chain management was popular needed to be
included. In older literature, namely, the term agile manufacturing was more often used than the term
agile supply chain management. Using both topics thus increased the scope of the review. The third
used topic was Agile. This word was used in order to focus the search on the research field of agile
supply chain management as opposed to supply chain management in general. The addition of
keywords such as Responsive or On-Demand was considered, but the use of these words greatly
polluted the dataset. Hence, the following search string was used: (SU=(Business & Economics OR
Operations Research & Management Science) AND TS=(Supply Chain OR Manufacturing) AND
TS=(Agile)). The search was not restricted in terms of time span or databases, and it was conducted on
10

April 2013.

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The search produced 315 papers, a list of which can be viewed in the excel supplement to this paper.
Due to time constraints, it was not possible to analyze all of the articles. The decision was therefore
made to perform the qualitative analysis on the papers written in the years 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
This resulted in 77 articles. The assumption was made that analyzing the most recent papers would
result in a complete view of agile supply chains, since the field of research would have matured in
comparison with the years before. It is, however, possible that this selection resulted in a loss of
information only published before 2010. The complete scope was retained for the quantitative
analysis. A list of the 77 papers, their IDs, titles, main authors, the publishing journals, and their years
of publication is shown in appendix 1. This list also shows whether outcomes or enablers were
extracted from a specific article.
In figure 1, the journals with a paper count of more than 5 are shown for the entire dataset of
315 articles. As can be seen in the figure, three journals combined published nearly 50% of all the
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papers in the field of research from 1994 until 2013. These journals are the International Journal of
Production Research, the International Journal of Production Economics, and the International
Journal of Operations Production Management.

Figure 1: The journals with the most articles about agile supply chain management from 1994 until
2013 in the dataset.

The entire set of papers spanned the period from 1994 until 2013. A diagram showing the number of
publications per year is shown below as figure 2. The exact year of publication per article can be
found in the appendix. As can be seen in the figure, the number of published items per year has been
increasing since 1994, with peaks in 1997, 1999, 2002, 2007, 2009, and 2011. It seems that the
number 2012, the last full year covered in this review, represents a trough or the beginning of a
decrease in the amount of published ASCM papers. The number for 2013 is not representative for the
full year, since the search was performed at 10 April 2013. As mentioned before, only the articles
published in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 are examined in the qualitative section of this paper. The
number of publications in those years were, respectively, 24, 32, 19, and 2.

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Figure 2: Number of published items per year in the dataset.

In the process of narrowing down the analysis to the 77 most recent articles, the list of most important
journals also changed, naturally. Below, in figure 3, all journals that published 2 or more articles about
ASCM in the years from 2010 until 2013 are shown.

Figure 3: The journals with the most articles about agile supply chain management from 2010 until
2013 in the dataset.

It becomes clear in the diagram that the hierarchy of most important journals has changed. Although
the top three journals still combine for roughly half of all publications about agile supply chains, the
composition and point of gravity in the top three is different. The International Journal of Production
9
Research now makes up for almost one third of the fields publications. In addition to this, the
International Journal of Production Economics is still ranked second on the list, while Supply Chain
Management: An International Journal has occupied the third place. It is clear in this analysis that the
International Journal of Production Research and the International Journal of Production Economics
are the most important journals in the field of ASCM. The dominance of these two journals has not
changed over the last years.
When shifting the view to the main authors in the field of research, one can see that from both
the period from 1994 until 2013, and 2010 until 2013, Vinodh was the most active author in the field
of ASCM. Most of Vinodhs contributions were published in the years from 2010 until 2013,
however, with collaboration in 10 articles, or roughly 13% of the total. Vinodh works at the Indian
National Institute of Technology (Vinodh and Aravindraj, 2013). The reason for the high amount of
papers written by this author is that Vinodh has published and tested a framework of enablers of
ASCM. Every test or case study was published separately in collaboration with different co-authors.
Naturally, this way of working amounts to a large number of articles published by an author.

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For the qualitative analysis, the identified enablers, outcomes, and country of origin for each paper
were extracted. The detailed results of this procedure are shown in the excel supplement to this paper.
An enabler was defined as a factor that enables a supply chain to be agile. An outcome was defined as
a result of a supply chain being agile for individual companies that form the supply chain or the
supply chain as a whole. Finally, the country of origin of a paper was defined as the institution to
which the author(s) of a paper is/are linked. The latter is always mentioned on the first page of an
article.
The summarized results of this procedure are included in this paper as appendix 1. Of the 77
papers examined for the qualitative analysis, 21 were not relevant for the analysis of enablers and
outcomes, as these articles did not name any enablers or outcomes of ASCM. Many of these papers
described leagility, a supply chain concept that mixes both the lean and agile techniques. As this
review only entails papers describing ASCM, leagility will not be considered in the rest of this report.
Three of the 77 articles were not available. This left 53 papers, of which 31 described at least one
outcome of agile supply chains, while 49 described at least one enabler of the technique. In figures 4
and 5, the countries of origin for papers that named enablers or outcomes are shown.

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Figure 4: The number of papers naming at least one outcome per country.

Figure 5: The number of papers naming at least one enabler per country.

Figure 4 shows that the three main contributors to ASCM literature regarding the techniques
outcomes in the period from 2010 until 2013 are India, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
These three countries have produced the overwhelming majority of outcomes in ASCM literature.
Figure 5 shows a lead by the same three countries. In this case, however, the United Kingdom
has contributed most to ASCM literature regarding its enablers, followed by India and the United
States. It is also interesting to see here that the gap between the third and fourth place is not as large as
is the case in the literature regarding agile supply chains outcomes. The difference in the case of
enablers is 3, whereas the same gap is 5 in the case of outcomes.
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When one sums up the numbers in both figure 4 and figure 5, one sees that these numbers do
not add up to 31 and 49, respectively. The reason for this is that, in several articles, multiple authors
with varying nationalities collaborated. In these cases, that specific article is counted as a single entry
for each contributing nation.
It is important to mention here that both in case of enablers and outcomes, all but one of the
Indian articles are written by Vinodh.

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In this section, the results of the analysis regarding the origin of ASCMs enablers will first be
examined, after which the focus will be shifted to ASCMs outcomes.

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As mentioned above, an enabler was defined as a factor that enables a supply chain to be agile. Using
this definition, it was found that 49 of the 77 articles about ASCM published from 2010 until 2013
described at least one enabler. All other papers did not name any enablers. The enablers, the IDs of the
papers that discussed them, and the origin of these articles are shown in appendix 2. The table shown
in appendix 2 was too large to be placed conveniently inside this papers text.
Appendix 2 shows 9 categories of enablers, which were inspired by the 10 attributes of an
agile organization by Yusuf et al. (1999). Even though this publication is relatively old and does not
lie within the scope of this review, it is still cited often. The article is one of the top ten cited articles
within the field (shown in table 5), and has accounted for an average of 7 percent of all citations of the
top ten each year from 2006 until 2013. This means that the attributes described by these authors are
still relevant. The categories named by the authors in this article are integration, competence, team
building, technology, quality, change, partnership, market, education, and welfare. A table extracted
from the article by Yusuf et al. (1999) is shown below as figure 6.
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Figure 6: The 10 attributes of an agile organization by Yusuf et al. (1999).

The enablers described by the examined papers did not fall into all of the categories named by Yusuf
et al. (1999). This means that the attributes of an agile organization as described in this publication do
not completely correspond with the view of authors publishing from 2010 until 2013. For this reason,
not every category described by Yusuf et al. (1999) was used, some categories were added, and the
scope of several other categories was adjusted. The ten attributes of an agile organization by Yusuf et
al. (1999) were therefore rather used as an instrument to help orientating than as a manual set in stone.
The resulting 9 categories of enablers are thus the following:

Enablers regarding A focus on people/employees/organization;
Team working;
Integration with supply chain partners;
Managerial enablers and a focus on change;
A focus on learning/education;
Technology;
A focus on the product, production, and logistics;
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Internal integration;
And regarding a focus on the market/environment.

Appendix 2 shows that all of these categories contain enablers, while some also contain sub-enablers.
Not every category contains the same amount of enablers, though. Team Working, for example, only
contains two enablers, while focus on the product, production, and logistics contains 14 enablers and
16 sub-enablers.
In the second column, all paper IDs are shown, in order to enable a search in appendix 1. In
the third column, the geographical origin of the articles naming a specific outcome of ASCM is
named. Whenever a number between parentheses is added, this means that multiple papers from that
specific country describe the outcome in question. The fact that Vinodh is an author of multiple
articles in the dataset was mentioned before. Especially the articles with IDs 10, 17, 72, and 73 are
very similar, as they all name exactly the same enablers. In order to make sure the analysis stays
balanced, any combination of two, three, or all of these four articles was counted as a single case. This
was not done for any other author, since there is no author with more than three contributions in this
time span.
The issue of interest here is whether the identified enablers of ASCM differ per country. In
order to analyze this, one needs to find out whether the proportions of the origins of articles naming
specific enablers are different from the overall proportions of the origins of articles naming enablers.
One has to calculate several things in order to analyze the differences between countries in the
identified enablers of ASCM. It is impossible to draw relevant conclusions on the basis of an
examination of individual countries, so the spectrum of originating countries was divided into four
groups. These groups are based on GDP per capita according to The World Factbook (2013), in
addition to the countrys geographical position. The first group is developing Asia, which encompasses
the literature from China, India, and Iran. The second group is developed Asia, and contains all papers
from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. The third group is the western world, which
contains the United States, Canada, Australia, and all of Europe with the exclusion of Russia. The last
group is the rest of the world. This group only contains the literature from Russia and South Africa. In
appendix 2, 122 entries were made for articles that can be put in the developing Asia group. Twenty-
five entries in the dataset belong to the second group, developed Asia, while 163 cases are classified as
coming from the western world. Only 9 cases come from countries that are part of the fourth group,
the rest of the world. The sum of the number of entries is thus 319.
The overall proportions of the origins of articles naming enablers of ASCM are shown in table
1 and figure 7. These overall proportions form the expectation for the proportions of the respective
categories.

14
Groups Proportions
Developing Asia 122/319=0,38
Developed Asia 25/319=0,08
Western world 163/319=0,51
Rest of the world 9/319=0,03
Table 1: The overall proportions of the origins of articles naming enablers of ASCM, which form the
expectation for the proportions per category of enablers.

Figure 7: The overall proportions of the origins of articles naming enablers of ASCM, which form the
expectation for the proportions per category of enablers.

It becomes clear in table 1 and figure 7 that slightly more than half of the cases in which enablers were
identified in this study originated in the western world. Developing Asia also forms a large source, to
which around two fifths of the cases can be attributed. Developed Asia and the rest of the world both
only represent small sources in this part of the review. The numbers in table 1 will be compared with
the proportions of the origin of articles naming individual categories of enablers. In this way, it can be
assessed whether authors from certain parts of the world identify specific enablers more often than
authors working at an institution in another group. The findings regarding this question will be
presented in the order of the categories shown in appendix 2. For each category, a pie chart of the
proportions is described. In each pie chart, the number of cases is shown in the relevant area of the
chart itself, while the proportions are shown between parentheses in the legend.
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Figure 8: Proportions of enablers regarding a focus on people, employees, and the organization.

Firstly, a look is taken at the enablers regarding a focus on people, employees, and the organization
Figure 8 clearly shows a large difference with the overall proportions in the cases of the developing
Asia and western world groups. Authors from developing Asia thus more often identify enablers
regarding a focus on people, employees and the organization than their western counterparts.

Figure 9: Proportions of enablers regarding team working.

Next, ASCMs enablers regarding team working are considered. Again, the figure 9 indicates a large
difference with the overall proportions of the developing Asia and western world groups. One can thus
say that authors who work in developing Asia more often identify enablers regarding team working
than their western counterparts. It is important to mention here, however, that the number of 7 papers
mentioning enablers regarding team working is very low. This might make the conclusions in this
aspect less valid.
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16

Figure 10: Proportions of enablers regarding integration with supply chain partners.

Thirdly, enablers regarding integration with supply chain partners are examined. In this category, less
large differences with the overall proportions can be found. The amount of enablers of ASCM
regarding integration with supply chain partners described by authors working in developing Asia is
slightly lower than expected, while the same number is slightly higher than expected for authors from
the western world. It seems, however, that authors from different countries all equally recognize the
importance of integration with supply chain partners.

Figure 11: Proportions of enablers regarding management and a focus on change.

If one shifts the view to the fourth enabling factor, management and a focus on change, one can see a
clear difference with the overall proportions in the case of developing Asia and the western world.
This difference implies that authors working in developing Asia identify enablers of ASCM regarding
management and a focus on change more often than expected, while authors from the western world
describe the same enablers less often than expected.

44
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Figure 12: Proportions of enablers regarding a focus on learning and education.

The fifth category of enablers is the focus on learning and education. This category again shows a
difference, implying that authors from developing Asia identify enablers regarding learning and
education more often than authors from the western world. One has to be cautious in this case,
however, since a number of 9 entries is very low, which makes conclusions in this case less valid.

Figure 13: Proportions of enablers regarding technology.

The category analyzed next contains the technologic enablers of ASCM. The proportions visible in
figure 13 are different from the overall proportions, although the difference is not large. The
proportions show that authors from developing Asia are more inclined to identify technologic enablers
than they are expected to be. Authors working in the western world identified slightly less technologic
enablers than expected, but this difference is very small. Notable absentees in this category are the
countries from the developed Asia-group. Authors from this group did not name enablers regarding
technology, when the expectation would be 2 entries from this part of the world.

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(u,uS)
18

Figure 14: Proportions of enablers regarding the product, its production, and the logistics system.

The seventh category that is examined is the category that contains all enablers regarding the product,
its production, and the logistics system. These enablers often overlapped, which is the reason why they
are categorized together. This category does not show any major differences with the overall
proportions, although several interesting points can be named. Authors working in developing Asia
identified enablers of ASCM regarding the product, its production, and logistics less often than
expected. On the other hand, authors from the rest of the world described enablers in this category
twice as often as expected. The latter statistic is based on a very low number, however, and this could
decrease its validity. The overall conclusion in this case is that the importance of enablers regarding
product, production, and logistics seems to be recognized equally worldwide.

Figure 15: Proportions of enablers regarding internal integration.

Next, the enablers regarding internal integration are assessed. The proportions visible in figure 15
differ from the overall proportions on the points of the number of entries from developing Asia and the
western world. It seems that authors from the western world recognize the importance of enablers of
S6
21
7
4
Westein woilu
(u,SS)
Beveloping Asia
(u,S1)
Bevelopeu Asia
(u,1u)
Rest of the woilu
(u,u6)
2S
1u
S
1
Westein woilu
(u,64)
Beveloping Asia
(u,26)
Bevelopeu Asia
(u,u7)
Rest of the woilu
(u,uS)
19
ASCM regarding internal integration more often than expected, while their colleagues from
developing Asia recognize the importance of these enablers less often than expected.

Figure 16: Proportions of enablers regarding a focus on the market and environment.

Finally, the enablers of ASCM regarding a focus on the market and environment were investigated.
The differences in this case are quite small. It seems that enablers regarding a focus on the market and
environment are identified in equal amounts internationally, although the western world identifies
these enablers slightly more often than expected.
In table 2, the findings are summarized in the order of investigation.

Category of ASCM
enablers
Findings
A focus on
people/employees/
organization
Authors from developing Asia identify enablers in this category more often than their
western counterparts.
Team working

Authors who work in developing Asia more often identify enablers in this category than
their western counterparts. The number of papers naming enablers in this category is very
low, however.
Integration with supply
chain partners

The amount of enablers in this category described by authors working in developing Asia is
slightly lower than expected, while the same number is slightly higher than expected for
authors from the western world. It seems, however, that authors from different countries all
equally recognize the importance of enablers in this category.
Managerial enablers and
a focus on change
Authors working in developing Asia identify enablers in this category more often than
expected, while authors from the western world describe the same enablers less often than
expected.
A focus on Authors from developing Asia identify enablers in this category more often than authors
22
1S
S
Westein woilu
(u,S8)
Beveloping Asia
(u,S4)
Bevelopeu Asia
(u,u8)
2u
learning/education

from the western world. One has to be cautious in this case, however, since the number of 9
entries is very low.
Technology

Authors from developing Asia are more inclined to identify enablers in this category than
they are expected to be. Authors working in the western world identified slightly less
technologic enablers than expected, but this difference is very small. Notable absentees in
this category are the countries from the developed Asia-group, who did not name enablers
regarding technology, when the expectation would be 2 entries.
A focus on the product,
production, and logistics

Authors working in developing Asia identified enablers in this category less often than
expected. Authors from the rest of the world described enablers in this category twice as
often as expected. The latter statistic is based on a very low number, however, and this
could decrease its validity. The overall conclusion in this case is that the importance of
enablers in this category seems to be recognized equally worldwide.
Internal integration

It seems that authors from the western world recognize the importance of enablers in this
category more often than expected, while their colleagues from developing Asia recognize
the importance of these enablers less often than expected.
A focus on the
market/environment
The differences in this case are quite small. It seems that enablers in this category are
identified in equal amounts internationally, although the western world identifies these
enablers slightly more often than expected.
Table 2: Summary of the conclusions about the international differences in the identified enablers of
ASCM.

The limitations of this study have to be clarified at this point. All the conclusions in table 2 are based
on the performed search in the ISI Web of Science article database. As this search does not cover the
entire body of ASCM literature published in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013, the conclusions become less
meaningful.
Further conclusions and implications of the analysis regarding the international differences in
the identified enablers of agile supply chains are given in section 4, which discusses this papers
findings and suggestions for further research.

;1;1; 4*+&5*#+9'*#% 69((&5&*8&, 9* +H& 96&*+9(9&6 '7+8'I&, '( #L9%& ,7DD%K 8H#9*,

As mentioned before, an outcome was defined as a result of a supply chain being agile for individual
companies that form the supply chain or the supply chain as a whole. Using this definition, it was
found that 31 of the 77 articles published from 2010 until 2013 described at least one outcome. The
other papers did not explicitly mention outcomes of ASCM, but often did implicitly include them by
defining ASCM as, for example, using market knowledge and a virtual corporation to exploit
21
profitable opportunities in a volatile market place, which is the definition coined by Naylor et al.
(1999). The use of this definition or similar ones implies the assumption that an agile supply chain is
better able to compete in volatile markets than other supply chain techniques. It is thus important to
realize that virtually any paper concerning ASCM assumes the following: An agile supply chain is
more responsive and thus better able to function in a volatile environment than an non-agile supply
chain.
In this literature review, the focus does not lie on implied outcomes, but rather in outcomes
that were explicitly mentioned and based on empirical evidence. Using this criterion, one finds that 31
papers described at least one such outcome. These outcomes, the IDs of the articles that discussed
them, and the origin of the articles are shown in appendix 3.
Appendix 3 shows the following 9 categories of outcomes:

Organizational outcomes;
Production-process-related outcomes;
Product-related outcomes;
Performance-related outcomes;
Cost-related outcomes;
Uncertainty-related outcomes;
Increased flexibility;
Increased responsiveness;
And strategic outcomes.

These 9 categories contain 21 outcomes and 4 sub-outcomes, most of which are positive. Outcomes
have been allocated to categories in order to enable the more effective drawing of conclusions. In the
second column, all paper IDs are shown, in order to enable a search in appendix 1. In the third column,
the geographical origin of the articles naming a specific outcome of ASCM is named. Whenever a
number between parentheses is added, this means that multiple papers from that specific country
describe the outcome in question. When examining enablers, any combination of papers 10, 17, 72,
and 73 was counted as a single case, but, since the outcomes in these papers are dissimilar, the articles
can be counted separately in this part of the review.
Two outcomes, increased flexibility and increased responsiveness, form their own categories,
since they cannot be allocated to one of the other categories, and because these two outcomes are
described often. Only two outcomes of ASCM, higher costs and the increased amount of waste, are
negative. These outcomes, however, are only mentioned twice and once, respectively. It is clear in the
table that some positive outcomes are mentioned more often than others, and that the geographical
origin of these outcomes is often dissimilar. The outcome of ASCM that is described most is increased
responsiveness, which is mentioned in 13 articles. The ability to shorten lead times, increased
22
flexibility, and the ability to deal with an uncertain environment or market are also mentioned in 9, 8,
and 7 articles, respectively. 11 of the outcomes and 8 of the sub-outcomes are only mentioned once or
twice.
The categories of outcomes of ASCM that are mentioned most are production-process-
related, product-related, and uncertainty-related outcomes, in addition to increased responsiveness.
The other five categories are described less frequently.
The issue of interest here is whether the identified outcomes of ASCM differ per country. In
order to analyze this, one needs to find out whether the proportions of the origins of articles naming
specific outcomes are different from the overall proportions of the origins of articles naming
outcomes.
The spectrum of originating countries was again separated into the four groups described in
section 2.2.1. In appendix 3, 36 entries were made for articles that can be put in the developing Asia
group. Eight entries in the dataset belong to the second group, developed Asia, while 64 cases are
classified as coming from the western world. No cases come from countries that are part of the fourth
group, the rest of the world, so this group will not be considered in this analysis. The sum of the
number of entries is 108.
The overall proportions of the origins of articles naming outcomes of ASCM are shown in
table 3 and figure 17. These overall proportions form the expectation for the proportions of the
respective categories.

Groups Proportions
Developing Asia 36/108=0,33
Developed Asia 8/108=0,08
Western world 64/108=0,59
Table 3: The overall proportions of the origins of articles naming outcomes of ASCM, which form the
expectation for the proportions per category of outcomes.
2S

Figure 17: The overall proportions of the origins of articles naming outcomes of ASCM, which form
the expectation for the proportions per category of outcomes.

As can be seen in table 3 and figure 17, the western world forms the largest cluster when it comes to
specifying outcomes of ASCM, as roughly three fifths of the total can be attributed to this category.
Developing Asia is the next largest group, being the source of one third of the provided cases of
described outcomes. Developed Asia forms a small group, as less than one tenth of the total amount of
the total amount of outcomes can be attributed to this group. The rest of the world, containing Russia
and South Africa, is not represented in this part of the paper. The numbers in table 3 will be compared
with the proportions of the origin of articles naming individual categories of outcomes. In this way,
one can find out whether authors from certain parts of the world identify specific outcomes more often
than authors working at an institution in another group. The findings regarding this question will be
presented in the order of the categories shown in appendix 3. For each category, a pie chart of the
proportions is described. In each pie chart, the number of cases is shown in the relevant area of the
chart itself, while the proportions are shown between parentheses in the legend.
u,S9
u,SS
u,u8
Westein woilu
Beveloping Asia
Bevelopeu Asia
24

Figure 18: Proportions of outcomes regarding organization.

Firstly, a look is taken at the category of organizational outcomes. In this case, only three entries of
outcomes were made, one for each of the three groups. Developing Asia, developed Asia, and the
western world all thus provided 0,33 of the total amount of entries. Since the number is so low, it is
impossible to draw a valid conclusion from this examination.

Figure 19: Proportions of outcomes regarding the production process.

Next, the focus is shifted to the production-process-related outcomes of ASCM. It is clear in figure 19
that the proportion of entries regarding production-process-related outcomes made by authors working
in developing Asia is higher than expected, while the proportion of entries made by western authors is
lower than expected. It thus seems that more weight is given in developing Asia to production-
process-related outcomes of ASCM than in the western world.
1
1
1
Westein woilu
(u,SS)
Beveloping Asia
(u,SS)
Bevelopeu Asia
(u,SS)
9
9
1
Westein woilu
(u,47)
Beveloping Asia
(u,47)
Bevelopeu Asia
(u,u6)
2S

Figure 20: Proportions of outcomes regarding the product.

Thirdly, examine product-related outcomes are examined. The findings in figure 20 are in line with the
expectations, and it thus seems that product-related outcomes are equally valued internationally. It is
interesting to notice, however, that authors working in developed Asia did not make not an entry in
this case while at least one description was expected from this group.

Figure 21: Proportions of outcomes regarding performance.

The fourth category, performance-related outcomes, is next in line. Only 5 cases of authors describing
outcomes in this category were found. The cases all came from authors working in the western world.
Even though the amount of entries is very low, it is interesting to see that no author from developing
Asia made a contribution to this category. It thus seems that performance-related outcomes are more
valued among western authors. Drawing conclusions on this limited amount of data is dangerous,
however, as they may not be valid.
12
6
Westein woilu
(u,SS)
Beveloping Asia
(u,67)
S
Westein woilu (1)
26

Figure 22: Proportions of outcomes regarding cost.

Next, cost-related outcomes of ASCM are considered. In total, 10 entries of cost-related outcomes
were made. Five of these were made by authors working in developing Asia, and 5 of these were made
by authors from the western world. It thus seems that authors from developing Asia are more inclined
to identify cost-related outcomes of ASCM than their western colleagues. However, once again, the
number of entries in this case is quite low, so any conclusion may be invalid.

Figure 23: Proportions of outcomes regarding uncertainty.

The sixth category is made up of uncertainty-related outcomes. The proportions visible in figure 23
show a distribution that is very different from the overall proportions, especially in the case of authors
from the western world and developing Asia. It thus seems that authors in the western world value
uncertainty-related outcomes more than their counterparts from developing Asia.
S S
Westein woilu
(u,S)
Beveloping Asia
(u,S)
14
2
2
Westein woilu
(u,78)
Beveloping Asia
(u,11)
Bevelopeu Asia
(u,11)
27

Figure 24: Proportions of outcomes regarding increased flexibility.

Increased flexibility is the next category in the analysis. The numbers shown in figure 24 do not differ
greatly from the expectations. An interesting point, though, is the high amount of entries made by
authors working in developed Asia. In spite of this, it seems that increased flexibility is an outcome of
ASCM that is identified in equal numbers in the different international groups.

Figure 25: Proportions of outcomes regarding increased responsiveness.

The eighth category looks at increased responsiveness. From the proportions shown in figure 25, one
can conclude that authors working in developing Asia identified increased responsiveness as an
outcome more often than expected, while authors from the western world identified this outcome less
often than expected.
S
S
2
Westein woilu
(u,S)
Beveloping Asia
(u,S)
Bevelopeu Asia
(u,2)
7
7
2
Westein woilu
(u,44)
Beveloping Asia
(u,44)
Bevelopeu Asia
(u,12S)
28

Figure 26: Proportions of outcomes regarding strategy.

Finally, the strategic outcomes of ASCM are investigated. The proportions shown in figure 26 are
close to the expectation, but conclusions might be invalid because of the low number of entries in this
case. It seems, however, that strategic outcomes of ASCM are equally valued in the different
international groups.
In table 4, the findings are summarized in the order of investigation.

Category of ASCM
outcomes
Findings
Organizational outcomes It is impossible to draw a valid conclusion from this examination, since the number
of entries is too low.
Production-process-
related outcomes
The proportion of entries made by authors working in developing Asia is higher
than expected, while the proportion of entries made by western authors is lower
than expected. It thus seems that more weight is given in developing Asia to this
category of outcomes than in the western world.
Product-related outcomes It seems that outcomes in this category are equally valued internationally. It is
interesting to notice, however, that authors working in developed Asia did not make
an entry in this case while at least one description was expected from this group.
Performance-related
outcomes
Even though the amount of entries is very low, it is interesting to see that no author
from developing Asia made a contribution to this category. It therefore seems that
outcomes in this category are more valued among western authors. Drawing
conclusions on this limited amount of data is dangerous, however, as they may not
be valid.
Cost-related outcomes It seems that authors from developing Asia are more inclined to identify outcomes
in this category than their western colleagues. However, once again, the number of
6
S
Westein woilu
(u,67)
Beveloping Asia
(u,SS)
29
entries in this case is quite low, so any conclusion may be invalid.
Uncertainty-related
outcomes
The proportions show a distribution that is very different from the overall
proportions, especially in the case of authors from the western world and
developing Asia. It thus seems that authors in the western world value outcomes in
this category more than their counterparts from developing Asia.
Increased flexibility An interesting point here is the high amount of entries made by authors working in
developed Asia. In spite of this, it seems that this outcome of ASCM is identified in
equal numbers in the different international groups.
Increased responsiveness Authors working in developing Asia identified this outcome more often than
expected, while authors from the western world identified this outcome less often
than expected.
Strategic outcomes It seems that this category of outcomes is equally valued in the different
international groups. However, our conclusions might be invalid because of the low
number of entries in this case.
Table 4: Summary of the conclusions about the international differences in the identified outcomes of
ASCM.

The limitations of this study again have to be clarified at this point. All the conclusions in table 4 are
based on the performed search in the ISI Web of Science article database. As this search does not
cover the entire body of ASCM literature published in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013, the conclusions
become less meaningful.
In addition to the conclusions regarding individual categories of outcomes, two other relevant
conclusions about the negative outcomes of ASCM can also be made.
Firstly, it is clear in the analysis that little attention is paid to the negative outcomes of ASCM.
Only two articles, 27 and 30, that have their origins in Poland, The Netherlands, and the United
Kingdom mention disadvantages of the technique. Furthermore, these papers combined only name two
negative outcomes of agile supply chains, while one can imagine there are many more. One might
argue, however, that the disadvantages of ASCM are the advantages of other supply chain techniques,
such as lean or leagile supply chain management. In spite of this, a deliberate, empirical search for the
negative sides of agile supply chains is missing, and this forms a gap in the field of knowledge about
ASCM. Research into this topic could thus provide a significant leap forward in the field of ASCM
literature.
Secondly, it is interesting to see that no author working in countries belonging to the fourth
group, the rest of the world, has made a contribution to the literature identifying outcomes of ASCM.
An obvious reason for this is that the number of articles that come from these countries is very small
in this review. If one looks at the number of entries regarding ASCMs enablers, however, one can see
that 3% of the total came from authors working in countries belonging to the fourth group. If this is
Su
extrapolated to the entries regarding the outcomes of the supply chain technique, one sees that a
minimum of 3 entries from these countries would be expected. This is not the case, and, though the
number of possible entries might be too small to yield a valid conclusion, this could mean that
literature from countries that belong to the fourth group does not focus on the outcomes of agile
supply chains.
Further conclusions and implications of the analysis regarding the international differences in
the identified outcomes of agile supply chains are given in section 4, which discusses this papers
findings and suggestions for further research.
21 <7#*+9+#+9=& >9+&5#+75& 0&=9&?

In order to gain knowledge about the development of the field of ASCM research on its own and in
relation with the topics that were discussed in the qualitative part of this paper, a quantitative review
was used. The goal of this analysis is to clarify and explain some of the conclusions of the qualitative
section. This section does not focus on the many individual categories of enablers and outcomes
described above, but rather on the complete view of the origin of enablers and outcomes in general.
The questions this section will try to answer are therefore the following:

What is the degree of consensus in the field of ASCM research regarding enablers and
outcomes?
What are the origins of the most influential papers in ASCM?
Where does ASCM literature in general come from?
Where has ASCM literature in general come from over time?
And judging from the answers to these four questions: Are the overall proportions visible in
the qualitative section in table 1 and 3 as expected or not?

213 G&+H'6 #*6 /#ID%& ,&%&8+9'*

For the quantitative analysis, the entire dataset of 315 papers was considered. This group of articles
was described in section 2.1. Based on this dataset, a few calculations were performed. All of these
calculations were facilitated by the Analyze Results option of ISI Web of Knowledge and performed
using Microsoft Excel. The relevant tables and graphs that resulted from these calculations are shown
below.

S1
21; -*#%K,9, #*6 0&,7%+,

In this section, short descriptions of the performed calculations and analyses will be given, after which
the results of these analyses will be presented. This process will be repeated per analysis.
Firstly, the frequency of citation per article was investigated. According to ISI Web of
Science, as of 1 June 2013, the 315 articles in the dataset were cited a total of 6429 times. A measure
of how heavily this network of citations is centered on an influential group can be taken by looking at
the top 10 percent of most cited articles. If one sets off the amount of citations of these papers to the
total, the degree to which there is consensus within the field of ASCM research can be assessed. In
this case, a logical cut off point can be found at 29 papers, or 9,2% of the total. The top 29 papers have
all been cited a minimum of 50 times, and together accounted for a total of 3331 citations. This means
that 51,8% of all the citations from articles describing ASCM come from 29 papers, which indicates a
relatively high degree of consensus within the field. The high percentage is not remarkable, however,
because many of the 29 articles are papers that describe ASCM in general, and are often cited in
introductions, for example. Using this statistic, it is therefore not possible to conclude about the degree
of consensus in the field of ASCM research about the techniques enablers and outcomes. It can
merely be concluded that a high degree of consensus could be found when looking at the definition of
ASCM and its basic characteristics.
Another measure of consensus can be taken by looking at the top 10 cited papers. These
papers are shown in table 5, and accounted for 2067 citations, or 32,15% of the total. It thus again
seems that there is a small group of influential papers in the field.

Authors Title Journal Year
Citation
Count
Fisher, ML
What is the right supply chain for
your product?
HARVARD BUSINESS
REVIEW 1997 532
Christopher, M
The agile supply chain -
Competing in volatile markets
INDUSTRIAL MARKETING
MANAGEMENT 2000 250
Naylor, JB;
Naim, MM;
Berry, D
Leagility: Integrating the lean and
agile manufacturing paradigms in
the total supply chain
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
OF PRODUCTION
ECONOMICS 1999 249
Lee, HL The triple-A supply chain
HARVARD BUSINESS
REVIEW 2004 193
Da Silveira, G;
Borenstein, D;
Fogliatto, FS
Mass customization: Literature
review and research directions
OF PRODUCTION
ECONOMICS 2001 170
S2
Meade, LM;
Sarkis, J
Analyzing organizational project
alternatives for agile
manufacturing processes: an
analytical network approach
OF PRODUCTION
RESEARCH 1999 164
Gunasekaran, A
Agile manufacturing: enablers and
an implementation framework
OF PRODUCTION
RESEARCH 1998 153
Yusuf, YY;
Sarhadi, M;
Gunasekaran, A
Agile manufacturing: The drivers,
concepts and attributes
OF PRODUCTION
ECONOMICS 1999 146
Gunasekaran, A
Agile manufacturing: A
framework for research and
development
OF PRODUCTION
ECONOMICS 1999 121
Gunasekaran,
Angappa; Lai,
Kee-Hung;
Cheng, T. C.
Edwin
Responsive supply chain: A
competitive strategy in a
networked economy
OMEGA-INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL OF
MANAGEMENT SCIENCE 2008 89
Table 5: The top 10 most cited ASCM articles published from 1994 until 2013 as of 1 June 2013.

If one uses the country groups described in section 2.2.1, it becomes clear that only the fifth article in
table 5 was written by authors that did not work in the western world. This article, written by Da
Silveira, Borenstein, and Fogliatto, has its origins in Argentina and Brazil, countries that did not
appear in the qualitative analysis. All other articles were authored by scholars working in the western
world, with non-western co-authors only participating in the tenth paper. This creates a clear view of
the dominance of the western world when it comes to the most cited articles in the field of ASCM
research. Even though this fact refers to the most cited articles in general as opposed to the most cited
articles naming enablers or outcomes, table 5 presents a very interesting reality.
The dominance of the western world did not appear as strongly in the qualitative analysis,
where the significant role of developing Asia could also be identified. This fact can have two possible
reasons; either literature from developing Asia has become more dominant over the years; or western
authors do not describe enablers or outcomes of ASCM, and rather discuss the topic in general terms.
Both options could explain the difference found in this review: The dominance of the western world in
the field of ASCM research in general on the one hand, and the significant amount of both enablers
and outcomes mentioned in articles originating in developing Asia in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.
The validity of either of these options will now be assessed. The way in which this is done is
by recording the amount of papers originating in different countries per year, from 1994 until 2013.
SS
The top 14 publishing countries, which all account for a minimum of 6 published articles about
ASCM, are shown in table 6. The number of articles originating in a specific country includes co-
authored papers. Because of this, the total amount of articles amounts to 386.

Country Amount of published articles
USA 111
UK 70
China 39
India 22
Italy 15
Taiwan 12
Canada 11
Australia 10
Germany 9
Sweden 8
Finland 7
France 6
Iran 6
South Korea 6
Table 6: The 14 countries with most published articles about ASCM from 1994 until 2013, based on
the set of articles retrieved on 10 April 2013.

The top 14 countries account for 332 articles, or 86,01% of the total. The overall dominance of the
western world illustrated by table 5 is also visible in this table, table 6. If one makes a graph of the
amount of papers originating in different countries in each year from 1994 until 2012, this creates a
different view. This graph is shown below, in figure 27. Figure 27 does not include data from 2013,
because the data for this year is incomplete and would disable us to form conclusions about the graph.
S4
Figure 27: The amount of articles about ASCM published per country from 1994 until 2012, based on
the set of articles retrieved on 10 April 2013. Only the top 14 countries, with more than 6 articles in
total, are included.

Figure 27 is not straightforward to interpret. One reason for this is that the countries are not sorted per
country group. Several different ways of showing this data were attempted, however, and the shown
figure is the clearest option. This graph is most enabling of an analysis of trends in the published
literature. To make up for the lack of clarity of the figure, however, a detailed description of the
visible trends follows.
When looking at figure 27, one can draw two conclusions. Firstly, it is clear that the spectrum
of countries from which ASCM authors hail has vastly grown since 2005. In the years before 2005,
there were never more than 7 countries from the top 14 that spawned literature on the subject each
year. This number increased, reaching 12 or 13 every year from 2009 until 2012.
Secondly, it is clear that the center of gravity in the literature has moved over the years. To
show this, the four groups of countries used before are again used here. From 1994 until 2005, the
western world was always responsible for a minimum of 70% of the published literature. The main
countries responsible for the dominance of the western world in this period are the United States and
the United Kingdom. The year 2000 is interesting in this context, as the contribution by authors
working in the US suddenly drops below 20% in this year.
A more definitive decline of the western contribution can be found from 2005 on, however.
The year 2006 sees the introduction of articles written by Indian authors, and 2009 was the first year in
which authors working in Iran made a contribution to ASCM literature. China, the third country in the
developing Asia group, already had a steady presence since 2001. In addition to this, one can see that
2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 have seen the assertion of literature from less influential countries
SS
belonging to the western world and developed Asia groups. This development has led to the UK and
US only accounting for around 25% of the published literature by the top 14 countries in 2012. In the
same year, the countries belonging to the developing Asia group made a contribution of around 35%,
while developed Asia provided 5% of the literature published by the top 14. The remaining 35% can
be attributed to other countries than the UK or US in the western world group.
Three interesting trends can be seen in these percentages. Firstly, the influence of authors
working in the US or the UK is decreasing. Secondly, ASCM literature from developing Asia is
becoming more and more abundant. And finally, the share of published literature from the western
world by countries other than the US and the UK is surpassing the share of the US and the UK.
There are two possible explanations of the apparent trends described above. Firstly, it could be
possible that authors in the US and the UK are losing their interest for ASCM. The reason for this
could be that authors working in these countries contribute most to new, relatively unexplored fields
of study. These scholars would shift their focus to other innovative subjects whenever the previous
subject has become too popular.
The second explanation is more plausible than the first. This explanation would be that interest
from the US and the UK has not necessarily decreased, but that interest from other western and Asian
countries has increased. This is a logical line of thought when one takes the rise of the amount of
published literature about ASCM visible in figure 2 into account. A fact that also supports this
explanation is that the absolute number of publications from the US and the UK has not decreased
sharply from 2005 until 2012.
It is possible that most of the articles originating in developing Asia, for example, have a
practical focus, while papers from the US and the UK are more theoretical. The practical articles in
this sense would be, for example, case studies, while the theoretical literature would describe ASCM
using broad conceptual frameworks. A reason for this could be that, as the field of ASCM research
matured, the focus shifted from theoretical studies to practical papers. In short, the field of ASCM
might have become more mainstream over the years, which has led to the decrease of influence of the
US and the UK.
Above, after the description of table 5, two possible reasons were mentioned for the difference
between the dominance of the western world in table 5 and the qualitative analysis, in which the
significant role of developing Asia in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 could also be identified. Either
literature from developing Asia has become more dominant over the years, or western authors do not
describe enablers or outcomes of ASCM, and rather discuss the topic in general terms. Using the
analysis of figure 27, both of these reasons can now be assessed.
It is clear in figure 27 that in 2010, 2011, and 2012, authors working in developing Asia
steadily published around 32% of all literature published by the top 14 countries. These percentages
are for each year, respectively, 33%, 28%, and 35%. The overall proportions regarding the origins of
articles naming enablers and outcomes of ASCM are visible in table 1 and table 3, respectively. In
S6
these tables, it is visible that 38% of all enablers can be attributed to developing Asia, while 33% of all
outcomes come from developing Asia. Although the percentage of outcomes attributable to
developing Asia does not differ from the overall percentage of literature published by these countries
in 2010, 2011, and 2012, the percentage of enablers that come from developing Asia is higher than
expected. The explanation described above can be repeated in this case: Enablers appear most often in
articles that take a practical approach to describing ASCM, for example in case studies. This idea
cannot directly be tested, as the approach of all articles was not analyzed in this study due to time
constraints, it can, however, be emphasized that the percentage of enablers of 38% coming from
developing Asia is higher than expected, since this groups share in the total amount of publications is
only 30%. This leads one to believe that authors from developing Asia are more often interested in the
practical application of ASCM than their western counterparts.
At the beginning of this section several questions were asked, which are restated here:

What is the degree of consensus in the field of ASCM research regarding enablers and
outcomes?
What are the origins of the most influential papers in ASCM?
Where does ASCM literature in general come from?
Where has ASCM literature in general come from over time?
And judging from the answers to these four questions: Are the overall proportions visible in
the qualitative section in table 1 and 3 as expected or not?

Using the quantitative analysis of the literature, answers to these questions can now be formulated.
It is not possible to answer the first question using this quantitative analysis. The most
influential papers in the field of ASCM literature all have a broad theoretical scope, and are thus often
cited in the introductions of articles. Due to the broad scope, these influential papers do not describe
enablers or outcomes, which are more often found in case studies or literature reviews, for example. It
is therefore not possible to indicate whether there is consensus in the field of ASCM research
regarding enablers and outcomes using the quantitative analysis. It is clear, however, that there is a
high degree of consensus regarding the definition of agile supply chains. It is important to mention
here that consensus regarding enablers and outcomes was tested in the qualitative part of this review.
The origins of the most influential papers were stated in the description of table 5. It was
interesting to see here that 9 of the 10 most influential articles came from the western world, with only
one article being co-authored by a non-westerner. The fifth article in table 5 was the only article
written by authors working outside of the western world. The interesting point to take away from this
analysis is the difference between the dominance of the western world in table 5 and the qualitative
analysis, in which the significant role of developing Asia in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 could also be
identified.
S7
The question of the origins of ASCM literature in general was answered using table 6. This
table clearly showed the dominance of the western world also visible in table 5.
The fourth question was answered by making a graph of the amount of papers originating in
different countries in each year from 1994 until 2012. This graph was shown in figure 6. Three
interesting trends could be seen in this figure. Firstly, the influence of authors working in the US or
the UK is decreasing. Secondly, ASCM literature from developing Asia is becoming more and more
abundant. And finally, the share of published literature from the western world by countries other than
the US and the UK is surpassing the share of the US and the UK.
The final question was answered using the entire quantitative analysis and table 1 and 3 in the
qualitative analysis. This question asked whether the overall proportions visible in table 1 and 3 were
as expected regarding the entire field of ASCM literature. In both of these tables, the most interesting
comparison can be drawn between developing Asia and the western world, since these two groups
claim the largest proportions. The average contribution from developing Asia to the field of ASCM
was 32% of the top 14 countries in 2010, 2011, and 2012, as can be seen in figure 6. This number
forms the expectation for the percentage of enablers and outcomes that were described by authors
working in developing Asia. The percentage of enablers that can be attributed to this group is 38%,
while in the case of outcomes this is 33%. These percentages can be found in table 1 and table 3,
respectively. It is clear that the percentage of outcomes provided by authors working in developing
Asia is not higher than expected, as there is a small difference between 33% and 32%. However, in
case of enablers, this difference is larger, the percentages being 38% and 32%. Therefore, it seems that
authors from developing Asia are more often interested in the enablers of ASCM than their western
counterparts. In addition to this, it might be that authors working in developing Asia are more
interested in the practical application of ASCM than western authors.

S8
:1 B9,87,,9'* #*6 )'*8%7,9'*

:13 B9,87,,9'* #*6 4ID%98#+9'*,

In this section of the paper, the findings of the qualitative and quantitative sections of this review will
be discussed and integrated. First, the findings of the qualitative review of ASCM literature in terms of
enablers and outcomes of agile supply chains will be shortly restated. After this, the findings of the
quantitative review will be discussed. Finally, the importance and the implications of the findings will
be explained.
In the qualitative review, an attempt was made to get a clear image of the differences between
different countries regarding the identification of ASCMs enablers and outcomes. The question to
which an answer was searched was whether some parts of the world identify specific enablers or
outcomes more often than other parts of the world. The findings are presented in table 7 in case of the
enablers, and table 8 in case of the outcomes. Table 7 is a summary of table 2, while table 8 is a
summary of table 3.

Category of ASCM enablers Developing
Asia: findings
higher or lower
than expected?
Developed Asia:
findings higher
or lower than
expected?
Western world:
findings higher
or lower than
expected?
Rest of the world:
findings higher or
lower than
expected?
A focus on people/employees/
organization
Higher - Lower -
Team working

Higher (low
amount of cases)
- Lower (low
amount of cases)
-
Integration with supply chain
partners

Slightly lower - Slightly higher -
Managerial enablers and a focus
on change
Higher - Lower -
A focus on learning/education

Higher (low
amount of cases)
- Lower (low
amount of cases)
-
Technology

Higher Lower (low
amount of cases)
Slightly lower -
A focus on the product, Lower - - Higher (low amount
S9
production, and logistics

of cases)
Internal integration

Lower - Higher -
A focus on the
market/environment
- - Slightly higher -
Table 7: A summary of the findings of the qualitative review regarding ASCMs enablers presented in
table 2. This table describes whether the amount of cases of a category of enablers found in a group of
countries is higher, lower, or equal (expressed by -) to the expectation. In a number of cells, low
amount of cases is added. This expresses the warning that this specific finding may be invalid due to
the low amount of cases available.

Table 7 illustrates the finding that the degree of consensus regarding ASCMs enablers is low, as there
are a number of instances in which the expectation differs from the findings. Only in case of
Integration with supply chain partners and a focus on the market/environment a reasonable degree of
consensus could be found. In all other categories, the difference between expectations and findings
was most clearly visible when looking at developing Asia and the western world. This leads one to
believe that these two international groups have different views on the enablers of ASCM. It seems
that authors working in developing Asia are more inclined to identify enablers of ASCM regarding
people, management, and technology than their western colleagues. On the other hand, western
authors focus more often on internal integration, external integration, and the market/environment. A
rough division can be identified when looking at these findings: authors from developing Asia focus
on enablers within the boundaries of firms or their departments, while authors from the western world
are more interested in enablers spanning the boundaries of firms and their departments.
Regarding the other two other groups of countries, developed Asia and the rest of the world, it
is more difficult to form a conclusion of the findings. The reason for this is that both of these groups
provided too little cases in general to justify any conclusion. There will therefore be no elaboration on
the findings regarding these groups of countries.
Next, the section of the qualitative review concerning ASCMs outcomes is looked at. A
summary of the findings in this case can be found in table 8.

Category of ASCM outcomes Developing Asia:
findings higher or
lower than expected?
Developed Asia: findings
higher or lower than
expected?
Western world: findings
higher or lower than
expected?
Organizational outcomes (Amount of cases too
low to perform
(Amount of cases too low
to perform analysis)
(Amount of cases too low
to perform analysis)
4u
analysis)
Production-process-related
outcomes
Higher - Lower
Product-related outcomes - - -
Performance-related outcomes Lower (low amount of
cases)
- Higher (low amount of
cases)
Cost-related outcomes Higher (low amount of
cases)
Lower (low amount of
cases)
Uncertainty-related outcomes Lower - Higher
Increased flexibility - Higher -
Increased responsiveness Higher - Lower
Strategic outcomes - (Low amount of
cases)
- (Low amount of cases) - (Low amount of cases)
Table 8: A summary of the findings of the qualitative review regarding ASCMs outcomes presented in
table 4. This table describes whether the amount of cases of a category of outcomes found in a group
of countries is higher, lower, or equal (expressed by -) to the expectation. In a number of cells,
low amount of cases is added. This expresses the warning that this specific finding may be invalid
due to the low amount of cases available.

It is more difficult to draw conclusions about the findings in case of ASCMs outcomes than in case of
its enablers. The reason for this is the low amount of cases of described outcomes in general. This is
illustrated in table 8, in which it is clear that the analysis of the organizational outcomes category did
not yield any results. This category will therefore not be considered in this discussion. In addition to
this, the table shows that the findings in the performance-related outcomes, cost-related outcomes, and
strategic outcomes categories are less likely to be valid. On the basis of the rest table 8, a few
interesting conclusions can be drawn.
Again, as was the case when considering ASCMs enablers, the main difference can be found
between developing Asia and the western world. A comparison between these two groups is also
safest to draw, because it can be based on a large number of cases. Authors working in developing
Asia and the western world are equally interested in outcomes of ASCM regarding increased
flexibility and products. It seems, however, that authors from developing Asia are more likely to focus
on production-process-related outcomes and increased responsiveness than their western colleagues.
On the other hand, western authors focus more often on uncertainty-related outcomes than their
counterparts from developing Asia. It is difficult to find an all-encompassing reason for this
difference, even when one takes the categories with a too low amount of cases into account. It is clear,
however, that authors from developing Asia and the western world do not identify the same outcomes
41
of ASCM in the same amount. Whether this points to a lack of consensus regarding the issue cannot
be said, because the number of cases on which the findings are based is too low.
When considering the outcomes of ASCM originating in developed Asia, we can see that
authors working in this part of the world score as expected in all but one of the categories. The reason
for this might be the limited amount of cases on which the findings are based in this case. It is
interesting to see, however, that authors from developed Asia identify outcomes regarding increased
flexibility more often than expected.
Two additional findings were mentioned in the qualitative section. Firstly, it is clear in the
analysis that little attention is paid to the negative outcomes of ASCM
Secondly, it is interesting to see that no author working in countries belonging to the rest of the world
has made a contribution to the literature identifying outcomes of ASCM.
Next, the view is shifted to the quantitative section of this review. The aim in this section was
to clarify and explain some of the conclusions of the qualitative section. The approach to attaining this
aim was to take a complete view of the origin of enablers and outcomes in general. With the
answering of the four questions asked at the beginning of the quantitative review, the findings of this
section have already been discussed. The most important points will be recapitulated here, but the
main focus will lie on integrating the quantitative and qualitative reviews.
An interesting point to take away from the quantitative analysis is the difference between the
dominance of the western world in table 5 and the qualitative analysis, in which the significant role of
developing Asia in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 could also be identified. Expanding on this finding, a
graph was made of the amount of papers originating in different countries in each year from 1994 until
2012. Three further trends could be found in this graph. Firstly, the influence of authors working in the
US or the UK is decreasing. Secondly, ASCM literature from developing Asia is becoming more and
more abundant. And finally, the share of published literature from the western world by countries
other than the US and the UK is surpassing the share of the US and the UK.
The three points illustrate an issue that can also be related to the qualitative part of this review.
It seems, namely, that authors from developing Asia are more often interested in the enablers of
ASCM in general than their counterparts from the western world. In addition to this, it might be that
authors working in developing Asia are more interested in the practical application of ASCM than
authors from the western world. This might explain the decline of the influence of literature from the
latter countries, since the field of ASCM studies might have become more practically focused over the
years. This means that the share of theoretical articles from the western world has decreased, while the
share of practical articles from developing Asia has increased.
Integrating the qualitative and quantitative sections of this review, it can therefore be said that
the field of ASCM research is characterized by a low degree of consensus regarding the techniques
enablers. Authors from developing Asia focus on enablers within the boundaries of firms or their
departments, while authors from the western world are more interested in enablers spanning the
42
boundaries of firms and their departments. Regarding the techniques outcomes, the degree of
consensus cannot easily be assessed, although the review points out that authors from developing Asia
and the western world do not identify the same outcomes of ASCM in the same amount. In addition to
this, it might be that authors working in developing Asia are more interested in the practical
application of ASCM than authors from the western world. This idea in addition to the trends visible
in the quantitative analysis lead one to believe that the field of ASCM literature will be dominated by
practical studies from developing Asia and mainland Europe.
This literature review has several implications, which focus on the international characteristics
of the ASCM field of study.
Firstly, it is important to mention the difference in identified enablers in developing Asia and
the western world that becomes clear in this review. It is important that future papers asking the
question of how to successfully create an agile supply chain focus on all relevant enablers. At the
moment, the field of research does not facilitate such an all-encompassing assessment. A higher
degree of consensus regarding this issue would enable scholars and firms alike to create a complete
image of the factors necessary for the establishment of agile supply chains. This review provides a
first step in recognizing and reconciling this discrepancy.
Secondly, it became clear in the qualitative analysis that little attention is paid to the negative
outcomes of ASCM. Only two articles mention disadvantages of the technique. Furthermore, these
papers combined only name two negative outcomes of agile supply chains, while one can imagine
there are many more. A deliberate, empirical search for the negative sides of agile supply chains is
missing, and that this forms a gap in the field of knowledge about ASCM. Research into this topic
could thus provide a significant leap forward in the field of ASCM literature. This would enable
managers to make a more appropriate choice for a specific kind of supply chain, in addition to making
them aware of the possible threats and pitfalls.
The next important point to consider is the trend in the field of ASCM literature towards a
more practical approach of assessing the technique. This trend is apparent in the increasing dominance
of literature from developing Asia, which focuses on enablers of agile supply chains more heavily than
literature from the US and the UK. Although this trend is useful for managers, who can gain
knowledge from a more practical body of literature, the process might lead to a less academic field of
study. As the nature of a study naturally influences the type of knowledge gained, this trend will have
implications for the new knowledge scholars gather about ASCM. This trend and its usefulness for
gaining more knowledge about agile supply chains is therefore an important subject for further
research.
The final interesting point to take away from this review is that newly industrialized countries
such as China and India are increasingly taking the initiative in the field of ASCM studies. Any stated
implication of this is, of course, entirely speculative, but it does give one an idea of where the center
of gravity of future research on this topic will lie. The study into the results of this trend is an
4S
interesting subject for further research. In addition to this, it is also important to find out what the
reasons are for the increased dominance of developing Asia. A straightforward answer to this question
would be the increased importance of manufacturing in the economies of these countries, as described
by The World Factbook (2013). A more detailed study into the reasons behind the identified trends
should be done in the future, however.

:1; >9I9+#+9'*,

This section clarifies the limitations of this study. Firstly, all results in this review are based on the
performed search in the ISI Web of Science article database. One has no means of being sure that this
search covered the entire set of papers ever published about the topic of ASCM. It therefore has to
assumed that the performed search was incomplete. For this literature review, it was not possible to
perform an all-encompassing search due to time constraints. This means that any finding or conclusion
in this study becomes less meaningful.
Secondly, the selected timeframe in the analysis of enablers and outcomes of ASCM is a
limitation of this review. Although a number of 77 articles in 4 years creates a reasonably clear view
of the body of knowledge about agile supply chains, it is possible that specific enablers or outcomes
were only described in the years before 2010. This weakens the conclusions in case of the qualitative
review, especially regarding the identified outcomes. As can be seen in section 4.1, the number of
cases of described outcomes was too low to yield reliable results in a number of instances. Expanding
the search to include earlier years might have enlarged the number of cases and thus have created a
clearer view of the identified outcomes of ASCM.

:12 /7LL&,+9'*, ('5 (75+H&5 5&,&#58H

In this paper, the need for further research was mentioned in several instances. In this section, all
relevant avenues for future research will be summed up.
Firstly, the findings of this review will have to be validated using an analysis of all done
research. The restriction to 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013, in addition to the use of the ISI Web of
Science database might have caused the results of the review to be incorrect. An analysis of an
expanded set of articles might lead to different conclusions than were drawn in this review.
Secondly, further research focusing on answering the why-question is needed. It is, for
example, important to find out what the reasons behind the trends found in this review are. The reason
for this is that, when one knows the cause of certain trends in a field of research, this provides context
for the published papers. This context is important when using, citing, or reviewing literature. Possible
questions that could be asked in further research would therefore be: Why has the dominance of the
44
UK and the US in ASCM research declined over the last decade? Or why is the share of ASCM
literature coming from developed Asia and Brazil so small? Definitive answers to these questions
were not found in this review.
The next suggestion for further research entails the consequences of trends described in this
review, especially the process towards a more practical approach of researching ASCM. As the nature
of a study naturally influences the type of knowledge gained, this trend will have implications for the
new knowledge scholars gather about ASCM. The usefulness of this trend for gaining new knowledge
about the subject is thus an important area for further research. This research into trends could name
advantages or flaws of new approaches of researching agile supply chains. This will provide context
for any new paper, which is important, as described before.
Another trend of which the consequences are unknown is the finding that newly industrialized
countries such as China and India are increasingly taking the initiative in ASCM research. As
described before, authors from developing Asia, which includes China and India, focus on different
aspect of the concept of agile supply chains than western colleagues. Authors from developing Asia
focus on enablers within the boundaries of firms or their departments, while authors from the western
world are more interested in enablers spanning the boundaries of firms and their departments. This
means that the trend towards more influence from developing Asia will have consequences for the
aspects of ASCM that are often researched. It is important to find out what these consequences exactly
will be. Again, a reason for this is to provide context in which to place knowledge, but further research
into the consequences of this trend should also identify neglected areas of ASCM. The aim of future
research into this process should therefore be to maintain a body of knowledge about ASCM in which
all aspects of the technique are reflected. In addition to this, it is also important to find out what the
reasons are for the increased dominance of developing Asia. A more detailed study into this should be
done in the future.

:1: )'*8%7,9'*

At the beginning of this paper, a research question was set, in addition to goals to reach in the
qualitative and quantitative sections. The research question and goals are restated below:

What are the international differences in the research of agile supply chains regarding the method's
identified enablers and outcomes?

In the qualitative section, the two highlighted aspects of literature about agile supply chains were
examined. The international differences in the identified enablers and outcomes of agile supply chains
were assessed.
4S
In the quantitative section, the international sources of agile supply chain literature and
empirical research on the topic were identified. The most influential references the primary origins of
ASCM literature throughout the years were found. This part of the review was used in an attempt to
clarify and explain some of the conclusions of the qualitative analysis.
Using the qualitative and quantitative sections, the findings of which were discussed in section
4.1, an attempt to answer the research question can now be made.
The international differences in the research of agile supply chains regarding the methods
identified enablers and outcomes can best be expressed by drawing the comparison between
developing Asia and the western world. Whereas, in the case of enablers, authors from developing
Asia focus more on issues within the boundaries of firms or their departments, authors from the
western world are more interested in enablers spanning the boundaries of firms and their departments.
This leads one to believe that the degree of consensus internationally in the field of ASCM regarding
enablers is low. In case of outcomes, it is clear that authors from developing Asia and the western
world do not identify the same outcomes of ASCM in the same amount. Whether this points to a lack
of consensus regarding the issue cannot be said, because the number of cases on which the findings
are based is too low.
In addition to this, three trends were visible within the field. Firstly, the influence of authors
working in the US or the UK is decreasing. Secondly, ASCM literature from developing Asia is
becoming more and more abundant. And finally, the share of published literature from the western
world by countries other than the US and the UK is surpassing the share of the US and the UK. These
trends lead to ASCM being a field of research in which the future is likely to be dominated by
practical papers from developing Asia, rather than theoretical papers from the US and the UK.
The consequences of these trends could not be found in this literature review, but are
important issues for future research to focus on. In this way, a body of knowledge about agile supply
chains can be created in which new knowledge focuses on all aspects of the technique, can be
evaluated, and can be put in context. This will enable scholars and managers alike to study and use
agile supply chains effectively.
46
0&(&5&*8&,

Note: These references are only the citations referred to directly in the text. The detailed citations of
the 315 articles used in the literature review can be found in the excel supplement to this study.

Central Intelligence Agency. (2013). The World Factbook. Retrieved June 19, 2013, from
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
Christopher, M. (2000). The agile supply chain: Competing in volatile markets. Industrial Marketing
Management, 29(1), 37-44. doi:10.1016/S0019-8501(99)00110-8
Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. (2013). CSCMPs definition of supply chain
management. Retrieved June 17, 2013, from Council of Supply Chain Management
Professionals Web site: http://cscmp.org/about-us/supply-chain-management-definitions
Kidd, P. T. (1995). Agile manufacturing: A strategy for the 21st century. Paper presented at IEE
Colloquium on Agile Manufacturing, Coventry, United Kingdom. doi:10.1049/ic:19951097
Mentzer, J. T., DeWitt, W., Keebler, J. S., Min, S., Nix, N. W., Smith, C. D., & Zacharia, Z. G.
(2001). Defining supply chain management. Journal of Business Logistics, 22(2), 1-25.
doi:10.1002/j.2158-1592.2001.tb00001.x
Nagel, R. N., & Dove R. (1991). 21st century manufacturing enterprise strategy: An industry-led view
of agile manufacturing. Darby, PA: DIANE Publishing.
Naylor, J. B., Naim, & M. M., & Berry, D. (1999). Leagility: Integrating the lean and agile
manufacturing paradigms in the total supply chain. International Journal of Production
Economics, 62(1-2), 107-118. doi:10.1016/S0925-5273(98)00223-0
Vinodh, S., & Aravindraj, S. (2013). Evaluation of leagility in supply chains using fuzzy logic
approach. International Journal of Production Research, 51(4), 1186-1195.
doi:10.1080/00207543.2012.693960
Yusuf, Y. Y., Sarhadi, M., & Gunasekaran, A. (1999). Agile manufacturing: The drivers, concepts and
attributes. International Journal of Production Economics, 62(1-2), 33-43.
doi:10.1016/S0925-5273(98)00219-9

47
-DD&*69E

Appendix 1: All papers from 2010 until 2013, their IDs, main authors, titles, years of publication,
journals, countries of origin, relevance and availability, and whether outcomes or enablers were
extracted. In the Outcomes extracted and Enablers extracted columns, an x is short for the
word No. In the Relevance and Availability columns, an x means that the paper in question
was relevant or available, respectively.
Paper
ID Paper title
First
author
Year of
publication Journal
Country or
countries of
origin
Outcomes
extracted
Enablers
extracted
Relevan
ce
Availab
ility
1
Evaluation of leagility in
supply chains using fuzzy
logic approach
VINODH
S 2013
INT J
PROD
RES India x x
Not
Relevan
t x
2
An ISM-ANP approach to
identifying key agile factors
in launching a new product
into mass production
CHANG
AY 2013
INT J
PROD
RES Taiwan x Yes x x
3
An autonomous
manufacturing system based
on swarm of cognitive
agents PARK HS 2012
J
MANU
F SYST South Korea x x
Not
Relevan
t x
4
A multi-agent system using
iterative bidding mechanism
to enhance manufacturing
agility LIM MK 2012
EXPER
T SYST
APPL
United
Kingdom x Yes x x
5
Service infusion as agile
incrementalism in action
KOWAL
KOWSKI
C 2012
J BUS
RES
Sweden,
United States,
New Zealand x x
Not
Relevan
t x
6
The impact of
manufacturing and supply
chain improvement
initiatives: A survey
comparing make-to-order
and make-to-stock firms
OLHAGE
R J 2012
OMEG
A-INT J
MANA
GE S
Sweden,
Australia x Yes x x
7
Information transparency in
SME network relationships:
evidence from a Japanese
hosiery firm
MINAMI
C 2012
INT J
LOGIS
T-RES
APP Japan Yes Yes x x
48
8
Dealing with supply chain
risks Linking risk
management practices and
strategies to performance
WIELAN
D A 2012
INT J
PHYS
DISTR
LOG Germany Yes Yes x x
9
Variation and uncertainty
buffering: a grocery supply
case
STRATT
ON R 2012
SUPPL
Y
CHAIN
MANA
G
United
Kingdom Yes x x x
10
Estimation of reliability and
validity of agility constructs
using structural equation
modelling
VINODH
S 2012
INT J
PROD
RES India Yes Yes x x
11
Agility evaluation using the
IF-THEN approach
VINODH
S 2012
INT J
PROD
RES India x Yes x x
12
A decision-making model
for Lean, Agile, Resilient
and Green supply chain
management
CABRAL
I 2012
INT J
PROD
RES Portugal x Yes x x
13
Evaluating reliability and
validity of lean, agile and
leagile supply chain
constructs in Indian
manufacturing industry SONI G 2012
PROD
PLAN
CONTR
OL India Yes Yes x x
14
Robust closed-loop supply
chain network design for
perishable goods in agile
manufacturing under
uncertainty
HASANI
A 2012
INT J
PROD
RES Iran x Yes x x
15
Multiple decoupling point
paradigms in a global supply
chain syndrome: a relational
analysis
BANERJ
EE A 2012
INT J
PROD
RES India x x
Not
Relevan
t x
16
A decision support system
for optimising the order
fulfilment process
OKONG
WU U 2012
PROD
PLAN
CONTR
OL France Yes x x x
17
Scoring and multi-grade
fuzzy assessment of agility
VINODH
S 2012
INT J
PROD India Yes Yes x x
49
in an Indian electric
automotive car
manufacturing organisation
RES
18
Triple-A supply chain
performance
WHITTE
N GD 2012
INT J
OPER
PROD
MAN United States x Yes x x
19
A dynamic feedback model
for partner selection in agile
supply chains WU C 2012
INT J
OPER
PROD
MAN
China, United
Kingdom Yes Yes x x
20
Design of sustainable supply
chains under the emission
trading scheme
CHAABA
NE A 2012
INT J
PROD
ECON Canada x x
Not
Relevan
t x
21
A model for supply
management of agile
manufacturing supply chains
COSTAN
TINO N 2012
INT J
PROD
ECON Italy x Yes x x
22
Framework for choosing
supply chain strategies
AMBE
IM 2011
AFR J
BUS
MANA
GE South Africa x Yes x x
23
Supply Chain Strategies:
Changes in Customer Order-
Based Production
BORGST
ROM B 2011
J BUS
LOGIS
T Sweden x Yes x x
24
A literature review of
decision-making models and
approaches for partner
selection in agile supply
chains WU C 2011
J
PURCH
SUPPL
Y
MANA
G
China, United
Kingdom x Yes x x
25
Supply chain management
in the luxury industry: A
first classification of
companies and their
strategies
CANIAT
O F 2011
INT J
PROD
ECON Italy x x
Not
Relevan
t x
26
Improving supply chain
performance: The strategic
integration of lean and agile
supply chain
BANIHA
SHEMI
SA 2011
AFR J
BUS
MANA
GE Iran x Yes x x
27 Improving supply chain KISPERS 2011 INT J Poland, The Yes Yes x x
Su
performance to satisfy final
customers: "Leagile"
experiences of a polish
distributor
KA-
MORON
D
PROD
ECON
Netherlands
28
The Impact of Competitive
Strategy and Supply Chain
Strategy on Business
Performance: The Role of
Environmental Uncertainty QI YN 2011
DECISI
ON SCI
China, United
States Yes x x x
29
Towards theory building in
agile manufacturing
strategies-Case studies of an
agility taxonomy
ZHANG
DZ 2011
INT J
PROD
ECON
United
Kingdom Yes Yes x x
30
On leanness, agility and
leagile supply chains
NAIM
MM 2011
INT J
PROD
ECON
United
Kingdom Yes Yes x x
31
Agile manufacturing:
Relation to JIT, operational
performance and firm
performance
INMAN
RA 2011
J OPER
MANA
G United States Yes Yes x x
32
Design and development of
logistics workflow systems
for demand management
with RFID
LEE
CKM 2011
EXPER
T SYST
APPL
Singapore,
United
Kingdom,
Hong Kong,
Australia x x
Not
Relevan
t x
33
Reconfigurable Knowledge-
based Control Solutions for
Responsive Manufacturing
Systems
BRUSAF
ERRI A 2011
STUD
INFOR
M
CONTR
OL x x x x
Not
availabl
e
34 Building factory fitness
FERDOW
S K 2011
INT J
OPER
PROD
MAN
United States,
Switzerland Yes Yes x x
35
ATIS: A method for the
complete alignment of
technical information
systems AVILA O 2011
INT J
COMP
UT
INTEG
M France x x
Not
Relevan
t x
36 Supply chain flexibility in YI CY 2011 SUPPL Hong Kong, Yes Yes x x
S1
an uncertain environment:
exploratory findings from
five case studies
Y
CHAIN
MANA
G
South Korea
37
Developing lean and agile
health care supply chains
ARONSS
ON H 2011
SUPPL
Y
CHAIN
MANA
G
Sweden,
Finland Yes Yes x x
38
Formal verification of
negotiation protocols for
multi-agent manufacturing
systems
YEUNG
WL 2011
INT J
PROD
RES Hong Kong x x
Not
Relevan
t x
39
The role of logistics service
providers in the
implementation of a
differentiated supply chain
HILLETO
FTH P 2011
INT J
SHIP
TRANS
LOG x x x x
Not
availabl
e
40
Axiomatic modelling of
agile production system
design
VINODH
S 2011
INT J
PROD
41
Adding value: challenges for
UK apparel supply chain
management - a review
BRUCE
M 2011
PROD
PLAN
CONTR
OL
United
Kingdom Yes Yes x x
42
The value of numerical
models in quick response
assortment planning
VAAGEN
H 2011
PROD
PLAN
CONTR
OL
Norway,
United
Kingdom x Yes x x
43
A lean pull system design
analysed by value stream
mapping and multiple
criteria decision-making
method under demand
uncertainty LU JC 2011
INT J
COMP
UT
INTEG
M Taiwan x x
Not
Relevan
t x
44
Retail supply chain
management: key priorities
and practices
RANDAL
L WS 2011
INT J
LOGIS
T
MANA
G United States Yes x x x
45 Enabling supply chain GODSEL 2011 INT J United Yes x x x
S2
segmentation through
demand profiling
L J PHYS
DISTR
LOG
Kingdom,
United States
46
A neuroendocrine-inspired
approach for adaptive
manufacturing system
control
TANG
DB 2011
INT J
PROD
RES China x Yes x x
47
Holonic shop-floor
application for handling,
feeding and transportation of
workpieces LIND M 2011
INT J
PROD
RES Norway x x
Not
Relevan
t x
48
Monitoring and diagnostics
of industrial systems using
automation agents
MERDA
N M 2011
INT J
PROD
RES Austria x x
Not
Relevan
t x
49
A function block based
approach for increasing
adaptability of assembly
planning and control
WANG
LH 2011
INT J
PROD
RES
Sweden,
Canada x Yes x x
50
Evaluation of agility in
supply chains using multi-
grade fuzzy approach
VINODH
S 2011
INT J
PROD
51
The role of agile strategic
capabilities in achieving
resilience in manufacturing-
based small companies
ISMAIL
HS 2011
INT J
PROD
RES
United
Kingdom Yes Yes x x
52
Managing warehousing in
an agile supply chain
environment: an F-AIS
algorithm based approach
KUMAR
V 2011
INT J
PROD
RES
Ireland,
United
Kingdom,
Hong Kong,
United States x Yes x x
53
Evaluation of agility in
supply chains using fuzzy
association rules mining
VINODH
S 2011
INT J
PROD
54
Process control in an agile
supply chain network
PEARSO
N M 2010
INT J
PROD
ECON
United
Kingdom x Yes x x
55
How to achieve leagility: A
case study of a personal
computer original equipment
manufacturer in Taiwan
HUANG
YY 2010
J
MANU
F SYST Taiwan x Yes
Not
Relevan
t x
SS
56
Profile and enablers of agile
companies: An empirical
investigation
BOTTAN
I E 2010
INT J
PROD
ECON Italy Yes Yes x x
57
Formulating partner
selection criteria for agile
supply chains: A Dempster-
Shafer belief acceptability
optimisation approach WU C 2010
INT J
PROD
ECON
China, United
Kingdom x Yes x x
58
Robust supply chain design
under uncertain demand in
agile manufacturing PAN F 2010
COMP
UT
OPER
RES United States Yes Yes x x
59
Heuristic algorithms for
production and
transportation planning
through synchronization of a
serial supply chain JUNG JW 2010
INT J
PROD
ECON South Korea x x
Not
Relevan
t x
60
A fuzzy analytic network
process (ANP) model for
measurement of the sectoral
competititon level (SCL)
DAGDEV
IREN M 2010
EXPER
T SYST
APPL Turkey x x
Not
Relevan
t x
61
A multi-structural
framework for adaptive
supply chain planning and
operations control with
structure dynamics
considerations
IVANOV
D 2010
EUR J
OPER
RES
Germany,
Russia x Yes x x
62
Application of adaptive
neuro fuzzy inference
system in measurement of
supply chain agility: Real
case study of a
manufacturing company
SEYEDH
OSEINI
SM 2010
AFR J
BUS
MANA
GE Iran x Yes x x
63
Aligning products with
supply chain processes and
strategy
STAVRU
LAKI E 2010
INT J
LOGIS
T
MANA
G United States Yes Yes x x
64
Changing perspective of
capabilities in the dynamic
DEFEE
CC 2010
INT J
LOGIS United States x Yes x x
S4
supply chain era T
MANA
G
65
Green, lean, and global
supply chains
MOLLEN
KOPF D 2010
INT J
PHYS
DISTR
LOG United States x x
Not
Relevan
t x
66
A model to define and
assess the agility of supply
chains: building on
humanitarian experience
CHARLE
S A 2010
INT J
PHYS
DISTR
LOG France x Yes x x
67
Plant model generation for
PLC simulation PARK HT 2010
INT J
PROD
RES South Korea x x
Not
Relevan
t x
68
Applying path analysis
method in defining effective
factors in organisation
agility
ESHLAG
HY AT 2010
INT J
PROD
RES Iran Yes Yes x x
69
Amalgamation of mass
customisation and agile
manufacturing concepts: the
theory and implementation
study in an electronics
switches manufacturing
company
VINODH
S 2010
INT J
PROD
RES India x x
Not
Relevan
t x
70
SWMRD: a Semantic Web-
based manufacturing
resource discovery system
for cross-enterprise
collaboration CAI M 2010
INT J
PROD
RES China x x
Not
Relevan
t x
71
Supply chain information
technologies and
organisational initiatives:
complementary versus
independent effects on
agility and firm performance
VICKER
Y SK 2010
INT J
PROD
RES United States Yes Yes x x
72
Agility index measurement
using multi-grade fuzzy
approach integrated in a 20
criteria agile model
VINODH
S 2010
INT J
PROD
SS
73
Application of fuzzy
analytic network process for
agile concept selection in a
manufacturing organisation
VINODH
S 2010
INT J
PROD
74
Transportation strategy in
international supply chains -
the case of Russia
SARANE
N J 2010
INT J
SHIP
TRANS
LOG x x x x
Not
availabl
e
75
Development of lean supply
chains: a case study of the
Catalan pork sector PEREZ C 2010
SUPPL
Y
CHAIN
MANA
G
Spain, United
Kingdom x x
Not
Relevan
t x
76
Supply chain leagility in
professional services: how
to apply decoupling point
concept in healthcare
delivery system
RAHIMN
IA F 2010
SUPPL
Y
CHAIN
MANA
G Iran Yes Yes x x
77
An empirical investigation
of the relationship between
product nature and supply
chain strategy LO SM 2010
SUPPL
Y
CHAIN
MANA
G
Taiwan,
Australia x x
Not
Relevan
t x

S6
Appendix 2: The described enablers of ASCM, the articles that mentioned them, and the origin of the
articles.
"#$%&'() *$+'( ,-) ./0(1' /2 +$+'()
Focus on
PeopleEmployees0iganization
o Empoweieu Employees
o Flexible woikfoice (agile
people, accepting job
change)

o Reciuiting skilleu people
o Reciuiting a cieative
woikfoice
o Flexible oiganizational
stiuctuie
o Flat oiganizational
stiuctuie
o Agile oiganizational
cultuie (iisk accepting,
paiticipation-focuseu)
o Focus on employee
welfaie
o Evaluating anu
motivating employees
appiopiiately

29, 1u, 17, 7S, 72, S6, 68, 2

2, 11, 29, S6, 68, 1u, 17, 72, 7S,
S4
2, 4u, S6, 68, 76

11

29

1u, 17, 72, 7S

68

S6, 68

4u, 68

0niteu Kinguom, Inuia, Italy, Iian,
Taiwan

Taiwan, Inuia (2), 0niteu Kinguom,
Italy, Iian, 0niteu States, Switzeilanu
Taiwan, Inuia, Italy, Iian (2)

Inuia

0niteu Kinguom

Inuia

Iian

Italy, Iian

Inuia, Iian

Impoitance of team woiking
o 0se of cioss-functional
teams
2, S6, 68, 76, 11

1u, 17, 72, 7S, S6

Taiwan, Italy, Iian (2), Inuia

Inuia, Italy
Integiation with supply chain
paitneis
o 0se of cioss-
oiganizational teams
o Exteinal IT (IS)
integiation

o (Real-time) Infoimation
shaiing (tianspaiency,
visibility of infoimation)
between paitneis

o Exteinal piocess
integiation
o Establishing Stiategic
Collaboiative
Relationships with
supplieis anu customeis

o Recognizing the
impoitance of tiust in

S6

1u, 17, 72, 7S, 41, 11, 66, 68,
71

42, 41, 7, 8, 12, 1S, 14, 18, S4,
S6, 62, 66, 71, 22

Su, 62, 71

Su, 11, 1S, 18, S6, 4u, SS, S6,
62, 6S, 68, 71, 76

Italy

Inuia (2), 0niteu Kinguom, Fiance,
Iian, 0niteu States

Noiway, 0niteu Kinguom (2), }apan,
ueimany (2), Poitugal, Inuia, Iian,
0niteu States (S), Switzeilanu, Bong
Kong, South Koiea, Russia, Fiance,
South Afiica
Inuia, Iian, 0niteu States

Inuia (S), 0niteu States (S), Bong
Kong, South Koiea, Italy, Iian (S)

S7
ielationships with
supplieis anu customeis
o Exteinal logistics
integiation with
supplieis
o The ability to select the
coiiect paitneis

o Focusing on supply chain
membeis' specialties
o Establishing a viitual
enteipiise with supply
chain paitneis

o The establishment of
netwoiks of paitneis
(paitneis with a common
goal)

o Establishing agile
linkages with paitneis
(both customeis anu
supplieis)
o Rapiu paitneiship
foimation
o Nanaging iisk togethei
with paitneis
(contingency plans, ciisis
teams)

S7, S6

6

19, 21, 24, S7, S8, 61

14

24, 4u, 27, 29, Su, SS, 61, 68,
Su

27, Su

S4

S6

8

Sweuen, Finlanu, Italy

Sweuen, Austialia

China (S), 0niteu Kinguom (S), Italy,
0niteu States, ueimany, Russia

Iian

China, 0niteu Kinguom (S), Inuia (S),
Polanu, The Netheilanus, ueimany,
Russia, Iian

Polanu, The Netheilanus, 0niteu
Kinguom

0niteu States, Switzeilanu

Italy

ueimany

Nanagement & change focus
o The oiganization having
a focus on continuous
impiovement

o Baving a cultuie
accepting of change
o Baving a management
focuseu on change

o Baving appiopiiate ways
of measuiing anu
evaluating integiation,
agility anu peifoimance

o Baving an agile stiategy
o Nanagement having an
open natuie
o Knowleuge management

2, 1S, S6, 64, 68, 4u

S6, 68

68, 2, 1u, 17, 72, 7S, S4, 4u

62, 66, 68, Su, S4, 4u

S4, 68

1u, 17, 72, 7S
SS, Su, 68

Taiwan, Inuia (2), Italy, 0niteu States,
Iian

Italy, Iian

Iian, Taiwan, Inuia (2), 0niteu
Kinguom

Iian (2), Fiance, Inuia (2), 0niteu
Kinguom
0niteu States, Switzeilanu, Iian

Inuia
Inuia (2), Iian
S8
Focus on leainingeuucation
o Baving a focus on
euucation (offeiing
tiaining couises,
euucating)
o Baving a focus on
continuous euucation
o Baving a leaining
oiganization
o Focusing on cioss-
functional euucation

64, 4u, 76, 68, S6

S6, 1u, 17, 72, 7S

S6

1u, 17, 72, 7S

0niteu States, Inuia, Iian (2), Italy

Italy, Inuia

Italy

Inuia
Technologic enableis
o Recognizing the
impoitance of
infoimation technology
(IT)

o Being innovating in
technologies (using the
newest appiopiiate
technologies)
o 0sing (agile, flexible)
piouuction (CAB, CAN,
CAE, etc.) technologies

o 0sing skill anu
knowleuge enhancing
technologies
o 0sing integiateu piouuct
anu manufactuiing
systems uesign
o Infoimation visibility anu
iapiu uata availability
o 0sing electionic
commeice

2, 1u, 17, 72, 7S, 4u, 41, 46, SS,
S6, 1S, S7, 66, 68, 71, Su

S6, 46, 4u, 29

4u, S6, 21, 68, 1u, 17, 72, 7S,
11

S6

29

6S, 11

68

Taiwan, Inuia (S), 0niteu Kinguom,
China, Italy, Sweuen, Finlanu, Fiance,
Iian, 0niteu States

Italy, China, Inuia, 0niteu Kinguom

Inuia (S), Italy (2), Iian

Italy

0niteu Kinguom

0niteu States, Inuia

Iian
Focus on the piouuct, piouuction
anu logistics
o 0sing concuiient
engineeiing

o Baving a focus on quality
o Baving a focus on
innovation
o Implement the newest
uesign techniques
o Nanaging cost
(iuentifying value-auueu
anu non-value-auueu
piocesses)

2, 1u, 11, 17, 68, 72, 7S, 29, S6

S6, 1u, 17, 72, 7S, 1S

1S, 68, S1

1u, 17, 72, 7S, 11

1u, 17, 72, 7S

Taiwan, Inuia (2), Iian, 0niteu
Kinguom, Italy
Italy, Inuia (2)

Inuia, Iian, 0niteu Kinguom

Inuia (2)

Inuia
S9
o Nanaging time
(Scheuuling, time
compiession)
! Ensuiing
quickness of NPI
! Ensuiing
quickness of NPB
! 0sing iapiu
piototyping
o Nanufactuiing stiategy
agility (auvanceu
manufactuiing
techniques, leau time
ieuuction, capacity foi
vaiying quantities,
piicing, geneial
flexibility)

! 0sing
uynamically anu
efficiently
integiateu
piouuction
scheuuling
! Becentializing
piouuction anu
having excess
capacity
! Baving a }IT
puichasing
stiategy
combineu with
}IT piouuction
! 0sing auvanceu
costing anu
piicing policies
! In assembly:
having an
auaptive planning
anu contiol
system
! Woiking with
flexible capacity
o Baving inventoiy buffeis
! Baving inventoiy
buffeis of
inexpensive key
components
o Baving piouuction
piocesses facilitating
postponement of piouuct
uiffeientiation

o Location & Logistics

1u, 17, 72, 7S, 14, 62

29

S6, 29

2, 68

11, 1S, S4, 68, 21, 29, 62

4, 29

22

S1

4u

49

S7
22

18

2S, 18, S6

Inuia, Iian (2)

0niteu Kinguom

Italy, 0niteu Kinguom

Taiwan, Iian

Inuia (2), 0niteu States, Switzeilanu,
Iian (2), Italy, 0niteu Kinguom

0niteu Kinguom (2)

South Afiica

0niteu States

Inuia

Sweuen, Canaua

Sweuen, Finlanu
South Afiica

0niteu States

Sweuen, 0niteu States, Bong Kong,
South Koiea

6u
! Beveloping a
uepenuable
logistics system
oi paitnei
! Locating in aieas
with veiy
extensive
tianspoitation
netwoiks
! 0sing fast anu
flexible
tianspoitation
moues
! Baving many
physical locations
! Baving flexible
infiastiuctuie,
facilities anu
waiehouses
(layout, IT)

! Baving a iange of
options foi
supplieis anu
ueliveiy caiiieis
o Being flexible in
configuiing piouucts
o Being able to offei
substitutes
o Eliminating inteinally
causeu unceitainty

o Baving multi-ventuiing
capabilities

18

S6

22

22

29, S2, 68

6S

29, 68

42, 66

S7, S4

S6

0niteu States

Bong Kong, South Koiea

South Afiica

South Afiica

0niteu Kinguom (2), Iielanu, Bong
Kong, 0niteu States, Iian

0niteu States

0niteu Kinguom, Iian

Noiway, 0niteu Kinguom, Fiance

Sweuen, Finlanu, 0niteu States,
Switzeilanu

Italy
Inteinal Integiation
o Baving enu-to-enu
visibility of infoimation
(tianspaiency, shaiing of
infoimation)

! Ensuiing that
infoimation is
accessible to
employees
! Couification of
tacit piouuction
know-how
o Inteinal IT integiation
(foi example thiough
ERP

o Baving integiateu,

12, 8, 7, 66, 6S, 27, 22, Su, 62

S6

S4

66, S7, 1u, 17, 72, 7S, 27, 4u,
46, 68, 71, 1S

Poitugal, ueimany, }apan, Fiance,
0niteu States, Polanu, The
Netheilanus, South Afiica, Inuia, Iian

Italy

0niteu States, Switzeilanu

Fiance, Sweuen, Finlanu, Inuia (S),
Polanu, The Netheilanus, China, Iian,
0niteu States

61
maiket sensitive inteinal
piocesses anu activities

! 0sing uynamic
piocess planning
o Besign the oiganization
to be an open system
o 0se of cioss-functional
teams

Su, 14, 27, S6, 62, 71, 29, S7

29

S6

1u, 17, 72, 7S, S6

0niteu Kinguom (2), Iian (2), Polanu,
The Netheilanus, Italy, 0niteu States,
Sweuen, Finlanu

0niteu Kinguom

Bong Kong, South Koiea

Inuia, Italy
Focus on the
maiketenviionment
o Business continuity
planning
! Nanaging iisk
(contingency
plans, ciisis
teams)
o Baving a flexibility baseu
supply chain
o Responsive supply chain
o Customei iesponse
&+1(0/12
(iesponsivenesssensitiv
ity in geneial, being close
to customeis)

! Incoipoiating
customei iueas in
NPB (customei
uiiven
innovation)
o Naiket iesponsiveness
sensitivity &+1(0/12

o Baving a focus on
collecting infoimation
! Foiecasting
! 0sing
consultative
foiecasting
! 0sing
complicateu
foiecasting
mouels
o 0sing event-uiiven anu
event-baseu management
o Focusing on ieuucing
vulneiabilities
(iobustness)

8

2, 8, 18, 68

7
7, 62

1u, 17, 72, 7S, 1S, 27, Su, 29,
22, SS, 6S

1u, 17, 72, 6S, S6

14, 29, Su, Su, SS, S6

22, 26, 41

11, 27, 6S

26, 41

42

12

S1, Su

ueimany

Taiwan, ueimany, 0niteu States, Iian

}apan
}apan, Iian

Inuia (4), Polanu, The Netheilanus,
0niteu Kinguom, South Afiica, 0niteu
States

Inuia, 0niteu States, Italy

Iian, 0niteu Kinguom (2), Inuia (2),
Italy
South Afiica, Iian, 0niteu Kinguom

Inuia, Polanu, The Netheilanus,
0niteu States

Iian, 0niteu Kinguom

Noiway, 0niteu Kinguom

Poitugal

0niteu Kinguom (2)

62
Appendix 3: The described outcomes of ASCM, the articles that mentioned them, and the origin of the
articles.
3041/5') *$+'( ,-) ./0(1' /2 +$+'()
0iganizational
o Noie efficient cooiuination
o Incieaseu pioactivity of the
oiganization

7

1u, 29

}apan

Inuia, 0niteu Kinguom
Piouuction-piocess-ielateu
o Incieaseu ability to shoiten
leau times

o Incieaseu ability to piouuce
vaiiety
o Incieaseu amount of waste
o Impioveu ability to change
capacity

7, 17, 19, 27, 29, S7, 4u, 68, 7S

17, 4u, 68, 7S
27

44

}apan, Inuia (S), China, 0niteu
Kinguom (2), Polanu, The
Netheilanus, Sweuen, Finlanu,
Iian

Inuia (S), Iian
Polanu, The Netheilanus

0niteu States
Piouuct-ielateu
o Bettei Customei value
o Bettei able to seive the
customei
o Incieaseu availability of the
piouuct

o Incieaseu innovativeness

o Bighei quality

8

19

4S, S6

1u, 27, 29, 6S, 68

1u, 19, 27, 68

ueimany

China, 0niteu Kinguom

0niteu Kinguom, 0niteu States,
Italy
Inuia, Polanu, The Netheilanus,
0niteu Kinguom, 0niteu States,
Iian
Inuia, China, 0niteu Kinguom,
Polanu, The Netheilanus, Iian
Peifoimance-ielateu
o 0veiall peifoimance
inuiiectly impioveu
o Impioveu financial
peifoimance
o Impioveu maiketing
peifoimance
o Impioveu opeiational
peifoimance

8

S1, 71

S1

S1

ueimany

0niteu States (2)

0niteu States

0niteu States
Cost-ielateu
o Lowei costs
! Being able to
iesponu to changes
on the maiket in a
cost-effective way

o Bighei costs

1u, 17, 68

S4, 4u, 7S

27, Su

Inuia (2), Iian

0niteu States, Switzeilanu, Inuia
(2)
Polanu, The Netheilanus, 0niteu
Kinguom
0nceitainty-ielateu
o Bettei able to ueal with
inteinal anu exteinal
unceitainties
! Bettei able to ueal

16, 44, 6S

Fiance, 0niteu States (2)

6S
with uemanu
unceitainty
! Bettei able to ueal
with an unceitain
enviionmentmaiket

o Bettei able to ueal with iisks

9, 19

28, S4, S6, 41, S1, S6, S8

8, Su

0niteu Kinguom (2), China

China, 0niteu States (S),
Switzeilanu, Bong Kong, South
Koiea, 0niteu Kinguom (2), Italy
ueimany, 0niteu Kinguom
Incieaseu flexibility 1u, 29, Su, S6, S7, 6S, 68, 76 Inuia, 0niteu Kinguom (2), Bong
Kong, South Koiea, Sweuen,
Finlanu, 0niteu States, Iian (2)
Incieaseu iesponsiveness 1u, 1S, 29, Su, S4, S6, S7, 44,
Su, SS, 68, 72, 76
Inuia (4), 0niteu Kinguom (2),
0niteu States (2), Switzeilanu,
Bong Kong, South Koiea, Sweuen,
Finlanu, Iian (2), Inuia
Stiategic
o Incieaseu competitiveness
! Incieaseu
competitiveness in
unceitain economic
conuitions
o Incieaseu ability to follow a
uiffeientiation stiategy

1u

28, 44, S8

28, S7

Inuia

China, 0niteu States (S)

China, 0niteu States, Sweuen,
Finlanu

Agile Supply Chain Management: International Differences in Its Identified Enablers and Outcomes

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