Summary
The extant literature provides sound guidance for applying appropriate supply chain strategies to address conventional market structures and supply chain objectives. However, our knowledge of the unique objectives, characteristics, and elements of supply chain development by nascent technology firms in new markets they have helped create is more limited. We outline the strategy for this "emergent" phase of a firm's development of their supply chain. This strategy emphasizes establishing market legitimacy and a basic structural foundation through a core of strong collaborative relationships. The strategy also maximizes organizational flexibility and iterative market intelligence gathering through continuous experimentation with potential markets and through potential partners. The strategy is contrasted with extant supply chain strategies and implications and directions for future research are offered.
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Extract
Supply Chain Strategy for Nascent Firms in Emerging Technology Markets
OVERVIEW
The strategic role of supply chain management has typically been examined in the context of large, well-established, and conventionally market driven firms, which are by definition highly responsive to the articulated needs of their customers (Jaworski, Kohli, and Sahay 2000). There have been important explorations of the unique characteristics and supply chain implications of innovative products and in markets experiencing high demand uncertainty and rapid change (Narasimhan and Das 1999; Power, Sohal and Rahman 2001; van Hoek, Harrison and Christopher 2001). However there has been relatively little research on supply chain development and management for highly innovative, early stage technology firms. This gap in the literature is troublesome because the successful creation of new markets via radical technological and marketing innovations depends on the simultaneous development of a new supply chain.The strategy a focal firm chooses to structure its supply chain for a product has received increasing attention over the last decade. This strategy, similar to other functional strategies such as marketing, should align with the firm's overall strategic direction and guide the firm's approach to supply chain management. Researchers have demonstrated and continue to emphasize the importance of matching supply chain strategies with specific product characteristics and market conditions (Christopher and Towill 2002; Fisher 1997; Lee 2002). Thus it is critical to the advancement of supply chain, innovation, and technology entrepreneurship research that we develop a greater understanding of the supply chain strategies needed by nascent technology firms launching products that create new markets and supply chains.Radical technological and marketing innovations give firms the opportunity to disrupt existing industries and markets and to create new ones. Yet as a result, assessing the market potential of products based on radical innovations is notoriously difficult. Nascent technology firms operating in this environment must proactively envision, create, and substantiate markets through an iterative process of trial and error (Christensen 2003; Thomke 2001). These firms must leverage their limited resources to create or participate in a network of research, product development, marketing, and supply chain alliances that shape and accelerate markets for their innovations (Hills and Sarin 2003; Jaworski, Kohli, and Sahay 2000). Their success is predicated on achieving market legitimacy and organizational learning that translates into critical prod...See the full content of this document
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