Elements of paradoxes in supply chain management literature: A systematic literature review

Abstract

This study reports the results of a systematic literature review investigating paradoxes in supply chain management. This issue is important because supply chain practitioners frequently face paradoxes in industry with little direction provided in supply chain literature. Investigating the years 1997 through 2019, we identified 64 articles as the basis of our research containing a total of 68 unique paradoxes. In identifying the paradox elements (PEs), we adopted paradox theory (PT) as the base theoretical approach, which was utilized in only 7 of the articles. We employed contingency theory, institutional complexity theory, and complexity theory to support our findings. For each paradox, we also extracted and summarized managerial insights for practitioners. This study addresses the emergent needs of investigating paradoxes in the supply chain management domain to extend the use of PT and complementary theories that can aid practitioners in how to efficiently manage the paradoxes they encounter in industry.

Introduction

Since paradox theory (PT) (Lewis, 2000; Smith and Lewis, 2011) was introduced in supply chain literature (Matthews et al., 2016), the theory continues to receive scholarly attention (Sandberg, 2017; Xiao et al., 2019; Brix-Asala et al., 2018; Coscieme et al., 2019). One of the drivers of the popularity of PT in the field is that practitioners increasingly face paradoxes in managing supply chains. These paradoxes take many forms such as the contradictory goals in operations to increase inventory levels, improving service levels and the pressures to simultaneously lower inventory cost (Kull et al., 2013). It also applies to transportation where, adding additional routes to improve delivery effectiveness while simultaneously observing a decrease in network efficiency (a.k.a. Braess paradox) (Frank, 1981). In procurement, tensions exist between short-term supply partnerships to improve flexibility and long term, high-involvement supply partnerships to increase effectiveness (Cerruti et al., 2016). In addition, globalization and sustainability issues in supply chains also accelerate the adoption of PT (Coscieme et al., 2019; Brix-Asala et al., 2018) and related concepts such as supply chain ambidexterity (SCX) (Yalcin, 2017).

Since 2000, PT has evolved into a metatheory (Lewis, 2000; Smith and Lewis, 2011; Lewis and Smith, 2014; Smith et al., 2017), meaning that it can explain paradoxes across a number of contexts. The literature defines a paradox as “persistent contradictions between interdependent elements” (Lewis, 2000, p.760), and handling these contradictory and interdependent elements properly can provide new opportunities for organizations to grow (Smith and Lewis, 2011; Lewis and Smith, 2014; Smith et al., 2017). While fierce global competition that is fueled by innovation and sustainability pressures creates uncertainties, PT provides a “critical theoretical lens to understand and to lead contemporary organizations” (Smith and Lewis, 2011, p.398). It has the potential to address interwoven organizational challenges and suggests effective both/and management strategies (Lewis and Smith, 2014). However, we find that the use of PT is relatively limited in the supply chain field, indicating that supply chain management (SCM) scholars and practitioners may not be familiar with this formal theoretical framework that examines paradoxes. Given the apparent increase in conflicting objectives in industry, it signals a need to extend use of PT to benefit practitioners.

Previous literature introduced the PT to the SCM context (Matthews et al., 2016; Coscieme et al., 2019; Brix-Asala et al., 2018) to identify paradoxes in global supply chain management (Matthews et al., 2016) and paradoxes in sustainability (Xiao et al., 2019). To contribute to the literature, we identify a list of paradox elements (PEs), which are single elements that are perceived to be part of a larger set of elements that form a paradox. Specifically, this study applies PT to summarize and to classify PEs in SCM literature. Paradox theorists offer several research agendas (Schad et al., 2016, 2019; Smith et al., 2017) that point to the potential of PT across diverse research streams of management science. In this study, we follow this lead and conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) to examine how PT relates to the SCM literature.

The SLR method has been increasingly used in SCM in recent years (Chakuu et al., 2019; Masae et al., 2020; Glock et al., 2017). Chakuu et al. (2019) discuss SLR as superior to other review methods because it relies on replicable and transparent evidence, which leads to reduced bias during the analysis and summarization stages of the literature. Glock et al. (2017) mentioned that SLR enables readers to reproduce sample generation and evaluation, as well as to interpret and to follow up on the findings. Our study uses the same SLR approach that Durach et al. (2017) proposes for use in the SCM domain. In doing so, we also address the call of rigorous and transparent SLR in SCM (Thomé et al., 2016).

Because the use of PT in SCM is relatively new, this study also examines complementary theories that explain similar phenomena such as complexity theory (Nilsson, 2006, 2019; Nilsson and Gammelgaard, 2012), institutional complexity theory (Greenwood et al., 2011; Smith and Tracey, 2016), and contingency theory (Fiedler, 2005; Scott and Davis, 2015; Lewis and Smith, 2014). This allows us to investigate the unique characteristics of PT that focus on paradoxes that aren't fully explained by other perspectives, as well as those that overlap with PT. Studies that promote this approach (Halldórsson et al., 2007; Halldórsson et al., 2015) have discussed how the use of complementary theoretical perspectives can benefit the SCM field where the main theory can be supported by additional theories (Halldórsson et al., 2007).

This literature review also addresses the necessity of investigating the paradoxes currently known in SCM, including conflicting objectives. Conflicting objectives are characterized as PEs. Lewis (2000) discussed that choosing among competing objectives might give a temporary performance relief to the firm, but in order to achieve long term sustainable goals, a firm should acknowledge the existence of PEs in the system and attend to them simultaneously. Identifying and categorizing PEs pave the way for future scholars and practitioners to extend PT to explain phenomena that already exist in the literature and devise ways to manage the paradoxes. Applying complementary theoretical approaches provide alternative frameworks to study the PEs, in addition to PT. In doing so, our study builds on Sandberg (2017) study that recommends extending PT beyond global sourcing to explain other topics in SCM in general.

This study makes several practical and theoretical contributions. First, we summarize the managerial insights on the paradoxes that can provide guidance for SCM practitioners to handle them more properly. Recognizing and balancing these PEs help practitioners increase the effectiveness of managing the supply chain and decision making. Second, our study is unique in that it summarizes the PEs in SCM domain by providing a list of PEs in the SCM literature, and extends the usage of PT in SCM. Third, in the interest of parsimony this is the first study to classify PEs into different paradox categories based on PT. In addition, we further code the PEs into different themes within each category based on expert opinion. Fourth, we apply complementary theoretical approaches (contingency theory, institutional complexity, and complexity perspective) to explain the PEs.

Our paper is structured as follows. We further introduce the PT in the next section. Then, we explain the SLR approach in the methodology section and continue with reporting our findings in the results section. At the end, we conclude with the presentation of further discussions, implications, and potential future research avenues.