Ireland, P N (2005) Supply chain management in construction: an analysis of the appropriateness of proactive supply chain management thinking for the construction industry. PhD thesis, University of Birmingham, UK.
Abstract
Practitioners operating within the construction industry are faced with considerable challenges and difficulties when attempting to manage their supply chains and obtain value for money. This work highlighted that in response to these problems, recent industry reports and academic literature have called for the adoption of more sophisticated 'best practice' approaches including proactive integrated supply chain management to provide significant commercial benefits and alter construction's supposed obsolete practices. This advice has been contested by a number of academic writers, who are more sceptical about whether generic approaches can be claimed to be 'best practice', without providing a convincing and robust methodological justification. In response to this ongoing debate, and following the power and appropriateness school of thought, this thesis developed testable hypotheses regarding the ability of construction clients and contractors to implement specific sourcing approaches under particular external power circumstances, and the impact that internal capabilities has on the ability of buyers to effectively implement proactive or reactive sourcing approaches. In testing the hypotheses, it has been demonstrated that the implementation of proactive approaches to upstream supply management are not appropriate (or possible) in all supply chain circumstances and power structures and therefore, reactive sourcing approaches may be the most effective supply strategy for some buyers, or indeed their only option.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | best practice; client; commercial; supply chain management; value for money |
| Index terms: | implementation, construction industry, testing, option, best practice, construction client, value-for-money, practitioner, strategy |
| Subjects: | practitioner, business, professional practice, contractual arrangements, evaluation, management, industry analysis, decision analysis |
| Topics: | Risk Management, Procurement, Engineering Principles, Value Management, Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here