Dissertation: the Significance of Supply Chain Management is Increasing among International Businesses
The results of Tomi Solakivi’s dissertation encourage businesses to carefully analyse the supply chain management decisions they make concerning, for example, outsourcing. “Although it is generally thought that outsourcing is good, it is best to consider the specific characteristics of the enterprise. More is not always better,” Solakivi says.
In his doctoral dissertation, Tomi Solakivi, M.Sc. (Econ. & Bus. Adm.), assesses the effect of supply chain management decisions on the economic performance and the supply chain performance of production industries.
‒ From the viewpoint of the management, there are two main messages in the results of my study. First of all, the connection between supply chain management and the performance of the enterprise depends on specific characteristics of the company, such as its size and international activity. Secondly, the results emphasise the overall significance of supply chain management, Solakivi comments.
According to the researcher, businesses should analyse the effects of their supply chain management decisions instead of relying on generalisations. One of the questions Solakivi addresses in his doctoral dissertation is the outsourcing of logistics.
‒ Typically, people think that when outsourcing logistics the ‘more is better’ principle works, since outsourcing is usually good for performance. It would seem, however, that from the point of view of performance, the best solution is to make a clear decision whether to have an external service provider handle logistics or whether to do it yourself. Those firms that only go half way seem to lose more often than win in terms of performance, Solakivi says.
According to the results of the dissertation, the importance of supply chain management increases especially with those enterprises that have expanded their activities beyond the domestic market.
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Tomi Solakivi defends his doctoral dissertation in Supply Chain Management entitled The Connection between supply chain practices and firm performance - evidence from multiple surveys and financial reporting data on the 5th of May, 2014.
Opponent: Assistant Professor Erik Hofmann (St.Gallen University, Switzerland)
Custodian: Professor Juuso Töyli