Study on supply chain management of Chinese firms from the institutional view

Based on survey and statistical analysis, the supply chain management (SCM) of Chinese firms is evaluated systematically from the institutional view. First, an institutional framework for Chinese firms' SCM evaluation is proposed according to the institution theory and the specific environment of China. Then, focusing on the Organization & Management Institution, a survey is conducted in more than 400 Chinese firms and 206 valid responses are obtained. Subsequently, the collected data are quantitatively analyzed and some insightful conclusions are achieved. Besides the descriptive and inferential statistic analyses, the rough set theory (RST) and the fuzzy aggregation (FA) method are employed and an integrated algorithm is developed for calculating the weights of the questionnaire indices. Furthermore, the index named potential improvement space (PIS) is defined by which the firm's weak points can be identified and the SCM improvement strategies can be derived accordingly. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.