Global Supply Chain Management and Delivery Performance: a Contingent Perspective

Globalization is an ever growing phenomenon. Especially for what concerns sales and distribution activities, globalization offers the possibility, even to smaller companies, to access to new markets and, in turn, to increase scale and scope of operations. However there are some pitfalls, such as higher lead times induced by longer distances. This can be critical in a competitive environment that stresses more and more the importance of customer responsiveness. Literature and practice provide evidence of potential leverages, such as supply chain management investments, that can help companies to keep a high responsiveness even in a global environment. However different companies may face some specificities linked to product and process characteristics, complexity and uncertainty that can change the impact of globalization on a company's lead time performance and the need or the effectiveness of supply chain investments. The aim of this paper is to put light on the effect of these contingencies and to identify strategic patterns followed by companies dealing with different contingent situations.