Customer-Driven Supply Chains: a theoretical analysis

This paper analyzes emerging themes in terms of value creation through supply chain network, customer satisfaction connected to the efficiency and effectiveness of the company’s supplier relationships and competiveness among supply chains. Despite the fact that some researches and conceptualizations have been developed finalized to stress the above concepts, few research has been conducted aimed to enter into the specific conditions at which demand-driven supply chains should be implemented in business-to-business markets and, in particular, how they should be structured and enacted. Taking into account the IMP literature, notwithstanding it is focalized on the variety of business interactions and on heterogeneity in networks, no specific studies are addressed to enter into a deep analysis of the determinants and the varied profiles of customer-driven supply chains. The aim of the paper is to enhance the customer-driven supply chain discipline developing a literature analysis on “customer-driven supply chains” of the latest fifteen years. The study found that, as concerns the implementation of effective customer-driven supply chains, it is necessary to highlight the variety of configurations due to different customer value expectations and three main categories are explicative of the diverse pattern. The findings of the systematic review present several implications with regard to research in this field according to the IMP perspective.