Organization Studies Workshop, Cyprus, June 57 thAn Ecological Perspective on Supply Networks.doc
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1、Organization Studies Workshop, Cyprus, June 5-7th 2008An Ecological Perspective on Supply NetworksL. Varga1, P.M. Allen1, M. Strathern1, C. Rose-Anderssen2, J. Baldwin2 and K. Ridgway2(1) School of Management, Cranfield University, Beds MK43 0AL, liz.vargacranfield.ac.uk(2) AMRC, Department of Mecha
2、nical Engineering, University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD AbstractThe notion of supply network management has evolved considerably over the last 50 years to reach a point today where we need a post-normal science to describe the inter-related nature of physical, informational and p
3、eople networks that transform raw materials into products. Bi-lateral, local arrangements for the creation of relatively simple products are largely superseded by multi-tier, global sourcing regimes for highly integrated, sophisticated products and services. And organizations are concerned not only
4、with intra- and inter-organizational supply chain efficiencies, but also with their future roles within operational and developing supply chains of their customers and other organizations. By examining supply networks from an ecological perspective we provide a description which is grounded in envir
5、onmental context, path-dependency and coevolutionary processes. A case study of the supply networks within the commercial aerospace sector describes how the structure, behaviour and knowledge of these complex economic systems have coevolved with their environmental contexts and thus how supply netwo
6、rk ecology has matured.Key wordsComplex Economic System, Supply Network, Coevolution, Aerospace, Structure, EnvironmentIntroductionOur theoretical knowledge of the nature of the supply network has matured considerably in the last 10 years helping practitioners to understand how decisions, resources
7、and behaviours might be deployed to improve survival and performance. This new knowledge makes the assumption that the supply network is a complex adaptive system located in an ecology with which it coevolves. The emergent structures which persist within the system, together with their associated be
8、haviours, reveal the structural attractors of the system. These structural attractors are the outcome of coevolutionary processes between multi-layer complex economic systems and the environment. An ecological perspective is primarily concerned with organisms or human systems interacting with their
9、environments. In the context of supply networks such organisms or human systems are the structures, including associated behaviours, which are hierarchical, nested within multiple other organisms or human systems, open to influence from the environment and adaptive to change. In complex systems term
10、s, the environment is merely another layer in a nested system “every system takes all other systems as its environment; systems co-evolve as they complexly adapt to their environment” and which coevolves with the systems that constitute the environment “the environment or landscape that each system
11、faces is changed as a result of changes in the systems that constitute the landscape” (Kauffman, 1993)An ecological perspective further seeks to explain the spatial distribution of systems in their environment, their patterns of abundance in time and the functional interactions between co-existent s
12、ystems. Factors that determine the range of environments that are occupied and that determine how abundant systems are within those ranges are a key component of investigations within ecology. Ecological studies explore how the system interacts with the environment to influence evolutionary mechanis
13、ms of survival, growth, development, and reproduction. These evolutionary processes must necessarily produce qualitative change in the system. Qualitative change may be triggered within the system, the environment or the interaction between them. We find that the environment of commercial supply net
14、works is changing rapidly. Through continued globalisation and the availability of transport infrastructure and electronic communications, the reach of even modest sized firms is extended into markets and resources not previously available, thus opening up greater possibilities of change from the en
15、vironment. Given that organizations and the networks to which they belong are dynamic, and need to adapt, it is relevant to consider the processes of evolution. Aldrichs evolutionary theory (Aldrich, 1999) recognises and incorporates relevant organizational theories such as institutionalism, resourc
16、e dependence and transaction cost economics amongst others. Processes of evolution, namely variation, selection, retention, and struggle are developed from Donald Campbells work, based originally on Darwin (1859). The importance of organizations as innately dynamic and responsive to the environment
17、and networks is examined in his evolutionary biology approach in which change is stochastic not teleological. Coevolutionary theory extends evolutionary theory further and focuses on competitive leadership positions, and how they are lost and gained over time (Murmann, 2003). An observed supply netw
18、ork form may be a variation which is favoured (selected) in some environments thus retained and diffused within the population. The processes of evolution continue their search for new variations thus species co-evolve with the environment. Small differences in market share can be amplified and deve
19、lop into much larger differences (Arthur, 1994) so long as self-reinforcing processes, that is positive feedback, dominates self limiting processes or negative feedback which act as a self-regulatory mechanism and the key to equilibrium (Capra, 1996). One action may have varying effects on different
20、 parts of the complex system and may result in varying degrees of feedback, driving virtuous or vicious cycles (Holland, 1998). And the firm does not exist in isolation. It is nested within other bodies, including partnerships, regional economies, nationalities; and a firm itself has multiple nested
21、 sub-systems, including functions, divisions, teams, projects, individuals; and individuals belong to multiple systems, professional bodies, academic associations, social and leisure groups, etc. No single complex system acts in isolation: “Nothing happens in isolation” (Barabsi, 2002). The Resource
22、 Based View (RBV) of the firm provides an explanation of sustainable competitive advantage, which is defined as a “value creating strategy not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential competitors and when these other firms are unable to duplicate the benefits of this strategy” (B
23、arney, 1991). This implies the identification of a market niche that an organization can either create or exploit in a way which gives it advantage over its competition. In evolutionary terms this equilibrium is an ideal state. Competitors find ways to imitate the firm or re-shape the niche to their
24、 own advantage. In a changing environment, sustainable competitive advantage needs to reflect the rate at which the firm can identify new niches, exploit them and then adapt to the next niche, and so on as the environment continues to change. This means that experimentation is important (Allen, 1988
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