Advocating Customer and Supplier Portfolios in Supply Chain Research: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda

Firms interact with other parties in their supply chains to access the resources necessary to operate efficiently and effectively. While much of the extant research focuses on dyadic relationships between two firms, another unit of analysis that can be utilized to augment the current research in supply chain management is the portfolio (Tokman et al. 2007). Firms engage in a diverse set of relationships at any given point in time, and these sets of relationships can be conceptualized as portfolios, defined as the set of direct interfirm relationships for the focal firm. Portfolios provide a useful unit of analysis for research because a firm must also have a vision for how to manage its portfolio in support of value creation and appropriation, in addition to understanding how individual relationships provide access to resources and help the organization adapt to the changing environment. In this research, we utilize a systematic literature review to explore supply chain portfolio research from a variety of academic fields. Our findings include multiple themes with conflicting results in the extant literature. We then utilize the findings to motivate directions for future research.