The role and importance of survey research in the field of Supply Chain Management

Abstract

The following paper continues the work of Mentzer & Kahn (1995) by examining 99 'survey' articles that have been published in the Journal of Business Logistics between Volume 14 (2) and Volume 24. In order to identify certain tendencies in the methodological development in the field, the assessment includes the analysis of the methods used for collecting data, the sampling procedures, the response rates, the data format, and research. Although survey research seems to be an accepted research approach in the field of logistics and Supply Chain Management, the information given in the articles is unsatisfactory, as no article contains all the necessary data that allow conclusions towards reliability, validity and objectivity of the study. © 2005 Physica-Verlag Heidelberg.