Archetypes of Supply Chain Analytics Initiatives—An Exploratory Study

Abstract

While Big Data and Analytics are arguably rising stars of competitive advantage, their application is often presented and investigated as an overall approach. A plethora of methods and technologies combined with a variety of objectives creates a barrier for managers to decide how to act, while researchers investigating the impact of Analytics oftentimes neglect this complexity when generalizing their results. Based on a cluster analysis applied to 46 case studies of Supply Chain Analytics (SCA) we propose 6 archetypes of initiatives in SCA to provide orientation for managers as means to overcome barriers and build competitive advantage. Further, the derived archetypes present a distinction of SCA for researchers seeking to investigate the effects of SCA on organizational performance.