Inter-Organisation Costing Approaches in Supply Chains - Research Paper Example

ter-organisational costing approaches: the inhibiting factors By Marko Bastl; TonciGrubic; Simon Templar and Alan Harrison and Ip-Shing Fan Critical Review done by ________ Submitted to (2010) Inter-Organisation Costing Approaches in Supply Chains A Critical Review Contents Table of Figures 4 List of Tables 4 Photo Credits 4 SECTION 1: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RESEARCH PAPER 1 1.1Summary of the research paper 1 1.1.1 Overview 1 1.1.2 About the authors 2 1.2 Critical Analysis 5 1.2.1 Issue or problems addressed in this research paper 5 1.2.2 Theories and hypotheses used by the author 9 1.2.3 Data collection and analysis and problems with the methods used 9 1.2.4 Did the authors achieve what they set out to do? 10 1.2.5 Comparison with similar works 12 1.2.6 Writing style/presentation; clarity of objectives 14 1.3 Implications for Management Accounting 14 1.3.1 MA issues raised in the paper 14 1.3.2 What did I learn that is new to me? 19 1.3.3 Practical usefulness of the research findings 19 1.3.4 What are the implications for the future of MA 20 2. Suggestions for improvements 20 2.1 What improvements / extensions could be made to the authors’ work in terms of 20 2.1.1 A more suitable title for the article 20 2.1.2 Areas to research 20 2.1.3 Research methods 21 2.1.4 Discussion of the findings 22 3. Description of the planning of your analysis of the research paper 23 3.1 Approach followed for analysing the paper 23 3.2 Brief description of the sources used to conduct the analysis 24 3.3 Time Table of the analysis 24 3.4 Written presentation of the work 25 Bibliography 26 Table of Figures Figure 1: Limitations of traditional costing approaches 8 List of Tables Table 1: Time table devised for analysis of the paper 25 Photo Credits Cover Page URL: http://d2eosjbgw49cu5.cloudfront.net/soxfirst.com/imgname--the_new_supply_chain_rules---50226711--36605603.jpg SECTION 1: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RESEARCH PAPER 1.1 Summary of the research paper 1.1.1 Overview The present work is a critical appreciation of the paper, “Inter-organisational costing approaches: the inhibiting factors, by the authors Marko Bastl, Tonic Grubic, Simon Templar and Alan Harrison and Ip-Shing Fancontaining three important aspects of the paper, such as critical analysis of the paper, its implication on management accounting, suggestions for improvement and a discussion of the planning process undertaken for the purpose of the critical appreciation. The researchers, in this paper primarily undertook three evolutions as, highlighting the limitation of the current accounting practices in inter-organisational environment, presenting contemporary costing approaches that are used in extended supply chains and in other inter-organisational costing programmes and isolating the successful implementation of inter-organisational costing programmes. As a pioneering work in the field, the authors argue that their study is the first systematic study, which tried to unravel the complexity of inter-organisation costing programmes by broadly dealing with an inter-disciplinary phenomenon. Practical implication of this study ranges from increasing awareness on the limitations of the standard costing in dealing with inter-organisational costing issues, to presenting the appropriateness of the several costing concepts that can be incorporated into extended supply chains. However, perhaps the most important implication of the study is that by examining as many as 42 inhibitors and by grouping them into five groups of inhibiting factors; they have raised the awareness among managers to enable assessing their organisational readiness for implementation of inter-organisation costing programmes. Their work also becomes the basis for further research on the role of the particular inhibiting factors for successful implementation. 1.1.2 About the authors This paper is a result of extensive theoretical and empirical research undertaken by the authors engaged under the aegis of two different premier research facilities of Cranfield, UK viz. the Supply Chain Research Centre, Cranfield School of Management and the Manufacturing Department, School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK. The panel of researchers include two research fellows Marko Bastl, and TonciGrubic, and ateaching fellow,Simon Templar and a professor, Alan Harrison and Ip-Shing Fan, the course director. Marko Bastl is currently a research fellow in the Supply Chain Research Centre, has previously worked in the manufacturing industry as head of finance, purchasing and also as freelance consultant. Having authored and co-authored several papers which figured out in reputed international journals. He is in the last year of his doctorate, researching on relationship transparency. Marko Bastl is the corresponding author. A Research Fellow at Cranfield University, UK, Tonci Grubic is currently working on a research project for developing a model to establish value of delivering a Product-Service System for a machine tool builder. Previously he has experience in working in a supply chain management related research project in the automotive industry. Having authored and co-authored in several papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings, Tonci Grubic’s research interests include logistics and supply chain management, operations management, information system and supply chain modelling. Simon Templar, a teaching fellow at the Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management is a qualified accountant is currently pursuing his PhD on exploring the impact of transfer pricing on supply chain management decisions. With over 20 years’ various industry experience, Templar has worked in management positions including finance, sales and marketing, physical distribution management and human resource management. He has authored and co-authored papers that appeared in several international journals and conference proceedings. His paper ‘‘Ensuring the transfer price is right’’ bagged him the International Federation of Accountants Articles of Merit Award Program for Distinguished Contribution to Management Accounting in 2005. Alan Harrison is currently Professor of Operation and Logistics at Cranfield School of Management and is the Director of Research. He has authored and co-authored several books such as ‘Just in Time Manufacturing in Perspective’ (Prentice Hall, 1992), Operations Management (2nd edition, Pitman, 1998) and Logistics Management and Strategy. . Ip-Shing Fan, the course director of MSc in Enterprise System Implementation in Cranfield University, has worked in many research projects such as use of business process modelling and analysis to help business to improve performance through smarter way of working. He is also a global consultant and has delivered consulting it businesses worldwide on such issues as ERP, PLM and SCM implementation. 1.2 Critical Analysis The authors state that inter-organisational costing is an important topic both for logistics and supply chain management. The authors define inter-organisation costing programmes as “an approach to managing costs through joint efforts of the organisation and its customers and suppliers” [Bas10]. Without these practices, decision making remains suboptimal owing to lack of relevant costing information across the key stakeholders within the organisational setups. This poses even a greater challenge in inter-organisational context such as extended supply chains. 1.2.1 Issue or problems addressed in this research paper The chief problem the authors tried to address in this paper is that in spite of many limitation of the traditional accounting and many advantages of the inter-organisation costing programmes, still there is limited implementation of the IOC programmes. Accordingly, to address the problem, the authors framed their objectives as: 1. Highlighting the limitations of traditional costing approaches to provide inter-organisational supply chain management (SCM) information; 2. Introducing five of the most commonly used approaches to provide IOC information; ABC, DPP, CS, TCO, and TC; and 3. Identifying the inhibiting factors that might prevent successful implementation of IOC approaches in organisations and encourage more detailed investigations on how to overcome them in future. The authors’ explanation of the three objectives is discussed as follows: Limitation of traditional accounting While highlighting the limitations of traditional accounting practices in the context of extended supply chains, the authors argue that traditional accounting practices often fail to bring appropriate relevance to enable effective decision making in inter-organisational context. The traditional accounting, which is represented by standard costing is often late, exaggerated (Johnson and Kaplan, 1987; cited by Bastl et al., 2010) and distorted (Christopher, 2005; cited by Bastl et al., 2010). Contemporary costing approaches As a countermeasure to the standard costing approach, the authors try to introduce contemporary costing approaches such as activity based costing (ABC), Direct Product Profitability (DPP), Cost-to-serve (CS), Total cost of ownership (TCO), Target costing (TC) that are used in inter-organisational costing (IOC) programmes. The authors however opine that none of these contemporary costing approaches are a panacea for mitigating all the problems, issues, situations being faced by traditional costing in inter-organisational costing environment. Therefore, successful costing in extended supply chains requires integration of more than one costing approach, which would depend upon the purpose of the implementation. Inhibiting factors The authors identified five types of inhibitors which impede successful implementation of inter-organisational programmes. According to the authors, they identified a total of 42 inhibitors, which were grouped as under: 1. People-related inhibited 2. People-process related inhibitors 3. Technology related inhibitors 4. Process-technology related inhibitors 5. People-technology-process related inhibitors With this framework of objectives, the authors tried to address the problem of limited implementation of IOC approaches. Importance of the research topic Timeliness, accuracy and relevance are the three basic premises on which of any financial information. The authors state that management accounting need to provide timely, accurate and relevant financial information to supply chain managers so that they can make effective decision-making pertaining to cost reduction across the supply chain and then execute their decisions. The traditional accounting practices often fail to fulfil this primary role of management accounting. Besides, in inter-organisational systems, where relationships between component organisations are opaque, it becomes even more important in such situations as while make-or-buy decision making, or sharing of information for development of trust between parties in a relationship. The authors quote several earlier works such as those of Ellram and Hendrick (1995), Kamppainen and Vepsalainen (2003), Myhr and Spekman (2005) all of who have advocated that sharing of costing information is particularly key to avail benefits such as reduction of total supply chain costs, among others benefits and advantages. Moreover, as the authors point out, the traditional accounting is inappropriate for IOC programmes on account of four primary reasons as depicted in the figure below: Figure 1: Limitations of traditional costing approaches Note. Adopted from: Bastl, M., Grubic, T., Templar, S., Harrison, A., & Fan, I.-S. (2010). Inter-organisational costing approaches: the inhibiting factors. The International Journal of Logistics Management , 65-88 Therefore, given the gross limitations of the traditional costing approaches in inter-organisational costing programmes, it is imperative to find out the reason why there is low application of the contemporary costing approaches, though they have been around for a reasonable amount of time. Assumptions made by the authors The work undertaken by the authors for the study being primarily as a review work of empirical and theoretical literature to explore inter-organisational approaches, there was no need for assumptions to be made. 1.2.2 Theories and hypotheses used by the author For reasons mentioned above there was no necessity for use of theories and hypotheses and therefore the authors did not use theories or tested any hypotheses. 1.2.3 Data collection and analysis and problems with the methods used The third objective of the study was to identify the inhibitors for successful implementation of IOC programmes. The authors formulated a strategy consisting of selection of relevant databases, time frame and keywords, which included from noted sources such as Pro-Quest, Ebsco, Emerald and Science Direct, thereby getting access to a number of peer reviewed journals such as Accounting Organisations and Society; Harvard Business Review; Journal of Business and Logistics and Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing. The authors selected the time period of 1980 and 2007 for the study, which according to them witnessed surge of publications on management accounting in inter-organisational relationships and supply chain management topics. For ensuring finding literatures of substance and relevance, the authors filleted the search results on the basis of titles and abstracts, and then subjected the filtered list to further skimming using a three staged iterative qualitative evaluation process. The first step involved determining criteria to be included in the research. The criteria were (1) the publication had to be necessarily either empirical or theoretical in nature; (2) the topic had to be in of management accounting in intra or inter-organisational context; (3) it should include inhibitors or related items in the debate. In the second step, the publications were reviewed to isolate the inhibitors, which were summarised from a list of 67 papers and five books to create a database to a total of 18 theoretical and 24 empirical papers. In the third stage, these papers were analysed to isolate the inhibiting factors form events which were previously identified to be inhibiting. The 42 inhibitors were extracted, which were grouped in three overlapping categories on the basis of most frequently specified enablers of inter-organisational integration initiatives. The data collection and analysis method adopted by the authors is in line with standard research methods, and have been popular methods employed by researchers in descriptive researches such as this. Besides, there is no problems were observed with the methods encountered. 1.2.4 Did the authors achieve what they set out to do? In the three objectives, the authors clearly spelt out to achieve three things as: 1. Highlighting the limitations of the traditional costing approaches 2. Introducing the five of the most commonly used to provide IOC information e.g. ABC, DPP, CS, TCO, and TC and 3. Identifying the inhibiting factors that might prevent successful implementation of IOC approaches The authors have been able to achieve very well, what they set out to achieve. What did they find? The study made the following findings: 1. Traditional accounting practices fail to fulfil to their role in inter-organisational environment. 2. Some of the limitations of the traditional accounting approach can be successfully overcome by contemporary accounting practices, such as ABC, DPP, CS, TCO and TC. However, individually they are not the panacea to all the problems encountered by traditional accounting approach, necessitating employment of more than one contemporary accounting practice. 3. The study could be able to demystify part of the complexity engulfing the implementation of inter-organisational costing programmes and suggests that the issue is a much broader inter-disciplinary phenomenon. Are the results meaningful? Of the three above mentioned findings, the first two being of descriptive in nature set to review the empirical and theoretical literature, the results were obvious and did not discover much to surprise. However, the third finding did make partial attempt to uncover the complexity associated with inter-organisational costing approaches and the listing of the 42 inhibitors and then grouping of the inhibitors is a somewhat meaningful. What does this piece of research contribute? This research made several contributions as follows: 1. The first contribution made by this research is that it contributed towards generating awareness among the academia and the practitioners as well regarding the limitations of traditional accounting practices. 2. The second contribution of this study is that it brought out awareness on the availability and suitability of the five contemporary accounting practices it examined. 3. The third and the most important contribution of this research however is identification and listing of the 42 inhibitors that might prevent implementation of contemporary accounting practices in inter-organisation costing environments and subsequently, grouping of these inhibitors and describing the characteristics of these inhibitors. This research being first of its kind in the field offers a significant starting point for more focused research towards issues surrounding each of the inhibitors. 1.2.5 Comparison with similar works A broad comparison with similar works in terms of originality reveals that this work is undoubtedly a first of its kind in the field to systematically address the problem of inhibitors in the implementation of IOC programmes setting broad scope for further research in each of the specified inhibitors. However, a deeper comparison with similar works in terms of value does perhaps put this work on a lesser scale of achievements. Even lesser known and unpublished works at times make exemplified efforts in achieving greater objectives and applicability. A case in point for instance is the study made by Fayard et al., (2006) on “The Effect of Internal Cost Management, Information Systems Integration, and Absorptive Capacity on Inter-Organisational Cost Management: A Pilot Study”. Here the authors delved on the subject of inter-organisational cost management to understand ‘what factors may lead to the management of these inter-organisational costs and if management of these costs is beneficial [Dut06]. The authors set two research questions as follows: 1. What capabilities (antecedents) precede IOCM? 2. Does IOCM lead to strategic and transactional benefits? It is to be noted that in the study conducted by Bastl et al., (2010) a research question or questions are lacking. Research questions are destination marks for a study, without which it sometimes takes a longer route to achieve. In addition to the research questions, the authors Fayard et al., (2006) framed a set of seven hypotheses as follows, which they wanted to be tested during the study. The authors modeled several antecedents leading to inter-organisational cost management (IOCM) based on earlier research. They used path analysis to study how various constructs would affect IOCM and would benefit the inter-organisational partners as a whole. The constructs are internal cost management, electronic integration and absoptive capacity. The constructs used by Fayard et al., (2006) was somewhat similar but opposite to the attempt by Bastl et al. (2010) to isolate the inhibitors in successful implementation of IOC programmes. However, instead of solely depending upon review of theoretical and empirical studies conducted earlier by other researchers, Fayard et al., (2006) went ahead and tested their model using a sample of managerial accountants of the partner organisations of the extended supply chain. Their results revealed that electronic integration was found to affect both absorptive capacity and internal cost management practices. They also found that “absorptive capacity was a direct antecedent to IOCM practices, and electronic integration impacts IOCM indirectly through internal cost management practices. Furthermore, internal cost management leads to IOCM in the presence of a high degree of electronic integration and dependency. Finally, their analysis suggests that management accountants do perceive significant benefits from engaging in IOCM techniques. In summary, all of these constructs play a role in the effective use of IOCM in a supply chain” [Dut06]. Therefore, considering the breadth and depth of findings in both cases, it is believed that the results of Fayard et al., (2006) is more value and applicability. 1.2.6 Writing style/presentation; clarity of objectives Despite the scope limitaitons of the study and the consequent findings, the writing style and presentation has been above par. Further, it can be said unequivocably that the paper had sufficient clarity in objectives, which has definitely brought out the desired outcomes. 1.3 Implications for Management Accounting The study has several implications pertaining to management accounting. Firstly, it further exposed the limitations of traditional accounting in both standalone organisations and in inter-organisation environment as well owing to its lack of relevance, late and exaggerated financial information. The second implication is on the availability of alternates in the form of contemporary accounting practices, which is being used currently, though not very popular. The third implication is that there are as many as 42 inhibitors, which the authors stacked into three overlapping groups. Each of these inhibitors though presents on a socio-technological space, yet each one has profound implications for management accounting. The succeeding paragraphs elucidate the case in point. 1.3.1 MA issues raised in the paper Critics in both academia and industry have been pointing out defects in the traditional costing approach to be too exaggerated, too late and too distorted in many cases. Some of the reasons being (1) the information captured using standard costing is insufficient for determining costs related to supply chain processes; (2) standard costing as a cost assessment tool for identifying inter-organisational cost reduction opportunities is not suitable for its limited intra-organisational scope; (3) standard costing does not reflect the burdens in variations in terms of: rate of sale, inventory levels, holding costs and obsolescence, changeover times in manufacturing and costs of ordering and administration; (4) costs are captured at too high level of aggregation; (5) standard costing does not encourage improvements. Though to some extent the deliverables expected by the management in both intra- and inter-organisation costing converge such as “management accounting should provide decision making information and knowledge at strategic and operational level (Axelsson et al., (2002), Kulmala et al., (2002); cited by Bastl et al., 2010) and ensure that this information is timely and relevant to managerial decision making both in the long- and short-term” [Bas10]; the requirements for inter-organisation costing diverge demanding additional inputs. For instance, one of these inputs may be that the information furnished by management accounting need to be capable of supporting decisions both at local level but also across the extended organisation encompassing all the links of the supply chain. Secondly, management accounting in inter-organisational environments should be able to provide information for such activities as: Make-or-buy decisions, which may result in partnering relationships; Actual management of strategic partnerships; Management of performance management systems; and Management of tasks to be performed in the relationship and development of trust in business relationships (Tomkins, 2001; cited by Bastl et al., 2010). All the additional management accounting requirements listed above put further burden on the already defaulting traditional accounting approaches on account of lack of relevancy, lack of timeliness and lack of sufficient accuracy. As against the traditional accounting approaches, the contemporary costing practices provide some solutions to the management accounting issues, albeit with restrictions of their own. For instance, a single contemporary costing approach cannot fit for an entire inter-organisation. Similarly, none of the contemporary costing approach can and is capable of delivering the management accounting solutions in all types of inter-organisational atmospheres. As the authors in this study point out “on the up-steam side of a focal firm, approaches like total-cost-of-ownership (TCO), target-costing (TC) and activity-based-costing (ABC) are normally applied, where on the downstream side are ABC, direct-product-profitability (DPP) and CS (LaLonde and Pohlen, 1996; cited by Bastl et al., 2010). In the process of implementation, each of these contemporary costing practices poses its own management accounting issues which are discussed below. Costing approach: Activity based costing (ABC) MA issues: 1. ABC is primarily concerned with assignment of resource costs to cost objects such as products, services or customers based on activities performed for the cost objects 2. Direct and indirect costs are assigned to cost objects. 3. Difficulty experienced in implementation 4. Inability to identify value and non-value added activities in organisations 5. Inability to capture the whole complexity of actual operations in organisations Costing approach: Direct Product Profitability (DPP) MA issues: 1. Used in retail sector primarily. 2. Attributes costs other than purchase price to each product line. 3. Cannot be used for encompassing total company costs as it does not take into account fixed overhead costs and administrative expenses 4. It is a static measure and does not reflect the effects of changes in shelf-space, or of the benefits of increased sales of one item caused by another item. Costing approach: Cost-to-serve (CS) MA issues: 1. Captures external supply chain logistic costs only. 2. A form of ABC applied in the down-stream side of the supply chain. 3. MA issues faced are similar to ABC MA issues. Costing approach: Total-cost of ownership (TCO) MA issues: 1. Primarily a purchasing tool aimed at undertaking costing of buying a particular good or service from a particular supplier. 2. The focus is on suppliers to support decision pertaining to sourcing strategy. 3. Though helps organisations gain long-term system-oriented understanding of the true cost of doing business, but does not show how a focal firm’s behaviour may affect the upstream organisation’s costs. Costing approach: Target costing (TC) MA issues: 1. Concerns managing a company’s future profit. 2. Mostly practiced in new product development stage. 3. Chained when the output of a buyer’s TC system becomes an input to a supplier’s TC system. 1.3.2 What did I learn that is new to me? The learning made by the reviewer in the order of importance is listed below: 1. Firstly, it is interesting to note as many as 42 inhibitors that can prevent implementation of inter-organisational costing practices in an extended supply chains; involving all the three prime constituents of the extended supply chains such as technology, people and process. The majority of the inhibitors being people related, followed by process related and a few in the technology sphere. Thus substantiating the claim of the authors that the inhibitors operate at a socio-technological level. The reviewer felt that the inhibitors operate more on a social level rather than the other way round. 2. The contemporary costing approaches can and are capable of addressing limitations of traditional accounting methods. When used in combination can play roles of management accounting required at inter-organisational context. 3. The level of limitations of traditional accounting practices to handle inter-organisation costing issues. 1.3.3 Practical usefulness of the research findings One of the most important practical usefulness of the research finding is in the direction of improving awareness about (1) the limitations of the traditional costing practice, (2) the suitability and applicability of the contemporary accounting practices, (3) the long-list of as many as 42 inhibitors that may prevent implementation of IOC approaches. 1.3.4 What are the implications for the future of MA The greatest implication of this research for future of management accounting however lies in its claim that it created a foundation for further research on the role each of the inhibitors. This, besides providing direction in the overlapping groups of inhibitors, will also encourage development of subsequent routes. 2. Suggestions for improvements The reviewer feels that this study like many researches has some scope for improvements, which are placed as follows: 2.1 What improvements / extensions could be made to the authors’ work in terms of 2.1.1 A more suitable title for the article The present title of the research “Inter-organisational costing approaches: the inhibiting factors” should have been worded as “A study of implementation inhibitors in inter-organisational costing approaches”. 2.1.2 Areas to research The present areas of research included (1) developing understanding on the current accounting practices pertaining to issues from supply chain perspective; (2) introducing five of the popular contemporary accounting practices used in IOC programmes; (3) finding out the right methodology for selection and analysis of sources of evidences used for identifying the inhibiting factors; (4) grouping of the inhibitors and discussing the role of the grouped inhibitors. The reviewer is of the opinion that the research area could have been extended to at least one of the inhibitor groups which could have demonstrated the applicability of the findings in a better way. 2.1.3 Research methods In order to suggest an improvement over the research method employed by the researchers, it is imperative to discuss the current method, which was undertaken in the following stages: 1. Formulation of search strategy a. Selection of relevant databases b. Selection of time frame for study c. Selection of keywords 2. Initial filtering on the basis of titles and abstracts 3. Determination of criteria for inclusion in the research a. Inter- or intra organisational context b. Must contain debates on inhibitors or related terms 4. Reviewing of each publication to identify inhibitors or related terms 5. Preparation of summary data from the reviewed literature 6. Analysis of the summary data to identify inhibiting events and listing of these events 7. Grouping of the inhibitors in three overlapping categories While this procedure appears to be fool proof, the major issue in this that research was carried out to isolate the concepts only. It did not in any make attempt to extend the investigation and test veracity of the findings by employing empirical investigations. Being also entirely based on earlier researches, it carried forward the shortcomings (if at all these earlier studies had) to its own findings. Therefore, the reviewer is of the opinion that at least a survey of some of the practicing management accountants and (or) academicians by means of a questionnaire or a structured interview could have substantiated the findings in a more authentic way. 2.1.4 Discussion of the findings The three findings of the study are (1) traditional accounting practices do not adequately fulfil their role in the inter organisational context, (2) contemporary accounting practices overcome only some limitations of traditional accounting practices, (3) it uncovers only part of the complexity pertaining to implementation of IOC programmes and the revelation that it is a broad inter-disciplinary phenomenon needs to be demystified. These findings however, were severely restricted by scope limitations; it failed to find out anything of much substance from practicality point of view. The findings appeared to be more orchestrated than researched. 3. Description of the planning of your analysis of the research paper 3.1 Approach followed for analysing the paper The approach adopted for analysing the paper was in the following 10-staged sequence: 1. Purpose of the research 2. Research design 3. Methodology 4. Approach 5. Findings 6. Limitations of the research 7. Implications 8. Practical implications 9. Originality 10. Value The reason behind choosing this particular sequence is that it would help identify the psyche and system employed for the study. This sequence provided a systematic arrangement of thought, and organisation of study. Besides, it would be easier to find out lacunae in the study easily than following in any other sequence. For instance, a search for the purpose of the research at the beginning clarified the intension behind the evolution of the paper. Besides, this is a sequence that is tested and followed by popular research journals such as the International Journal of Logistics and Management. Finally, due to the nature of the paper, other approaches analysing the article section by section by section or theme by theme were not suitable. 3.2 Brief description of the sources used to conduct the analysis For conducting the analysis two sources were used: 1. Levy, Y. & Ellis, T.J., 2006. A Systems Approach to Conduct an Effective Literature Review in Support of Information Systems Research. Informing Science Journal , 9, pp.181-212. 2. Wolf, J., 2008. The Nature of Supply Chain Research. 1st ed. Wiesbaden: Gabler-Verlag. The first source is a research paper by Levy, Y. & Ellis, T.J., (2006) that dealt with “A Systems Approach to Conduct an Effective Literature Review in Support Of Information Systems Research”. The paper presents a framework for conducting an effective literature review with three major stages as (1) inputs comprising of gathering and screening literature, (2) processing that followed Bloom’s taxonomy and (3) writing the literature review. It contains detailed guidelines on how to conduct each stage of the proposed process. The second source is a book on “The Nature of Supply Chain Research” by Julia Wolf, Assistant Professor for Sustainable Logistics & Supply Chain Management at EBS Universität für Wirtschaft & Recht / EBS Business School / Supply Chain Management Institute. The book deals all aspects of conducting supply chain research including conducting reviewing literatures for the purpose of the study. 3.3 Time Table of the analysis The time table of the analysis is placed in the table below: Table 1: Time table devised for analysis of the paper Event ID Event Activities Date From To 1 Selection of topic of review. First reading of the topic under review completed 20 Nov 21 Nov 2 Selection of sources for review 22 Nov 23 Nov 3 Review sequence finalised 24 Nov 25 Nov 4 1st Draft of the review completed 26 Nov 02 Dec a Writing Section 1 26 Nov 29 Nov b Writing Section 2 29 Nov 30 Nov c Writing Section 3 31 Nov 01 Dec d Writing Section 4 02 Dec 5 2nd Draft of the review completed 03 Dec 04 Dec 6 Final draft completed 05 Dec 06 Dec 7 Final reading 07 Dec 3.4 Written presentation of the work The written presentation of the work is analysed and observed that the message of the paper is well structured with utmost use of laconism to express the ideas. The sections are well laid out with the subsections and the paragraphs conveying the desired meaning. The illustrations and diagrams are clear and conveys the idea for which these are meant. Throughout the paper, the authors have followed uniform and appropriate method of referencing to avoid plagiarism and also to give necessary credit to the actual originator of the idea. The paragraphs flow with lucidly with a clear direction of flow. The connectivity within the paragraphs is well managed using appropriate connecting description. The language used by the authors is modern without jargons and appears to be professional. The bibliography section contains an exhaustive list of relevant documents, appended in the prescribed manner. Overall the paper is of academic quality and authority. Bibliography Bas10: , (Bastl et al., 2010, p.66), Dut06: , (Fayard et al., 2006), Dut06: , (Fayard et al., 2006, p.2), Bas10: , (Bastl et al., 2010, p.67), Read More