Supply chain management maturity assessment: challenges of the enterprises in Serbia

Abstract

Nowadays competition has been spread to supply chains, instead of individual enterprises. Therefore, beside evaluation of enterprise’s capabilities to manage business processes, it is important to assess capabilities for business process management at supply chain level. The purpose of the research presented in this paper is to point out the necessity of supply chain management maturity in implementation of best practice. Research methodology is based on supply chain management maturity models. Application of the Delphi method enabled usage of maturity model, adapted to the enterprises in Serbia. The value of the research precedes from unique combination of best practice elements for the assessment of supply chain management maturity level. The research results show that best practice elements are not very popular in the enterprises in Serbia. All enterprises are at the second and third maturity level. Bearing in mind that everything has to be improved continually, maturity models, proposed by different authors can be further developed by including certain statistical tools. The original contribution of this paper and its practical implication refer to including statistical tools, hierarchical cluster analysis and correlation, into maturity analysis, thus enabling creation of framework as a road-map for the improvement of supply chain management maturity.

Keywords:

• process management
• supply chain
• maturity
• best practice
• correlation analysis
• cluster analysis

JEL Classification:

• M11
• M21
• C10

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marija Radosavljevic

Marija RADOSAVLJEVIC is an Associate Professor and vice-dean for the science at the Faculty of Economics, University of Nis, for narrow scientific field Business Management and a Visiting Professor at Willamette University, Atkinson Graduate School of Management, Oregon, USA. She graduated in 2001 at the Faculty of Economic in Nis, as a student of generation. As a student, she won few prizes, among them prize of town Nis and University of Nis. She has participated in few projects, financed by Ministry of Science of Republic of Serbia. Master and doctoral thesis she defended at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade in 2004 and 2009, respectively. Three times she was engaged as a researcher at the University for Economics and Business Administration, Department for Production Management, Wien, Austria. Her key interest areas are: quality management, process management, cost management. So far, she has published more than 130 papers in journals and proceedings from the conferences (national and international) and 4 monographs.

Nada Barac

Nada BARAC is Full Professor at Faculty of Economics, University of Nis. She is member of the following professional bodies: Society of Economists in Serbia and The European Association for Education and Research in Commercial Distribution. She has participated in five projects which were financed by The Government of the Republic of Serbia and also was a researcher on project 149052 that was financed by Ministry of Science and Environment Protection RS: 2005–2010 and on international projects - TEMPUS Project CD_JEP 17019 – 2002, TEMPUS Project CD_JEP_41103 – 2006, TEMPUS Project CD_JEP 41146 – 2006. Her foreign countries experience includes: LSE London UK, 1985, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, Lehrstuhl Logistik, IFSL TU Dresden, Fakultät Maschinenwesen Institut für Fördertechnik, Baumaschinen und Logistik TU München, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (Department of Material Handling, Material Flow and Logistics), Master of science “International business development” JEP_41103_2006 (Liste des members du consortium groupe ecole superieure de commerce de Clermont-CCI Clermont-FD/ Issoire, France). She has written more than 250 papers, and more than 10 books and monographs.

Vesna Jankovic-Milic

Vesna JANKOVIC-MILIC is an Assistant Professor and vice-dean for the finance at the Faculty of Economics, University of Nis, for narrow scientific field of Economic statistics, the application of mathematical and statistical methods in economic research. The MSc degree she gained at the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade and PhD degree at the Faculty of Economics, University of Nis. She has published three monographs as well as many papers in scientific and professional journals and has participated in research conferences at home and abroad. She worked as a researcher on projects funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Serbia. She participated in numerous seminars and professional training abroad.

Aleksandra Andjelkovic

Aleksandra ANDJELKOVIC is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economics, University of Nis, for narrow scientific field of Business management. She graduated in 2007 at the Faculty of Economic in Nis. She gained her PhD degree in 2014 at the Faculty of Ecconomics, University of Nis. Her key interest areas are: strategic management of logistics, international logistics, supply chains, international marketing, and marketing channels. So far, she has published more than 40 papers in journals and proceedings from the conferences (national and international).