Abstract:
Organizational performance has routinely been viewed through a limited scope primarily focused on
functions, practices, and resources directly controlled by the focal organization, but supply chain
management (SCM) has broadened this scope to incorporate all organizations along the supply chain.
This shifted the notion of competition from that of between individual organizations to between supply
chains. Supply chain management is an ever growing field; multiple SCM frameworks exist today and are
being further developed and defined. Successful firms must reside on the leading edge of management
techniques, theories, and practices in order to stay competitive in an ever growing, more constrained,
increasingly diverse, and rapidly changing global economy. Supply chain management is at the forefront
of such management techniques, theories, and practices. Supply chains vary from firm to firm and from
industry to industry. Firms have limited resources and a desire to know if the development and
implementation of SCM within their firm is, in fact, going to equate to enhanced organizational
performance and competitive advantage. This thesis conceptualized and measured three of the eight
key business processes (supplier relationship management (SRM), manufacturing flow management
(MFM), and product development and commercialization (PDAC)) across the supply chain according to
The Global Supply Chain Forum framework. Do these key business processes lead to increased firm
performance and a competitive advantage? This thesis developed a .survey and collected data from
private organizations and, through statistical analysis, measured the strategic development of the SRM,
MFM, and PDAC processes of organizations and their relationship to competitive advantage and
organizational performance. The results of this thesis found each of the processes were positively
related to competitive advantage and organizational performance. The results will serve as value to both
academics and practitioners by expanding existing SCM literature and provide firms with a deeper
understanding of how SCM business processes truly measure up.
