As part of its ongoing investigation into the supply chain management (SCM) practices of Irish companies, DIT’s National Institute of Transport and Logistics (NITL) is engaged in empirical research into supply chain capability. The academic integrity of this work is reflected in the recent publication of ‘Supply Chain Management Diffusion Among Firms in the Republic of Ireland’ (Sweeney, E., Wagner, C. and Huber, B.) in the prestigious International Journal of Logistics: Research and Applications. The paper, which was initially presented at the Logistics Research Network (LRN) Conference in 2007 was judged among the 5 best papers presented and selected for publication in a special issue of the journal. As noted by the guest editors (Professor John Mangan and Dr Adrian E Coronado Mondragon) “It was indeed an onerous task to distil 5 papers from the 122 presented at the conference”.

The paper focuses on the changing business environment which has highlighted the need for robust approaches to supply chain management and the improvement of supply chain capability and performance. This is particularly the case in Ireland, which has the natural disadvantage of a location peripheral to significant markets and sources of raw materials which results in relatively high transport and distribution costs.

The full article can be read in the DIT Research News magazine, which is published periodically and can be downloaded here.