Power and culture in supply chains: contributions of the strategic action fields approach

Candido, Silvio Eduardo Alvarez; Soulé, Fernanda Veríssimo; Sacomano, Mário

doi:10.1590/0103-6513.213516

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Research Article • Prod. 27 • 2017 • https://doi.org/10.1590/0103-6513.213516 copy

Power and culture in supply chains: contributions of the strategic action fields approach

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Abstract

Important research efforts have been developed to account for power in the analysis of supply chains. This paper argues that further gains may arise by considering organizations as social constructions mediated not only by power relations, but also by cultural representations intrinsically intertwined to it. Its purpose is to discuss the dynamics of stability and change in supply chains based on the Strategic Action Fields (SAFs) approach. A theoretical essay was elaborated discussing some of the main implications of this perspective to the study of supply chains and presenting propositions to enable the construction of research objects and guide empirical studies in the area. Propositions emphasize how ongoing cultural-political relations circumscribed to different fields, including the organization, with its internal disputes.

Keywords
Culture; Power; Strategic action fields; Supply chains

	Emergence	Establishment	Crisis
Industry	Proposition 1a: In emerging industries, the adoption of supply management practices is influenced by experiences developed in other influential sectors, which may increase its legitimacy. Proposition 1b: Managers and professionals of companies of novel sectors use the resources and social skills available to develop their supply chain practices in a relatively independent fashion from their competitors, framing their own understandings about the contributions of SCM to the business.	Proposition 1c: SCM practices tend to diffuse throughout stable economic sectors when they are seen by incumbents as efficient and effective tools for improving performance. The extent of this diffusion process will be proportional to the concentration of power in the field.	Proposition 1d: In periods of crisis in industries, the contributions of SCM practices to improve the performance may be called into question, depending on the new dominant conceptions of the field arising.
Company	Proposition 2a: Supply chain practices will be shaped by different meanings attributed to them in subfields of companies. In stable companies, units with more resource endowments and skills will impose their views about the SCM over others, being influenced by the dominant conceptions stemming from higher order fields. Proposition 2b: In emergent companies, the meanings associated with SCM practices will be more sorely disputed between business units. The actors to be involved in it and the scope of these practices will be at stake.	Proposition 2c: Actors will use their resource endowments to try to impose their conceptions and act strategically based on their social skills. The result of these disputes will be influenced by contests over the control of the whole organization and by the structure of higher order fields.	Proposition 2d: Under favorable external conditions, the field of SCM in organizations may get disrupted. In this case, a situation of crisis will arise, with challengers promoting the escalation of perceived uncertainty and using their resources and social skills to impose their conceptions about SCM.
Supply Chain	Propositions 3a: The establishment of the agreements underlying SCM will depend more heavily on the social skills of actors in the emergence of SCM practices, especially when the asymmetries of power are not very stark. Proposition 3b: Power asymmetries among actors involved in the constitution of the supply chain practices will enable the construction of cultural grounds based on which it will operate, with powerful actors tending to impose their conceptions over others’.	Proposition 3c: In established supply chains, management is based on a socially constructed social order biased by power relations that tend to be reproduced. The practical sense and the meaning in the field mediate power relations that are exerted mainly indirectly. Proposition 3d: In organized supply chains, techniques and technologies are considered to be appropriate as long as they fit into established representations and power relations among companies.	Proposition 3e: The cultural and political foundations of supply chain coordination will be put into question by challengers when political opportunities arise. Order will be reestablished when incumbents or challengers succeed in use their resources and social skills to create a new representation about the supply chain that may stabilize its relations.

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