Linking products with supply chains: testing Fisher's model

Purpose – The paper seeks to test the relationships among product design and supply chain design, with specific reference to the product‐supply chain model by Fisher.Design/methodology/approach – An extensive empirical survey with data from 128 companies; the approach is basically theory testing, in that it investigates an existing framework, and discusses extensions.Findings – Significant relationships are found between product types and supply chain types, as well as concerning the impact of alignment on performance.Research limitations/implications – Instead of treating the supply chain characteristics associated with different supply chain types as either/or choices, some companies select properties from both supply chain types in order to gain additional benefits. This creates a supply chain frontier of physical efficiency and market responsiveness; a concept that deserves further attention by researchers. A limitation is that it would be interesting to perform a longitudinal study.Practical implicat...

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