Management of supply chains with attribute-sensitive products: a comprehensive literature review and future research agenda

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-11-2019-0306
• Pages: 885-903
• Date: 22 September 2020
• Published date: 22 September 2020
• Author: Mehdi Amini,Carol C. Bienstock,Mihalis Golias
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics

Management of supply chains with

attribute-sensitive products:

a comprehensive literature review

and future research agenda

Mehdi Amini

Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, University of Memphis,

Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Carol C. Bienstock

Department of Marketing, Radford University, Radford, Virginia, USA, and

Mihalis Golias

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Memphis,

Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Abstract

Purpose –Mismanagement of supply chain operations may lead to waste of products and incur substantial

monetary losses. This is particularly true for products with attributes that hasten deterioration, e.g. time,

temperature, humidity and barometric pressure. Attribute-sensitive products must be carefully monitored

throughout all supply chain processesto ensure acceptable quality to the end customers. This paper presents a

comprehensive review of the scientific literature on attribute sensitive products and on attribute sensitive

supply chains. The collected studies were reviewed using the content analysis method, focusing on the

following aspects of attribute sensitive products: (1) industries; (2) product categories; (3) decisions involved; (4)

processes; (5) current issues; (6) sustainability concerns; (7) research methods used; (8) objectives of decision

makers; (9) solution approaches used; (10) incentives driving management and (11) future research issues.

Based on the analysis of findings, gaps are identified, and future research directions are proposed.

Design/methodology/approach –Literature review and content analysis.

Findings –The authors discovered that, while the importance of product attributes vary from one industry to

the other, overall the time attribute was critical in all of the industries considered in this literature review.

Coordination, customer satisfaction, reliability and safety were key issues in attribute sensitive product supply

chains (asp-SCs). Similar to the typical supply chains, asp-SCs face economic, social and environmental

sustainability issues. However, the majority of the studies in our analysis emphasized importance of the social

sustainability.The majority of the papers were reviewed and analyzed and adopted the modeling approach as a

research method. Furthermore, it was found that asp-SCs were mostly driven with customer demands and

social pressure.

Research limitations/implications –Based on the literature review and content analysis, there are a

number of directions for the work conducted in this study to be extended in several directions. First, the

literature search could be expanded by relaxing some of the re strictions (e.g. include the conference papers and

articles from on-line business journals). Second, additional sci entific publishers can be considered (e.g.

Emerald Insight–www.emeraldinsight.com; Inderscience–www. inderscience.com). The latter two extensions

would allow a more precise assessment of published to date work on asp-SC operations . Third, our findings

could be validated based on interviews with professionals and ex ecutives from companies dealing with

asp-SCs. Such validation will allow identification of the differen ces between the state of the art and the state of

practice.

Practical implications –Supply chains that handle attribute sensitive products (asps) must consider the

complexity of products that significantly change their properties due to factors such as time, temperature,

Management

of attribute-

sensitive products

supply chains

885

Funding: This research has been partially supported by the Biologistics Cluster at the FedEx Institute of

Technology (FIT) at the University of Memphis (UofM). Any findings and opinions expressed in this

paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Biologistics Cluster of

UpofM.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/0957-4093.htm

Received 3 November 2019

Revised 15 April 2020

14 July 2020

9 August 2020

Accepted 11 August 2020

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 31 No. 4, 2020

pp. 885-903

© Emerald Publishing Limited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-11-2019-0306

barometric pressure, humidity. Mismanagement of operations within such supply chains may lead to

significant product waste, as well as substantial monetary losses.

Originality/value –This study presented a comprehensive literature review and content analysis of studies

dealing with asps in the following industries: fashion, food, healthcare, humanitarian and pharmaceutical

industries

Keywords Attribute-sensitive products, Cold chains, Product decay, Content analysis

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

A growing number of supply chains in a host of industries involve quality-critical, attribute-

sensitive products. These supply chains encompass the design, sourcing, manufacturing,

marketing and distribution of products that are sensitive to operational and/or environmental

factors (e.g. time, temperature, humidity and barometric pressure.). We will refer to such

products as attribute-sensitive products or asps, which include, but are not limited to: (1)

biological (Pacific Bio-Material Management, Inc, 2015;BIO Logistics Companies, 2015;

Novare, LLC, 2015); (2) pharmaceutical (Bio Pharma Logistics, 2015;Garc



ıa-Munoz et al., 2010;

Susarla and Karimi, 2012) and (3) perishable products (Ahumada and Villalobos, 2009,2011;

Amorim et al., 2012,2013;Ketzenberg et al., 2014;Li et al., 2012;Rong et al., 2011).

Continuous tracking and monitoring of these attributes to ensure product quality, safety

and security are critical to the success of these supply chains. Mismanagement of asps results

in compromising product quality standards and financial losses and hence damages in

customer satisfaction and brand equity. In many countries 60% of the total agricultural fresh

products are wasted due to mismanagement of asp-SCs (Widodo et al., 2006). Because food

consumers demand freshness and quality, optimal management of asp-SCs can prove to be a

competitive advantage (Chen et al., 2018). Furthermor e, management of asp-SCs in

humanitarian relief efforts can literally mean the difference between life and death

(Beamon and Kotleba, 2006). Finally, the quantity of asps in industrialized economies is

rapidly increasing (Sahin et al., 2007), thus it is vital to understand the relevant issues

underlying the management of asp-SCs.

The rest of the manuscript is organized as follows. The next section outlines the list of

research questions considered in this study and the research methodology employed to

answer those research questions. The third section discusses the details of the literature

search that was performed and the main findings. The fourth section summarizes findings

with regard the research questions. The fifth section identifies gaps in the existing literature

and proposes the future research agenda for asp-SCs. The last section outlines potential

extensions of this study.

Research questions and methodology

This section of the report outlines the research questions we seek to answer and describes the

research methodology developed to answer those research questions.

At this stageof research into asp-SCs,it is important to understand wherewe are and where

we need to go. Thus, we seek answers to a variety of questions about asp-SCs.Inwhat

industries do asp-SCs occur? What types of products are handled in asp-SCs? What are the

critical decisions, processes, solution approaches, incentives and objectives that characterize

the management of asp-SCs? What issues does existing research into asp-SCs examine? What

research methodsare typically used to examine current asp-SC issues? What are the primary

sustainabilityconcernsexamined in current asp-SCresearch? What issuesshould future asp-SC

research examine?

As the discussion above indicates, asp-SC research faces a number of issues that must be

addressed by both academicians and practitioners. Thus, our research presents a

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