“Towards a research agenda in multi-tier, multinational supply chain management - Extension of the sustainability perspective”

Although still few, research community in operations and supply chain management has recognized the relevance of
this particular research field and the requirement to further investigate due to fundamentally different competitive
dynamics and adjoining research fields than in previously predominant dyadic views on supply chain management.
However, the field is still missing a general overview which makes it difficult to fully grasp the context and implications
of the existing contributions as well as convincingly anchor the relevance of new research questions within the research
field. Based upon recordings from three consecutive Academy of Management (AOM) professional development
workshops (PDW) on “Multi-Tier Multinational Supply Chains” the author conducts qualitative analysis applying
descriptive, simultaneous coding in four cycles. As an outcome stand five second order themes, covering the clustered
relevant phenomena within the research field, as well as two additional themes covering potential research design
decisions and theoretical lenses to research multi-tier supply chains (research agenda). Additionally, deduction of third
order theoretical dimensions allows further structuring of findings in multiple levels and perspectives within a
respective conceptual framework. The framework identifies a large number of identified themes as interdependent
contingencies of multi-tier supply chain management within complex-adaptive multi-tier supply chains,
comprehensible only from a multi-tier perspective. Conflicts between multi-tier supply chain contingencies of multiple
actors on a multi-tier level emerge as issues or hotspots within multi-tier supply chains, when individually perceived
as problematic from a single actors perspective. The responding approach to sub-supplier management is initiated at a
single actors’ perspective with potential to change contingencies on the multi-tier supply chain-level, therefore offering
further explanation for understanding multi-tier supply chains as complex-adaptive systems.