Selecting financial service providers for supply chains : How cross-functional collaboration can improve effectiveness and efficiency

Supply chain finance solutions aim at win-win situations for all supply chain partners. They simultaneously address collaborative working capital improvements, supply chain cooperation as well as risk mitigation. To achieve a fit with these objectives the paper derives an iterative three-step decision process for configuring supply chain finance solutions: Define and configure, design and decide. The design step is further subdivided in selecting internal and external supply chain partners. In addition, the contribution of cross-functional collaboration on the efficiency and effectiveness of this decision process is studied. Thereby, the paper contributes to the newly evolving field of supply chain finance.