Changing chains: Three case studies of the change management needed to reconfigure European supply chains

Many supply chain reconfiguration programs are launched each year. Despite a wealth of knowledge existing in the general management domain, there has been little work within the supply chain management domain on change. That which does exist deals with change to a technical – as opposed to non‐technical – system. This leaves out many of the social and behavioral aspects of change. This paper aims to address this gap.

The paper synthesized the general management and supply chain literature on change to create a framework to explore change within three supply chains. A multiple case study approach was adopted for the research. Longitudinal and quasi‐longitudinal data were gathered and template analysis utilized to explore the cases contexts and the design choices they made in each of the change programmes.

In all three cases, the change is non‐linear and required re‐planning and learning throughout the change effort to build the capacity and capability for change. In all three cases, the success of the change is facilitated through the use of cross‐functional teams.

Change leaders were involved in the research through co‐authorship and a unique set of cross‐case lessons learned were generated. The framework used in the analysis incorporates considerations previously ignored in the supply chain literature, including the non‐linear, non‐processual nature of change.