Supply network transparency: structure model, mapping procedure and performance impact

The general quest for supply chain transparency is increasing. Companies need extensive information on the organizations that might influence their market position and on the relationships between them. However, high visibility requires a significant investment of time and resources, so that many companies still only have limited supply chain visibility today. In order to create the desired visibility on their supply chains, they started to develop appropriate tools like supply chain mapping. We transfer the insights from Supply Chain Mapping literature to network level to conceptualize a new holistic Supply Network Map Structure Model. Secondly, this paper proposes a generalized draft of the mapping procedure. Furthermore, we present two use cases for the application of Supply Network Mapping: cost and innovation leaders. Finally, the findings provide evidence that supply network transparency and Supply Network Mapping indeed lead to purchasing success.