Collaboration and Managing Risks within the Extended Supply Chain

As global markets continue to grow efficiently, ‘the rules of the game’ are constantly changing. New business trends, specifically within the supply chain area are being introduced over short periods of time, and the business environment is becoming increasingly competitive in a way that competition is no longer taking place among individual businesses, but among entire supply chains. As a result, Organisations need to improve their level of understanding with respect to what they are likely to face in the near future in terms of risks and challenges, how can knowledge be managed and acquired from internal and external sources to increase an organisation’s capabilities in handling risks and gaining competitive advantage in the market, in addition firms should understand the urging need of creating a collaborative relationship with their partners aimed at synchronising their efforts towards achieving mutual long-term goals and competing threats as a single unit. This research presents an intensive review of collaborative relationships between trading partners within the supply chain context. This study presents a framework for organisations on how to manage their supply chain risks by focusing mainly on three key criteria: Collaboration, Knowledge management and Technology. The study presents the essence of extensive reading and analysis around the topics of interest. The relevant literature review was inspired by a number of books and articles that combine modern and past academic literature. The research takes a qualitative theme, where different ideas are gathered from various sources, presented and argued in an effort to provide a feasible framework for managing supply chain risks. The following dissertation is aimed at prominent business leaders, managers and academics who aspire to take their knowledge up to the next stage, and improve their understanding of the supply chain area in the context of collaboration and the extended supply chain