An analysis of barriers to supply chain management performance in Saudi Arabia

Supply Chain Management is relatively new to Saudi Arabia. The application of its\ud processes and practices requires setting the right foundations on which managers can run a\ud successful supply chain. Recently, Saudi Arabia started a series of improvements in\ud infrastructure and economy which should massively help Supply Chain Management. However,\ud not knowing the challenges developers may miss improving issues in relation to the Supply\ud Chain cycle. This study is concerned with the assessment of Supply Chain Management barriers\ud in Saudi Arabia.\ud The approach of this research is a mixed method that applies a survey and semistructured-interviews.\ud The primary method is the survey where respondents were asked to rate\ud the influence of a set of previously identified barriers which were extracted from literature. The\ud interviews were structured to support collected data from the survey and they were conducted at\ud a consecutive stage. Usable survey responses included in this study are 181. To support the\ud survey data 15 interviews were conducted. The survey data was quantitatively analysed utilising\ud factor analysis, regressions and mediation analysis. The interview data was qualitatively\ud analysed using thematic analysis method.\ud The study specifically investigates the effects of culture, organisational structure,\ud information sharing, connectedness and purchase & supply practices on Supply Chain\ud performance. Findings from the survey data confirmed most proposed assumptions about the \ud barriers. In addition to confirming the influence of barriers the interview data resulted in the\ud identification of additional themes like policies and regulations as being challenges to effective\ud Supply Chain Management. The identification of additional themes indicates that they can be\ud more of current concern as compared to the survey issues which may be more of traditional\ud barriers