Enhancing Competitiveness through Supply Chain Management Capabilities

Purpose: The purpose is to provide a framework of how to build SCM capabilities. Method: In this thesis, a case study has been conducted. The first phase concerns the building of a preliminary theoretical framework. This is done through integration of existing theories, which is a highly deductive process. Theories concerning SCM and capabilities provide the basis for this framework and theory from the fields of Knowledge Management and Industrial Organization are integrated to support the other areas. The framework has been applied to a SCM implementation project at SCA Packaging, with the intention to test the preliminary framework. In the case study, the authors have focused on longitudinal issues, thus recognized the path- and time dependencies of the studied case. The outcome of this inductive phase has been an enhanced framework with explicit advices answering the thesis objective. Conclusions: The main conclusion is that the framework enhances the understanding of building SCM capabilities. Through the application of the framework, the authors have found significant matches between theory and practice. The provided model highlights the components that the building of successful SCM depends upon