Customer-Supplier Duality and Bi-Directional Supply Chains in Service Organizations

Keywords

services industries, supply chain management

Abstract

Supply chains are quite easy to define for manufacturing organizations where each
participant in the chain receives inputs from a set of suppliers, processes those inputs, and delivers them to a distinct set of customers. With service organizations, one of the primary suppliers of process inputs is customers themselves, who provide their bodies, minds, belongings, or information as inputs to the service processes. We refer to this concept of customers being suppliers as "customer-supplier duality.'' The duality implies that service supply chains are bidirectional, which is that production flows in both directions. This article explores the customer-supplier duality as it pertains to supply chain management, including practical and managerial implications.

Original Publication Citation

Sampson, S. E. 2000, “Customer-Supplier Duality and Bidirectional Supply Chains in Service Organizations,” International Journal of Service Industry Management (special issue on Supply Chain Management in Service Operations), Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 348-364.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2000

Publisher

International Journal of Service Industry Management

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Marketing

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS