Logistics management research collaboration in Asia

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the state of logistics management research in Asia. The study focuses on the research agenda, the topics of interest, and the extent of research collaboration in logistics theory building and knowledge specific to Asia. Design/methodology/approach - This study uses a mixed methods approach namely, content analysis drawn from the articles found in six well-recognized peer-reviewed logistics management related journals from 2003 to 2013, followed by social network analysis which is applied on the selected articles to provide a structure of the collaboration relationship. Findings - Initial findings suggest that there are some scholars in Asia who are instrumental in research collaboration and in building a body of knowledge on logistics management focused on Asia. More co-production of knowledge from deeper and tightly knit industry-academic collaboration is needed to progress this domain. Most of the published work use an empirical instrument drawn from the resource-based view to explore firm level supply chain collaboration and strategy. This suggests a positivist research tradition within logistics. There is a shortage of studies conducted on the supply chain as a network of enterprises. Research limitations/implications - The review of the articles is limited to six logistics specific journals and the authors only concentrate on logistics management research focused on Asia. The contributions from the other journals may have been missed. More collaboration at the institutional, national, and international levels is called for especially on cross-collaboration between practice and theory. Practical implications - Though the analysis is restricted to 260 articles found in six journals, this paper can shed light on the research needs from different perspectives and facilitate the progress of logistics management research in Asia. Originality/value - This is the first paper to discuss the state of logistics management research collaboration in Asia, and provides an overview of the research issues, topics, and approaches undertaken thus far. Through this work, this study hopes that it will encourage greater research collaboration between industry and academia, and academics themselves.