Collaboration and coordination in supply chain management and E-commerce

Research in Supply Chain Management and Electronic Commerce has grown dramatically in the past decade as firms have intensified efforts to streamline operations and improve service to a diverse and demanding customer base. Central to this theme is the need for firms to look outside of their organizations for opportunities to collaborate and coordinate with partners to ensure that the supply chain is both efficient and responsive to dynamic market needs. Such collaboration and coordination opportunities introduce new challenges and complexities as a result of increased problem scale and scope, and potentially conflicting incentives among different supply chain players. Motivated by these new challenges, this special issue explores a range of coordination and collaboration problems, stressing the role of information and associated technologies in facilitating and enabling supply chain integration.