Victoria Souter’s scientific contributions

With supply chain finance gaining more prominence in practice and drawing increasing attention from researchers, the question arises how this emerging discipline can build on existing theoretical conceptualisations. However, few studies have incorporated theoretical frameworks and there remains therefore a gap in literature. To fill this gap, the study reviews five theories on their suitability for supply chain finance: transaction cost economics, agency theory, network theory, collaborative networks and social exchange theory. A Scottish focus group consisting of practitioners involved in supply chain finance provided empirical data for the evaluation. The findings suggest that there is supporting evidence for using agency theory, network theory, transaction cost economics and social exchange theory as theoretical frameworks for studying phenomena of supply chain finance. Furthermore, the results indicate that the conceptualisations based on agency theory should be extended with ‘reverse principal–agent theory’ to fit with the contingencies of supply chain finance. The frameworks of collaborative networks are found less suitable. In addition to these theoretical considerations, the focus group discussion also points out that the financial department's collaboration with other departments involved in the primary supply chain process in firms needs to be improved. To achieve this training and supplier development, particularly for smaller firms, is seen as key. These outcomes have informed a research agenda for research groups, early career researchers and doctoral students.

Whereas collaborative modes are seen as beneficial to supply chain management, albeit often assumed rather than proven, the appropriate use of financial constructs for supporting coordination across supply chains has been less developed. Moreover, there is growing consensus among academics and practitioners that the effectiveness of supply chain is vulnerable to deficiencies in inter-company cash flows and related processes for coordination. This lack of integration is particularly affecting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), because their access to capital for financing their operational and logistic processes is seen as extremely challenging. Supply chain finance (SCF) is commonly considered as an effective approach to improve financial coordination and collaboration, offering a wide variety of mutually beneficial financing constructs. Although those constructs have gained widespread use among companies, research still present limited theoretical background for the understanding of the underlying mechanisms shaping decisions connect to financial supply chain management and SCF. Therefore the aim of this paper is to analyse SCF and integration between supply chain and finance decisions in light of relevant theories of the firm. This is done by conducting exploratory research based on a focus group study among Scottish companies representing different industries. In the resulting framework the results of the focus group are analysed against relevant theories, such as transaction cost economics and social exchange. The outcomes of this study provide a better understanding of the underlying theoretical implications and determinants in financial supply chain management; furthermore, this study seeks to inform theory for supply chains and collaborative networks and to provide insight for practitioners in SMEs, large buyers and financial service providers.