Title: A drama theory analysis of supply chain collaboration

Authors: Togar M. Simatupang; Ramaswami Sridharan

Addresses: School of Business and Management, Bandung Institute of Technology, 10 Ganesha St., Bandung 40132, Indonesia. ' Newcastle Business School, Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia

Abstract: Collaboration often involves the interaction of multiple participants whose interests differ and hence are vulnerable to conflicts. The participants should explore new strategies for examining underlying assumptions during the interaction in order to reach a trustworthy agreement. However, there is a lack of understanding of how both emotive and rational behaviours of the chain members play a key role in dealing with different perceptions and preferences. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of drama theory in the analysis of interactive decision making which often involves conflicts amongst multiple participants for process improvements in supply chain collaboration. Drama theory provides the analysis of strategic interaction to identify dilemmas, whereas a framework for collaboration is used as a tool to find initiatives for resolving dilemmas. An illustrative case study outlined in this paper is able to structurally expose and resolve different perceptions of the chain members.

Keywords: supply chain collaboration; decision making; supply chain management; SCM; drama theory; trustworthy agreements; trust; conflicts; emotive behaviour; rational behaviour.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCENT.2011.042964

International Journal of Collaborative Enterprise, 2011 Vol.2 No.2/3, pp.129 - 146

Published online: 10 Oct 2011 *

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