Impact of Effective Supply Chain Management on Organisational Performance: A Case Study of Alfa Supermarkets

This research proposal aims to determine the impacts of effective supply chain management on the organisational performance of Alfa Supermarkets. The study will include literature review, research methodology, and ethical considerations.

TOPIC OF RESEARCH
SUPPLY CHAIN

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Aim-.............................................................................................................................................4
Objectives-...................................................................................................................................4
Research Questions-....................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
Theme 1: Understanding the concept of SCM............................................................................4
Theme 2: Analysing the importance of effective SCM within organisation...............................5
Theme 3: Impact of effective SCM on the overall organisational performance.........................5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY....................................................................................................6
Research type...............................................................................................................................6
Research approach.......................................................................................................................6
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................7
Data collection.............................................................................................................................7
Population and Sampling.............................................................................................................8
Data analysis................................................................................................................................8
Reliability and validity................................................................................................................8
Research limitations.....................................................................................................................9
Ethical considerations..................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................................

INTRODUCTION
Supply chain can be explained as the process which involves the production as well as
the distribution of the products and goods to the different places. Basically, it is considered as the
network of all the organisations, resources, activities as well as the technology which is
participating in the creation of the sale of the products. Effective SCM is very necessary for the
organisation as this will help the company to improve its overall performance as well as enable
the better networks with the other companies (Tseng and et.al., 2019). Having such management
will help the company to grow further in the highly competitive market. This research proposal
will include the aims and objectives of the research study and the literature review. Further, it
will also include the research methodology.
Aim-
To ascertain the impacts of effective SCM on the organisational performance: A case study of
Alfa Supermarkets
Objectives-
 To understand the concept of SCM
 To analyse the significance of having effective SCM within the organisation.
 To determine the impacts of effective SCM on the organisational performance.
 To recommend the strategies which will improve the SCM of organisation.
Research Questions-
 What is SCM?
 Why SCM is important for the organisations?
 What are the impacts of SCM on the performance of organisation?
 Which strategies will help in improving the SCM of the organisation?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theme 1: Understanding the concept of SCM
According to the (Toorajipour and et.al., 2021), SCM can be explained as the process of
handling the overall flow of goods and services from the production till it reaches to the ultimate
user of the product. Basically, it is the practice which is used by the companies to coordinate
with the various activities which are necessary for producing as well as delivering the goods and
services to the end user or the customers. This management is considered as centralised

management which involves flow of goods and services which includes all the processes which
helps in transformation of the raw materials to the end products. This SCM represents the efforts
which are made by the suppliers for the development as well as implementation of the SC which
are efficient and economical.
As per the views of (Min, Zacharia and Smith, 2019), by seeing the need of supply chain
in today's world, it is very important for the organisation to have the effective SCM in the
organisation. SCM is nothing but management of overall flow of the goods and services from
one place to another. This has included the movement of the storage of the overall raw materials,
work in progress as well as the finished goods from the point of origin to the point of the
consumption.
Theme 2: Analysing the importance of effective SCM within organisation
By going through the article of (Koberg and Longoni, 2019), it has been identified that
the ultimate goal of the effective SCM is to make able the company to achieve the higher level of
profits by improving the satisfaction of the customers as well as lowering the cost of running the
business activities. As when the costs of the business activities are controlled and managed helps
the company to achieve the higher level of profits. Effective SCM is very important for the
organisation as this will help them in boosting the customer service as well as reducing the
operating costs within the business. It has been found that in the present era, it is very significant
for the organisations to effectively manage the supply chain of the company so that there is no
inconvenience for the flow of goods and services. There are various societal roles played by the
SCM such as it helps in sustaining the human life, improves the health of the human beings,
protection of humans from the climate changes as well as it helps in improving the quality of life
for the human beings.
According to the (Harini and et.al., 2020), the companies which are working on the
global scale, it is highly important for them to make effective SCM as this helps them in
effective flow of the goods and services from one place to another. This plays the integral part of
the overall businesses as well as it is pivotal for the success of the company as this has the
capability of affecting the performance of the organisation which ultimately leads to the success
of company.

Theme 3: Impact of effective SCM on the overall organisational performance
As per the views of (Khan and et.al., 2021), SCM has the ability of pushing the overall
performance of the organisation to the greater heights. This is because there are various practices
of the SCM which helps the company to achieve the competitive advantage leading to the
increase in organisational performance. It has been identified that effective SCM enables the
company to improve the flow of the products by accurate demand and sales forecasting. This
helps them in production of the goods by the quality standards as well as helps in improving the
inventory management which avoids the underproduction. This helps the company to improve
the overall performance of the company as this helps them in increasing the profits of the
company.
(Hofmann and et.al., 2019), has stated that company having the effective SCM will lead
to enhancing the competitive advantage which results in boosting the overall performance of the
organisation. The SCM when practised effectively enables the company to have the positive
impacts on the company's performance.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research type
The research type can be described as the diverse types of methods that are used by the
researcher in order to conduct a study. The research type can be bifurcated into two, namely are
qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative study can be defined as the examination that
includes analysis of the statistics that is not in the system of numbers. On the contrary, the
quantitative research makes use of information that is in the form of numeric values (Bairagi, and
Munot,. 2019). However, for the purpose of conducting the present study i.e., to regulate the
effect of effective SCM on the overall performance of an organization, the research scholar will
conduct a qualitative research as it helps them preparing theories and then examining the same in
order to make useful observations and conclusion of the study.
Research approach
This refers to a list of plans and measures that helps the researcher in planning out the
steps in order to conduct a study within the market. The research approaches can be divided into
two types, i.e., inductive and deductive research approach. The research method which is used
for the purpose of analysing the data which includes the behaviour of individuals is known as
inductive approach and the deductive approach is used for the purpose of examining the data that

is in the form of numeric values. However, in order to study and investigate the impact of supply
chain management on the overall performance of the Alpha supermarkets, the inductive research
approach will be used (Cr, 2020). The use of inductive approach of research helps the research
scholar in developing new theories on the basis of the data collected. It also helps the researcher
in effectively analysing the data in order to form useful observations along with conclusions in
context of the subject of the study.
Research philosophy
This can be defined as a system in which the researcher makes use of his own
understanding and knowledge in order to conduct the study. The research philosophy are of two
types which includes, interpretivism and positivism research philosophy. The philosophy that is
used by the researchers when the data collected is in the form of qualitative data is referred to as
interpretivism and the positivism research philosophy is used when the data is gathered is in the
form of numbers and statistical values. However, it has been noted that since the data collected in
the present study is qualitative in nature, the interpretivism research philosophy will be used (
Nayak, and Singh, 2021). The use of interpretivism research philosophy will help the researcher
in understanding the views, ideas and perceptions of different individuals and thus, allow the
research scholar in easily analysing the data and then form the required conclusion on the basis
of the same.
Data collection
The data collection refers to gathering the information and then analysing them in order
to find the required outcomes in context of subject of the study. For the purpose of conducting a
research, the data can be gathered in two ways which includes primary and secondary methods of
data collection. The primary data collection includes conducting interviews, using questionnaires
and conducting surveys in order to collect the direct responses of different individuals in order to
conduct a research. On the contrary, the secondary data can be defined as collection of
information that is already present and it can have accessed by the research from books, journals,
newspapers, magazines and websites (Lai and et.al., 2018). In the present case, the researcher
will make use of primary and secondary sources of data. In order to collect the primary data, the
researcher will conduct a survey among the employees of the Alpha supermarket in order to
conduct the study. Also, the research scholar will make use of books, journals and websites in
order to gather information from secondary sources.

Population and Sampling
A population can be described as the whole group of people whose conclusions the
research wants to identify. On the other hand, a sample is a selected number of people that have
been selected by the researcher in order to determine their perceptions. However, in order to
conduct the study with respect to determining the effect of effective SCM on the act of the
company, a sample size of 15 employees from the Alpha Supermarkets will be selected. The
sample of the employees will be selected using the random sampling method (Newman, and
Gough, 2020). There are several different kinds of sampling methods that are used by the
researcher for the purpose of selecting a sample from the whole population. One of which is the
random sampling method. In this method, each and every member of the populace has an equal
probability of being selected as the sample of the study. In this method, each and every
individual is selected randomly (Gupta and Gupta, 2022). The research can also make use of
chits in order to select the sample using random sampling technique.
Data analysis
This can be understood as examining the information that has been collected by the
researcher with respect to the study. There are mainly two types of tools that are specifically
used by the researchers in order to analyse the gathered data. The two techniques of data analysis
include the thematic perception test technique and SPSS (Del Giudice and et.al., 2020). It has
been identified that this technique is used by the research scholar when the data collected is in
the form of qualitative data and the SPSS technique of data analysis is used when the data
gathered is in the form of numeric values. Since, the present study makes is of data that is
qualitative in nature, the research scholar will make use of thematic perception test technique
(Patel, and Patel, 2019). This technique of data analysis helps the researcher in making useful
theories on the basis of the data that has been collected by them.
Reliability and validity
This can be defined as those terms that are used by a research scholar for the purpose of
determining and ensuring the quality of study. In the present report, for the purpose of
confirming the validity and reliability of the research, the data and articles that will be used for
the purpose of the study will only include the ones that are published in or after the year 2015. A
list of keywords will be used in order to extract those articles that are related to the current study.

Also, the data will be extracted from copyright protected sources only. This will help the
researcher in ensuring this aspect associated with the data extracted from secondary sources.
Research limitations
Time, money and resources have been identified as the leading limitations that might
affect the study. Due to the availability of limited time period, the SPSS technique of data
analysis will not be selected in order to conduct the study. However, the thematic perception test
technique will be used for the purpose of examining the collected information. Since, the data
collected will be qualitative in nature, the thematic perception test technique will be helpful in
the formation of themes on the basis of the data collected (Ragab and Arisha, 2018). The themes
will then be analysed and then the relevant conclusions will be formed in relation to the study.
Also, since there was limited amount of time and resources, the data collected will only in the
form of qualitative data as analysis and examination of the quantitative data requires availability
of sufficient amount of time.
Ethical considerations
In order to conduct this project, it is important for the researcher to abide by certain
ethical rules and follow them in order to ensure that all the ethics in relation to the present study
have been met successfully. For the present study, the researcher will schedule a survey with the
help of taking a questionnaire among the employees of the Alpha Supermarket. In order to
conduct the survey, the research scholar will provide the employees with a consent form in
which they will provide their due consent before participating in the survey (Kumar, 2018). It is
the responsibility of the research scholar to make sure that the employees are voluntarily
participating in the survey and are not being forced or the purpose of conducting the study.
Moreover, the research scholar will not disclose the identity of respondents who participated in
the study (Snyder, 2019). If there is a need of disclosing the responses, it is the responsibility of
the researcher to take due permission from the organization in which the participants worked and
also from the respondents as their identity is going to get disclosed. Further, a list of references
will also be attached at the end of the project. The references ensures that the work is
paraphrased and not copied from anywhere. Also, it represents the sources from where the
research scholar has extracted the data that they found valuable and relevant in relation to the
present study.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bairagi, V. and Munot, M.V. eds., 2019. Research methodology: A practical and scientific
approach. CRC Press.
Cr, K., 2020. Research methodology methods and techniques.
Del Giudice, M and et.al., 2020. SCM in the era of circular economy: the moderating effect of
big data. The International Journal of Logistics Management.
Gupta, B.N. and Gupta, N., 2022. Research methodology. SBPD Publications.
Harini, S., and et.al., 2020. Analysis SCM factors of lecturer’s turnover phenomenon.
International Journal of SCM.
Hofmann, E., and et.al., 2019. SCM and Industry 4.0: conducting research in the digital age.
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management.
Khan, S.A.R., and et.al., 2021. A state-of-the-art review and meta-analysis on sustainable SCM:
Future research directions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 278, p.123357.
Koberg, E. and Longoni, A., 2019. A systematic review of sustainable SCM in global supply
chains. Journal of cleaner production. 207, pp.1084-1098.
Kumar, R., 2018. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage.
Lai, P.C., and et.al., 2018. Research methodology for novelty technology. JISTEM-Journal of
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Min, S., Zacharia, Z.G. and Smith, C.D., 2019. Defining SCM: in the past, present, and future.
Journal of Business Logistics. 40(1), pp.44-55.
Nayak, J.K. and Singh, P., 2021. Fundamentals of research methodology problems and prospects.
SSDN Publishers & Distributors.
Newman, M. and Gough, D., 2020. Systematic reviews in educational research: Methodology,
perspectives and application. Systematic reviews in educational research. pp.3-22.
Patel, M. and Patel, N., 2019. Exploring Research Methodology. International Journal of
Research and Review. 6(3). pp.48-55.
Ragab, M.A. and Arisha, A., 2018. Research methodology in business: A starter’s
guide. Management and organizational studies, 5(1), pp.1-14.
Snyder, H., 2019. Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and
guidelines. Journal of business research. 104. pp.333-339.
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Toorajipour, R., and et.al., 2021. Artificial intelligence in SCM: A systematic literature review.
Journal of Business Research, 122, pp.502-517.
Tseng, M.L., and et.al., 2019. A literature review on green SCM: Trends and future
challenges. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 141, pp.145-162.
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