Abstract

Recent events involving supplier-caused business disruptions bring to the forefront the issue of managing critical suppliers that may exist deep in a supply chain. While managing prominent top-tier, strategic suppliers is well understood, we have only just begun to recognize a different type of critical suppliers we call nexus suppliers. Nexus suppliers can be several tiers removed in the extended supply network and hence may not be in direct contact with the focal buying firm. They are critical because of their structural positions in the supply network. We will consider the concept of nexus suppliers and the development of nexus supplier index (NSI). Using a publicly available data source (i.e., Bloomberg Terminal), the proposed NSI model is empirically implemented for the real-world network of buyers and suppliers extending out to the fourth-tier from Honda Motor Company as a focal company. The development of NSI has been funded by CAPS Research.

The seminar will conclude discussing Professor Choi’s recent contribution about supply network management and coronavirus disruptions (Choi, T., Rogers, D. and Vakil, B. (2020). Coronavirus Is a Wake-Up Call for Supply Chain Management. Harvard Business Review (online) https://hbr.org/2020/03/coronavirus-is-a-wake-up-call-for-supply-chain-management?ab=hero-subleft-1.