Biopharmaceutical supply Chain challenges in developing countries: an exploratory analysis

Author(s):  
Thiago Ibrahim ◽  
Claudia A. S. Araujo
Author(s):  
Tiko Iyamu

The concepts of e-government and e-health have usually been separately studied and sparsely implemented in many developing countries. In the few studies where both concepts are combined, the role of e-government is hardly examined in the implementation and practice of e-health. This article offers an exploratory analysis and provides insight on the factors that influence the complementarity of both concepts, with focus on the Africa continent. Existing literature in the areas of e-government and e-health were gathered and used as data, from a qualitative method viewpoint. Dimensions of change from the perspective of the structuration theory was employed as a lens to guide the data analysis, which was conducted by using the hermeneutic approach. From the analysis, the role of the e-government in the implementation and practice of e-health was found to manifest from six main factors, which are source, platforms, collaboration, transparency, heterogeneity, and privacy. Based on these factors, a model was developed, which is intended to guide professionals in their practices. Also, the study might be of interest to academics from theoretical standpoint.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dheeraj Chandra ◽  
Dinesh Kumar

Purpose Delivering vaccines to the children who need them requires a supply chain that is efficient and effective. In most of the developing countries, however, the unknown and unresolved supply chain issues are causing inefficiencies in distributing vaccines. There is, therefore, a great need in such countries to recognize the issues that cause delays in vaccine delivery. With this purpose, the present study aims to identify and analyze the key issues in the supply chain of basic vaccines required to immunize children in developing countries. Design/methodology/approach Based on a field survey of three states of India, in-depth review of relevant literature and experts’ opinions, 25 key issues were recognized as factors of the vaccine supply chain (VSC) and categorized into five main domains. Using integrated interpretive structural modeling and fuzzy analytic network process approaches, the issues have been prioritized to determine their relative importance in the VSC. In addition, a sensitivity analysis has been performed to investigate the priority stability of the issues. Findings The results of the analysis show that among the five domains of VSC issues, the economic domain with a weight of 0.4262 is the most important domain, followed by the management (0.2672), operational (0.2222), environmental (0.0532) and social (0.0312). Research limitations/implications This study focuses on the prioritization of VSC issues; therefore, the results of the present study can provide direction to the decision-makers of immunization programs of developing countries in driving their efforts and resources on eliminating the most important obstacles to design successful vaccination programs. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this paper is first to provide a direction to the decision-makers in identifying and managing important issues through the use of an analytical approach.


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 1114-1132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilio GALDEANO-GÓMEZ ◽  
Juan C. PEREZ-MESA ◽  
José A. AZNAR-SÁNCHEZ

The present work examines the relationships between SMEs’ marketing internationalisation and the combination of cooperation and competition strategies, i.e. co-opetition. Recent analyses have shown that the SMEs’ exports capabilities are highly dependent on co-opetition, while others suggest that the challenges of international supply chain constitute a major driver to this combination. This analysis contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on both of these issues. A multivariate regression analysis is developed, measuring variables of SMEs’ co-opetition and international activity, and taking as reference a set of 136 Andalusian food exporters. The results confirm the positive effect of strategies of cooperation with competitors (regarding logistics, promotion, quality and R&D) on international marketing activity. This positive effect is enhanced when large retailers are the main buyers, i.e. in hierarchical relationships. Furthermore, exporting activity is shown to promote co-opetition among suppliers. These findings highlight the importance of such strategies as regards both export capabilities of the food firms in this region and their expansion into new foreign markets. The empirical approach and certain implications drawn from the results can be extended to other analyses on SMEs in international contexts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahul Baidya ◽  
Biswajit Debnath ◽  
Sadhan Kumar Ghosh ◽  
Seung-Whee Rhee

e-Waste is generated at the staggering rate of 6.1 kg per person. In 2016, 44.7 million tonnes was generated globally, and the amount is estimated to reach 52 million tonnes annually by 2021. The management of this huge quantity of e-waste is a major problem across the world, primarily in developing countries. An effective e-waste management system is linked to the sustainability of e-waste processing plants, and currently it is plagued with different supply chain network (SCN) issues. To address the issues and challenges of SCN, there is a need to prioritize and address the constructs. The study thus combines two multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) tools, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and quality function deployment, to prioritize the constructs identified from literature and supported by field studies. The house of quality (HOQ) has been used for analyzing different stakeholders’ requirements. The degree of importance for HOQ-1 has been derived using the AHP tool. The study revealed the most intriguing issues and challenges of e-waste processing plants considering the requirements of different stakeholders. The results showed formal collection, storage, semi-informal collection, and e-waste quality to be the major issues of processing plants. The findings obtained from MCDM analysis have been validated though two case studies in India and China. If the results obtained are applied to the existing e-waste SCN, a holistic e-waste management system can be achieved for developing countries.


2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikihisa Nakano

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide some empirical evidence of the relationship between strategy and structure/processes in supply chains on the basis of the results of an exploratory analysis using survey data from Japanese manufacturers. Design/methodology/approach – This study explores the differences of structure/processes among the four supply chain strategies, that is, efficient, responsive, efficient/responsive, and traditional. Specifically, this study conducts a one-way analysis of variance of the structure/process variables by supply chain strategies. Findings – As the results of exploratory analysis including follow-up interviews with survey respondents, this study found many differences between traditional and efficient/responsive firms on process variables. With regard to structure variables, the existence of a supply chain management department, which is a variable of internal structure, in responsive and efficient/responsive firms is statistically more likely than in efficient firms. In addition, this study found significant differences between efficient and responsive firms, and traditional firms on some variables of external structure. Research limitations/implications – The results of this study explain why efficient/responsive firms can achieve high level of customer service and low operating cost, which is demonstrated by Qi et al. (2009). In addition, this study statistically ensures the validity of Stavrulaki and Davis’s (2010) proposition that firms with agile strategy tend to conduct opportunistic collaboration or have collaborative barriers with their suppliers because of their flexible supply base. Originality/value – This is the first empirical study that explores the relationship among management elements in supply chains including not only strategy but also structure and processes. Through this study, it is implied that the strategy-structure-processes-performance paradigm adopted in this study is useful for exploring the patterns of other management elements that fit in with supply chain strategies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 171 (9) ◽  
pp. 11-15
Author(s):  
Martin Mabeifam ◽  
Rajesh Arora ◽  
Aussie K. ◽  
Laina Namulo

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