A systematic literature review on the service supply chain: research agenda and future research directions

This paper provides a methodological overview of service supply chain research through a comprehensive review of published literature, enabling us to describe the service supply chain from a knowledge perspective. The nature of the service supply chain is substantially different from the characteristics of the traditional supply chain. Consequently, the robustness of ideas underpinning this area of research has not been fully analyzed by the academic community and a more cross-disciplinary approach is needed. Following a comprehensive review, all the selected papers can be divided into nine generic groups in terms of problem focus in the service supply chain. These were production processes, human resources, logistics, information technology, theory and model generation, productivity and profitability, environmentally friendly practices, customer satisfaction and other cross-disciplinary studies. Four key aspects of the service supply chain are recommended for future research, namely: environment-friendly practices, market relationships, information technology integration and adoption of industry-specific case studies. In future extensions, additional work can include and correlate knowledge from other disciplines, theoretical perspectives, intellectual trends, and traditional practices associated with service industries. Lastly, this study could be used as a starting point for establishing a future research agenda in the area of the service supply chain.