Elevating resident supply chain expertise is key, say team of Auburn faculty following research-focused outreach trip.

Harbert College of Business faculty are leading a unique academic outreach mission to improve the quality and global visibility of Africa-based supply chain management research in an effort to help drive business engagement and fuel investment on the continent.

Internationally known for their supply chain management (SCM) expertise, the Auburn team of Glenn Richey, Tony Roath, Colin Gabler and Tyler Morgan recently traveled to Accra, Ghana, to attend the 2024 Supply Chain Research Summit hosted by the Center for Applied Research and Innovation in Supply Chain – Africa (CARISCA) and share best practices in SCM research with experts on the African continent.

The trip was the latest chapter of a dedicated, ongoing collaboration between Harbert faculty and researchers in West, Central and Southern Africa, who provide indispensable local market and cultural perspectives on supply chain issues.

One of the key objectives of the mission is to enhance the African researchers’ peer-reviewed published work so their supply chain expertise and knowledge of the region can facilitate promising opportunities for business partnership engagement and investment.

Global supply chains remain challenged

According to Richey, the Covid pandemic spurred companies to shift from sole-sourcing vital materials and products from China as a way to reduce financial, operational and political risks. While the companies reconfigured materials sourcing, manufacturing, shipping and other supply chain operations across the globe, wars in the Middle East and Ukraine introduced new risks.

For example, companies rerouted fully loaded freighters thousands of miles around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid danger zones, but then had to deal with the weather-induced risks from navigating through treacherous winter seas.

“These temporary route changes – and the challenges they bring – serve as mere stopgaps at risk reduction,” said Richey, Harbert Eminent Scholar in Supply Chain Management. “They are not the kind of resilience-focused, longer-term strategic risk management measures an evolving world economy demands.”

“We have a compellingly important opportunity to help West, Central and Southern Africa leverage and grow their supply chain capabilities,” emphasized Richey, who was one of three keynote speakers headlining the supply chain research summit. “Counseling local market experts on how to improve the quality of their business research is one of the best places to start. We are excited at the possibilities – there’s so much expertise to highlight.”

Engagement matters

Roath, assistant professor in supply chain management, focused on the importance of face-to-face engagement with academic SCM researchers on the African continent in helping raise the value and visibility of their insight.

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“Our main objective on this trip was to learn more about the nature of their research, their goals, and those of the universities in attendance to discern how we at Auburn can add value to their efforts in both the short- and longer-term. The doctoral students and professors we met with are excited to collaborate with us and our Western colleagues to understand how best-in-class-research elements and standards can be applied to West, Central and Southern African business opportunities and their unique financial, governmental and cultural challenges.”

Tony Roath, Harbert supply chain management faculty member

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“My hope is that our trip will fuel accelerated collaboration on all levels—research among colleagues, development of exchange programs for undergraduate and graduate students, and some form of business partnership engagement,” noted Roath. “We need to remember, however, that each country represented by CARISCA has their own challenges. To be successful, we in the West need to take a nuanced look at individual, country-by-country issues that aren’t necessarily Pan-African: women entrepreneurship, supply chain network relationships, and the role of individual governments as stakeholders in business, for example.”

Taking a long-term perspective

Richey cautioned that the collaboration would take time to produce recognizable change.

“The level of systemic change required to elevate local-area SCM expertise won’t happen overnight,” said Richey. “Bigger thinking and better tools need to be applied to reposition and expand materials sourcing and manufacturing operations to places closer to the destinations where those materials and products are sold.”

Morgan, associate professor in the Department of Supply Chain Management, agrees, particularly when it comes to what long-term success looks like.

“We would do well to help researchers take a more comprehensive look at what it takes to drive and support nearshoring efforts beyond onboarding materials at West African ports – developing new materials sourcing, manufacturing and assembly facilities and operations on the continent and improving the infrastructure required to get those materials and products to the ports themselves for loading and transit,” said Morgan. “That means building roads, railways, and airfreight capabilities that currently do not exist or need significant improvements.”

“It also requires attention to the human capital aspect of standing up newly built operations – the skilled and semi-skilled in-country labor force that will enable them to function and grow,” Morgan continued. “These human capital needs include supporting high-level professional development efforts in supply chain management. That’s precisely what we are trying to do through our engagement with business experts in Africa.”

Research fuels action

Auburn’s role in helping effect meaningful change in African global supply chain management research goes well beyond simply talking the talk. Auburn SCM experts are walking the walk.

“Research on African continent supply chains is limited,” said Gabler, associate professor in the Department of Marketing, “and as Glenn notes, it will take some time for local business research to gain traction. To help accelerate that process, we are currently embarking on a study with some of our SCM colleagues focused on identifying the drivers of supply chain growth and resilience across Africa.”

“This study, which we hope to present at next year’s conference, will lay the groundwork for more robust collaborations between academia and industry practitioners while also progressing a more global perspective that can help drive the African continent’s economic transformation agenda.”

According to Gabler, he and his Harbert colleagues’ mission goes beyond counseling SCM researchers on how to publish more impactful studies.

“West, Central and Southern Africa play a critical role in the global economy – one that will only continue to grow,” Gabler explained. “We hope that international research collaborations and outreach like this will help generate tangible, positive outcomes for business and residents.

“In the end, putting this research into practice is what matters most,” said Gabler, “helping our African colleagues achieve a ‘just transition’ for the African continent that balances environmental and social responsibility with economic growth in a fair and equitable manner.”