SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICE RESEARCH: A BIBLIOMETRIC COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PRE-AND-MID PANDEMIC PERIOD

The field of Supply Chain Management has undergone several developments since the last century.
Even before the term “Supply Chain Management” was coined in the year 1983, there were a series
of advancements that provided key industrial revolutions in innovation and technology that
transformed the supply chain. As a result of the ever changing supply chain landscape, it is crucial
for businesses today to adapt and integrate new innovations in their industry or else they will be
left behind. Therefore, this research study aimed to provide the current conditions of supply chain
management practice research in order to compare and showcase the trends of this area in pre-andmid COVID-19 pandemic. This study was conducted by bibliometric analysis through the Scopus
engine. It was limited to articles, article reviews, books and conference papers. Voss Viewer
application was used to formulate visual overlays and network linkages. The research found out
that the major points of focus of many researches in both pre-and-mid pandemic was big data,
green supply chain management, sustainable supply chain management and circular economy. In
2018-2019 pre-pandemic, USA was the top publishing country with 59 papers while UK lead at
37 publications in mid-pandemic period (2020-2021). The most influential author in the prepandemic period was Sarkis J. with 8 publications, while during the mid-pandemic period Kumar
A. was the top publishing author with 5 research documents. Furthermore, network maps formed
using the Voss Viewer software shows that the second frequently occurring word after supply
chain management is sustainable supply chains and sustainable development in pre-pandemic and
mid-pandemic respectively. Therefore these areas are of high importance in supply chain
management practice in the recent times. This research is among the very few researches analyzing
the current researches on supply chain management and therefore it is valuable to many
stakeholders including business and governments that will benefit from the knowledge of the
evolution of supply chain management practices in order to make policy changes and supply chain
management strategies.