A longitudinal view of supply chain education : Assessing the challenge of retaining relevance in today's dynamic marketplace

Purpose – The logistics and supply chain management discipline has evolved dramatically over the past generation. The rapid pace of change has challenged education providers – e.g., universities, professional associations, and publications – to remain relevant to various stakeholders. Relying on an open systems design perspective, the purpose of this paper is to assess how well organizations use constrained resources (personnel, dollars, time, etc.) to meet customers’ educational needs. Design/methodology/approach – To examine how well educational providers are meeting stakeholder goals, universities, associations, and publications are examined across time by multiple surveys to determine if they are keeping pace in the changing business world. Findings – The paper identifies two gaps. First, stakeholders report a growing gap between the offerings of existing education providers and their educational needs. Second, the gap between academic and practitioner perceptions is growing. Importantly, some organizations and universities are doing a better job of responding to changing educational requirements. Finally, a shift to SCM is further complicating the educational process. Originality/value – This study makes two primary contributions. First, it identifies important changes in the logistics and supply chain education market. Second, it provides updated rankings of the perceptions of academics and practitioners regarding three education providers: professional organizations, universities, and publications. This insight enables logistics and supply chain thought leaders to evaluate how they can enhance education resources and thus remain relevant in a rapidly changing and increasingly tumultuous marketplace.