Global supply chains as holistic systems: an expanded perspective

Global supply chains are a dominant theme in business academic literature. Most writers purport a holistic perspective. Our review of their literature found this untrue. Their focus on primary players excludes other relevant agents that make significant contributions to supply chain performance. We present a holistic three-layer model: primary players, infrastructure enterprises and a third layer of governance and an array of organisations, such as unions, financial institutions, and NGOs, all embedded in their surroundings that continually change as products/services move to final users. Strategic planning for global supply chains must include relevant agents from all three layers and their surroundings to be effective. Our literature review and holistic three-layer model address this problem.