Developing an Integrated Supply Chain System for Small Businesses in Australia: A Service-Oriented PHOENIX Solution

Literature abounds with reports of the potential benefits that supply chain management creates for businesses worldwide. However, small businesses are a backwater of the supply chain revolution, despite being recognised as the backbone of the Australian economy. Small businesses are deprived from benefiting from the vertical integration of the supply chains due to size constraints, skill shortage, limitation in social networking and affordability. Based on the resource dependence theory and extant literature, the authors identified environmental contingencies and proposed an integrated supply chain system for small businesses in Australia - a service-oriented PHOENIX solution. The paper contributes to knowledge by operationalising the access and integration of supply chain management systems, once an exclusive privilege enjoyed by large businesses who fail to lead but rather adrift small businesses from the eland. A case study exemplifies the potential applications and benefits of the proposed system, which not only provides a supply chain solution, but also makes it affordable and beneficial and free of technical hurdles to the small businesses. The paper concludes by acknowledging the limitations of the system and discussing the future directions in this work.