Beyond Supply Chain: A Demand Chain Perspective for Superior Market Responsiveness

Abstract

Value chain is a network of activities performed by firms for creating and delivering superior customer value with distinction. It has two parts, namely; supply chain and demand chain. A supply ch;ain refers to assets, information, ;and processes that provide supply. A demand chain deals with all assets, information, and processes that define demand. In the era of globalization and information technology, firms are under tremendous pressure to m;aximize ;and enhance their market responsiveness capabilities. In this endeavor, they need to look and appraise their value chain continuously. The focus of this paper is to an;alyze the contributions of supply chain in the optimization of supply side of the value chain, and its limitations in the demand side responsiveness in the prevailing market scenario. This paper identifies that there are at least six reasons behind failure of supply chain in the present turbulent market scenario, where superior market responsiveness capability is the key for success. These are management of influence of front-end micro environmental factors, inventory management for value delivery, demand fulfillment, pull marketing strategy, demand-side IT initi;atives, ;and channel relationships. Finally, this paper advocates that firms should emphasize on management of demand chain and supply chain should be aligned with it for meeting the requirements of superior market responsiveness.