A Supply Chain Perspective On Strategic Foothold Moves In Emerging Markets

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Craighead, C. W., Ketchen, D. J., Jenkins, M. T., & Holcomb, M. C. (2017). A Supply ChainPerspective on Strategic Foothold Moves in Emerging Markets. Journal of Supply ChainManagement. 53(4), 3-12.
The article, “A Supply Chain Perspective on Strategic Foothold Moves in Emerging Markets” by Craighead, Ketchen, Jenkins and Holcomb attempts to address environmental uncertainties, foothold portability and supply chain knowledge can influence the decisions of an organization in regard to the footholds.
From the abstract, it is clear that this is a good step towards the maximum utilization of the supply chain knowledge in the gaining a competitive edge in the market. In fact the article is very informative even from the onset of the first couple paragraphs. The authors start by giving a physical evidence of a company that doubled its size by exploiting the emerging markets. What makes this article interesting is how the authors theorize the right opportunity for a firm to either attack or withdraw from the emerging market foothold and the consequences of such moves under various situations. Another interesting aspect of this article is the authors integrates previous literatures to demonstrate how footholds can enable a firm enter into emerging markets whose competition have not intensified.
An influence, outside other aspects, is how the supply chain knowledge can help a firm maximize the footholds. Supply chain knowledge has been defined as “the knowledge within a firm about its supply chain partners and processes.” Having a full understanding of the supply chain is an important asset which presents a firm with an advantage over competition from the rivals. Firms are likely to acqu...