A Research Note on Defining the Concept of Supply Chain

Defining the concept of supply chain have been the subject of several proposals. Gathering definitions so that they can be organized and analyzed seems to be an important work at this stage of research. Many perspectives have been identified, namely functional and process oriented perspective, strategic perspective, systemic perspective, structural and network oriented perspective and relational perspective. These perspectives help shaping decisions in this complex organizational configuration. They are analyzed and discussed and a definition is proposed to cope with main elements