Key Capabilities to Thrive at the Nexus of Supply Chain Management and Digitalization

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is of crucial importance for organisational success. In the era of Digitalization, several implications and improvement potentials for SCM arise, which at the same time could lead to decreased competitiveness and could endanger long-term company success if ignored or neglected. From a practitioner’s point of view, several key capabilities are becoming necessary at the nexus of SCM and Digitalization. This paper applies a mixed method approach of practitioner interviews and focus group workshops to elaborate these key capabilities. The main results of the paper indicate that the relevance of Digitalization for SCM is realized in practice. In the form of four key capability groups, a set of fourteen concrete capabilities is condensed: 1) creation of visibility and transparency, 2) advanced data exploitation, 3) strategic consideration of exogenous trends and 4) acceleration of technological transformation. The main contribution of this paper is an empirically grounded basis for future research projects focusing on Digitalization in SCM and an overview of the capabilities required at the nexus of SCM and Digitalization from practitioners’ point of view.