Exploring efficiency and effectiveness in the （探索的效率和有效性）.pdf

Exploring efficiency and effectiveness in the supply chain A conceptual analysis Benedikte Borgström Jönköping International Business School P.O. Box 1026, SE- 551 11 Jönköping Sweden bobe@jibs.hj .se Abstract Firms struggle for efficiency and effectiveness. Strategies involving collaboration between actors and integration of activity chains are reliant of factors that firms do not have direct ownership and control over. This has implications for strategizing, setting the goals and measuring performance. Efficiency and effectiveness are often used to describe performance. From a resource dependence perspective efficiency is defined as an internal standard of performance and effectiveness as an external standard of fit to various demands (Pfeffer and Salancik 1978). In supply chains efficiency improvements are e.g. Just-in Time production while effectiveness is achieved through customer orientation and innovation. The conceptualization of efficiency and effectiveness has its roots in system theory. Definition of the system is difficult for a quasi-organization as a supply chain that has blurred structural boundaries. Defining the system as processes of activities implies that the meaning of and the relation between efficiency and effectiveness might change as well. This is a conceptual paper with a purpose to describe and analyze efficiency and effectiveness as constructs based upon activity systems. The analysis of efficiency and effectiveness involves the meaning, the use and the relations between efficiency and effectiveness. We