Organizing for the future – how do OSCM processes and organization design need to evolve in the wake of technological and/or geopolitical disruptions?

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Introduction

Considering that organization design has been proposed to be contingent upon a broad spectrum of external and internal factors since the 1960s (e.g., Burton and Obel, 1984; Miles and Snow, 1978; Thompson, 1967; Lawrence and Lorsch, 1967; Woodward, 1965; Chandler, 1962), recent developments in technologies and geopolitical landscape offer a timely and important research area. We are looking for novel perspectives on how processes and organization designs in operations and supply chain management (hereafter summarized as ”OSCM”) are changing. Purely descriptive accounts of exemplary organization designs or processes and/or mere inventories of ”new” features of such are not considered relevant for this call for papers. Both a sound theoretical base and appropriate methodology should drive novel perspectives on how OSCM processes and organization designs are evolving. Novel insights can be on the domain, the variables, variable relationships as well as predicted outcomes (Wacker, 1998, 2008).

While the acceleration of digitalization and new technologies has the potential to support better decision making by eliminating biases and allowing pooling of more information (Joseph and Sengul, 2025), it has increased the complexity of managing supply chains. For example, there is now a need to share assets and information that were not considered appropriate to share before, and new types of alliances and agreements need to be created (Saenz et al., 2022). From self-service procurement and autonomous buying to sourcing strategies and artificial intelligence (AI) utilization for data analytics, “the promises of AI applied to procurement are remarkable and growing, as new applications, smart platforms and pilot projects are continuously presented to digitize procurement departments” (Guida et al., 2023).

Moreover, also geopolitics increase the complexity of managing global supply chains. An example is the global semiconductor market; majority of global semiconductor production is in Taiwan with the share of microchips production reaching even over 90% (POLITICO, 2024). Recent shortages, for example, in electricity have forced factory closures globally in various sectors (e.g., cars, electronics, healthcare devices), making it evident that such extreme global dependency on a very limited number of actors in today’s geopolitical context poses severe consequences. As a response Europe has started supporting and investing in developing the related competences (European Chips Act, 2023).

These factors imply that OSCM (Operations & Supply Chain Management) is at the crossroads: we can either embrace such disruptions proactively or react to them passively. New emerging technologies and changing geopolitical context force OSCM to reconsider how to adapt. Two main responses to the changes are management of the processes and organization design, going back to the notion that organizational considerations need to be aligned with the process landscape (Miles et al., 1978). Both contingency theory as well as information processing theory are long-standing, helpful theoretical underpinnings for research in this area (Joseph and Sengul, 2025; Turkulainen, 2022; Turkulainen and Ketokivi, 2013). Contingency theory taking into account that there is a relationship between organization design and internal or external factors such as size, strategy, and uncertainties in their task environment (e.g., Chandler, 1962; Woodward, 1965). Information processing theory proposing that an organization’s design with its information processing capacity should fit the organization’s need for information (Galbraith, 1974; Tushman and Nadler, 1978).  Exemplary work in the OSCM field considers, for example, how different procurement organizational structures facilitate information processing capacity (Trautmann et al., 2009a) or how a set of factors affect production location decisions in high cost countries (Ketokivi et al., 2017). How do these considerations hold true under the changed contextual conditions of our times? Have new variables come into play that need to update previous theoretical work? For example, in terms of additional theoretical lenses, it has also been proposed that in response to recent disruptions (such as COVID-19 and the US-China trade war), companies have developed supply chain structural ambidexterity (Moradlou et al., 2025), referring to dual structures with separate roles (Duncan, 1976). Further building on that, for example, work that proposes how disruptions are affecting strategic shifts in business models, and subsequent adaptations to the organization design of OSCM functions would be in scope. This follows the idea that “structure follows strategy” (Chandler, 1962).

Summarizing, how to organize OSCM functions might need to change in the wake of new requirements; what might have been effective and efficient ways to manage and organize these functions traditionally might be less so in times of AI utilization and autonomous processes or current wars and new trade barriers (e.g., on European products posed by the US).

List of Topic Areas

Considering the potential impact that emerging technologies and geopolitical disruptions have on OSCM functions, we are inviting empirical research that addresses the question of “What research and practical implications do such disruptions have for OSCM processes and organization”?

We invite high-quality research with strong practical and theoretical implications on the following areas:

• OSCM processes: This area of research could analyze implications of emerging technologies, and geopolitical disruptions on different aspects of OSCM processes. For example: How does absorptive capacity influence technology adoption in OSCM processes? How do specific new technologies (e.g., regenerative AI, additive manufacturing, block chain) or new regulations affect supply network dynamics?
• OSCM organization design: Technologies and geopolitics (and other factors, such as changing regulations) could be incorporated as contingency factors in models of organization design (such as on specialization, e.g. new procurement role “business technologist”) (Albert, 2024). How to manage division of tasks as well as coordination of work between IT and supply chain, operations, procurement and logistics functions? This could help updating current contingency models for organizational structures (e.g. in procurement, such as Bals et al., 2018; Bals and Turkulainen, 2017; Schneider and Wallenburg, 2013; Glock and Hochrein, 2011). Moreover, this could bring more contextualized understanding for moving beyond primarily human-centric organization designs toward designing systems composed of human and non-human knowledge workers co-performing tasks (e.g., Mortimore, 2024). Research could also address the impact of technology (e.g. improved analytics) on economies of scale, learning and process, and its effect on the value of corporate coordination (extending the work of e.g., Trautmann et al., 2009b). Moreover, due to the global nature of supply chains, it is critical is to understand how geopolitical disruptions affect organization design aspects of supply chain, operation, and logistics on a global scale. This could address how to manage supply chain risks in the current geopolitical landscape, building for example on Carnovale et al. (2025).
• Technology-based decision-making: While technology-based decision-making can be considered as a form of division of labor between humans and AI, we need to carefully understand the factors affecting how this division of labor is done. Moreover, coordination between these is then required, which essentially is an organization design problem (Joseph and Sengul, 2025). New questions arise such as: How can robot bosses (Burton et al., 2024) be integrated into OSCM processes? How is the work between technology and humans as decision-makers coordinated?
• Competence development: In line with technological evolution, the competences OSCM personnel need are most likely evolving, too. Some recent research suggests that more traditional OSCM competences, such as negotiation skills, need to be complemented with competences related to sustainable sourcing, innovation sourcing and digitalization (Bals et al., 2019; Beske-Janssen et al., 2023; Delke, 2022; Schulze et al., 2019; Schulze and Bals, 2020). What competences do OSCM professionals need considering the most recent emerging technologies? Which are critical situations (e.g. in the sense of critical incidents that could be used for identifying and training competences; Bals et al., 2025) that OSCM professionals need to (learn how to) cope with?

From a methodological viewpoint multiple types of theoretically grounded research/methodologies including conceptual development, empirically grounded quantitative research, and qualitative studies (e.g. case study research, action research) will be considered. Longitudinal studies to better understand how supply chain, logistics, operations, and procurement organization design have evolved in response to recent phenomena are of particular interest. A broad range of theoretical underpinnings may apply in this context.

Guest Editors 

Lydia Bals, Mainz University of Applied Sciences, Mainz, Germany, [email protected]; Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark, [email protected]

Virpi Turkulainen, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki, Finland; [email protected]

Submissions Information

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Author Guidelines

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”. 

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key Deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 1st March 2026

Closing date for manuscripts submission: 31st October 2026

Proposal Submission

The authors interested in submitting to the special issue are strongly encouraged to send their proposal and/or research idea to the Guest Editors to receive feedback before full paper submission. Proposals should be around 1,000 words (excluding references, tables, and figures). As part of this, theory-testing or elaborating proposals should include a brief summary in terms of whether the novel insights pertain to the domain, the variables, variable relationships and/or predicted outcomes (Wacker, 1998, 2008) of the respective existing theoretical foundation. For an overview of some of the theories in OSCM, applying also the four components of a theory logic by Wacker, please see Tate et al. (2022).

Closing date for abstract submission: 1st February 2026  

Email for submissions: [email protected]