We are happy that this journal continues to emerge as a premier platform for national and international researchers to publish their works on Supply Chain Management (SCM) and its allied areas.

This issue brings forth several interesting developments in the area of the supply chain. The five papers published together offer theoretical and practical insights which hold immense value to the practice and research of SCM. A brief overview of the papers is briefly discussed here.

The authors, Jean Anne Stewart, Marc Day, Carole Print and Giampiero Favato, in their paper titled "Compliance in the Supply Chain: Implications of Sarbanes-Oxley for UK Businesses" have not only estimated the current number of UK companies that have to be Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, but also how that number will grow over the coming decades, particularly given the impact of the supply chain. Eight telephonic interviews were conducted to better understand the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on processes, systems and business structures of UK companies. Data was obtained from five UK-based companies and three subsidiaries of American multinational corporations. The following industries were represented—IT, Telecoms, Healthcare Insurance, Pharmaceuticals, Communications, and FMCG. The authors opine that companies adopting Sarbanes-Oxley may pay a price now, but will exploit an enviable competitive position in the future; making them preferred partners of large corporations, which must comply with Sarbanes-Oxley.

The author Srikanta Routroy, in his paper titled "Antecedents and Drivers for Green Supply Chain Management Implementation in Manufacturing Environment" attempts to propose the antecedents and drivers of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) in a manufacturing environment. While the antecedents of GSCM implementation are proposed as top management support and government's initiatives, the drivers of GSCM implementation are proposed as green sourcing, Green Design (GD), green manufacturing and re-manufacturing, green packaging, Reverse Logistics (RL), Environmental Management System (EMS), green innovation and customer awareness. These proposed antecedents and drivers for GSCM implementation in the manufacturing environment are highly conceptual in nature, which may be validated empirically by conducting a survey among various manufacturing supply chains for acceptability.

In the paper, "Modeling Inventory Management Improvement: Criticalities and Recommendations" the authors, Mohit Kumar and Shirshendu Ganguli, use the case study based approach by collecting data related to inventory management in a reputed American manufacturing company. A model of efficient inventory management is put forward. The authors opine that by improving the inventory management, a company can determine the most efficient and cost effective ways to deliver faster, cleaner and higher quality products to its customers. Accuracy and completeness are important in inventory management to allow an organization to make informed investment decisions.

The next paper titled "Aligning Interests of SMEs and a Focal Firm (MNE) in a Global Supply Chain Setup" by K K Morya and Harsh Dwivedi tries to explore the objectives, activities and structures of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that are possible sources of misalignment of interests of these firms with the Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). For this, orientation of firms is conceptualized, on which strategic, structural, cultural, resource and system issues are targeted. The authors opine that a close coordination based on trust is essential between the parties to bring in efficiency and effectiveness in the supply chain, thereby creating value for both. To achieve this aim, an alignment of the interests of SMEs and MNEs is crucial. To do so, it has been proposed that the orientation of firms is mainly responsible for the divergent objectives of the firms. This orientation comprises strategic, structural, cultural, resource and system issues. Understanding the gap caused due to these issues is dependent on SMEs and MNEs. If the managers of both the firms show willingness to work for reducing the gap, it can create value for both the firms.

The paper "RFID Adoption by Indian Retailers: An Exploratory Study" by Chandan A Chavadi and Shilpa S Kokatnur aims to understand the impact of RFID technology on organized retailers supply chain, with special reference to the benefits and challenges. The research study conducted was empirical in nature, involving personal interviews with organized retailers. An analysis of the impact of RFID technology on supply chain strategy examines the benefits and challenges faced by the retailers. The results indicate that the application of RFID technology enables majority of retailers to have better inventory management, control over labor costs, track high value items, reduce shrinkage, enable accurate recalls and improved customer service.

We hope that the readers will gain several new insights and directions for further research in the stimulating and exciting area of supply chain.

-- Sunil Bhardwaj
Consulting Editor