Extending the Integrated Grocery Supply Chain: linking Australian primary producers via mCommerce

Integrated Supply Chain Management (ISCM) within the grocery industry has been widely researched by academics and business people over the past few decades, both upstream and downstream of the manufacturer. The majority of this research, however, has focused on linking suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers, logistics companies and retailers – but without involving the primary producers. In this paper, we provide the background to a research project which aims to connect this last link to the chain. The paper introduces and summarises much of the literature on ISCM and discusses the limitations of existing approaches to the ultimate suppliers of the grocery industry – the primary producers. In the final section of the paper we discuss the SAmCom research project, which is still in its infancy, but which we hope will provide innovative ways of using mobile commerce to link primary producers into the overall grocery supply chain.