Enabling strategic alignment in the sales and operations planning process

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dc.check.chapterOfThesisN/Aen
dc.contributor.advisorAdam, Frederic
dc.contributor.advisorO'Reilly, Seamus
dc.contributor.authorShanahan, Alan Jeremiah (Jerry)en
dc.contributor.funderN/Aen
dc.date.accessioned2024-09-19T11:00:33Z
dc.date.available2024-09-19T11:00:33Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.date.submitted2024
dc.description.abstractOrganisations have struggled to leverage their Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) processes to deliver the growth expectations of the business, as defined by their strategy. Despite the promise of Strategic Alignment (SA) built into the S&OP process definition, practice has shown that while organisations get value from balancing supply to demand, they struggle to make longer-term strategic decisions, due to not achieving strategic alignment. The purpose of this research was to investigate what factors and approaches could be identified to enable organisations to achieve ‘SA in S&OP’. The research journey, adopting a critical realist research philosophy, involved a number of steps supporting the development of an evolving conceptual framework. Insights from theory and practice were explored in an iterative manner before the final synthesis was concluded. An Integrative Literature Review (ILR) of existing literature, across a range of mixed method academic studies and practitioner publications, enabled the identification of key constructs and relationships. The resulting conceptual framework, associated research propositions and research questions, were then explored by a group of acknowledged experts in a Delphi field study. Returning to the academic literature the next step identified three relevant theoretical lenses to provide a theoretical grounding to the framework in the form of Contingency Theory (CT), Resource Based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capabilities View (DCV) theories. Finally an intrinsic single case study allowed an in-depth investigation to determine to what extent the conceptual framework was reflective of best practice. The findings showed that four contingency variables (Education, S&OP maturity, S&OP scope, Strategic plan) support the building of five response variables (Product portfolio management, strategic projects management, strategic KPIs, Integrated business plan, assumptions management) to enable SA, demonstrated by strategic discussions and ultimately strategic decision making. An intangible growth mindset developed from the iterative monthly cycle of striving to achieve a fit between the contingency and response variables, leveraging a set of S&OP principles, is an essential ingredient to achieving SA. This research makes a key contribution to practice in providing guidance for organisations on how to achieve ‘SA in S&OP’, based on a theoretically grounded framework, expanding the utility of the theories of CT, RBV/DCV.en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationShanahan, A. J. 2024. Enabling strategic alignment in the sales and operations planning process. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.
dc.identifier.endpage378
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/16403
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.rights© 2024, Alan Shanahan.
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectS&OP
dc.subjectStrategic alignment
dc.subjectStrategic decision making
dc.subjectIntegrated Business Planning
dc.subjectContingency Theory
dc.subjectResource Based View
dc.subjectDynamic Capabilities View
dc.subjectDelphi study
dc.subjectCase study
dc.titleEnabling strategic alignment in the sales and operations planning process
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD - Doctor of Philosophyen
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