Supply chain finance: applying finance theory to supply chain management to enhance finance in supply chains

Abstract It is now accepted that logistics and supply chain management (SCM) have great potential for improving bottom line results. This paper proposes a framework for investigating the financial issues in logistics and SCM and shows that taking a supply chain perspective on financial issues offers great opportunities for SCM professionals. SCM can not only contribute to improvements in sales, cost of sales, and the invested capital, but also has the potential to improve the capital cost rate as a long neglected supply chain driver of shareholder value. Keywords: supply chain financecapital costsshareholder valuesupply chain management Acknowledgements I wish to thank the European Logistics Association (ELA) for organising the ELA Doctorate Workshop and giving me and my fellow doctorate students a great opportunity for sharing and gaining knowledge and for networking. I am also very thankful to Bruce Hills and the three unknown reviewers of my first draft of this paper for their valuable feedback.