Are current supply chain management strategies missing a crucial element? This paper critiques the prevailing paradigm in supply chain management, which focuses primarily on operational effectiveness and efficiency. It argues for a more strategic understanding of supply chains, advocating for an analytical approach grounded in the concepts of power and value appropriation. The author seeks to enhance conventional understanding of how value and power dynamics shape supply chains. The author contrasts this analytical approach with the current state of supply chain management thinking, which he characterizes as largely atheoretical and descriptive. The paper offers a review of the dominant ideas that currently inform supply chain management thinking. Instead, the author proposes a more robust framework for understanding supply chains that considers the strategic implications of power and value. By integrating strategic perspectives with operational considerations, this paper offers a valuable contribution to the field of supply chain management. The ideas put forth in this paper inform future case studies on supply chain **management** and how it operates in an **international business** setting.
Published in Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, this paper is highly relevant to the journal's focus on supply chain strategies and practices. The paper engages with the current trends in supply chain management. By exploring power and value dynamics, the study aligns with the journal's aim of providing insights into the strategic challenges and opportunities in supply chain management.