Do virtuality and complexity affect supply chain visibility?

In recent years, scientific literature has devoted much attention to the topic of supply chain visibility. Nevertheless, further research is needed regarding the variables affecting the level of visibility that a company has within its supply chain. In accordance with Contingency Theory, this paper aims to study whether and to what extent the supply chain configuration, in terms of virtuality and complexity, affects supply chain visibility. It proposes a structured approach to quantitatively measure supply chain virtuality, complexity and visibility. This approach has been applied to six case studies to verify its usability and to gather preliminary empirical evidences. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.