Barriers to effective value chain management in developing countries: new insights from the cotton industrial value chain

TLDR

Value chain management is widely adopted yet remains difficult to implement effectively, especially in developing countries where many unknown barriers persist. This study seeks to identify the common barriers to effective value chain management in Zimbabwe’s cotton industry. Using survey data from 157 purposively sampled cotton industry experts and exploratory factor analysis, the authors mapped the barriers. The analysis uncovered architectural and governance barriers, highlighting policy implications and the need for broader research across other developing industrial chains.

Abstract

A rigorous and extensive application of the value chain management (VCM) has become the vogue in modern day business practices and processes. However, due to the complex and multidimensional nature of value chains, achieving efficient and effective value chain management in real value chains remains a major conundrum for practitioners. Many unknown barriers continue to impede effective and efficient value chain management in developing countries’ industrial value chains. The purpose of this study was to find out the common barriers to effective value chain management in a developing country’s industrial value chains using evidence from the cotton industry in Zimbabwe. The analysis was based on survey data sets obtained from 157 purposively sampled experts from the cotton industry value chain in Zimbabwe. Exploratory factor analysis was used to find the barriers to effective value chain management. The results revealed both architectural and governance barriers to effective value chain management. The findings also presented major policy implications for industrial value chains in the developing countries and also indicated areas for further robust research founded on a broader data set from other developing countries’ industrial chains as a way of validating the findings of this study.