Supply Chain Management in Albania: An Empirical Study

Supply chain management in Albania has received little attention in the recent literature. Many companies now realize that actions taken by one member of the chain can influence the profitability of all others in the chain. Companies are increasingly thinking in terms of competing as part of a supply chain against other supply chains, rather than as a single firm against other individual firms. The aim of the paper is to investigate the current situation of supply chain management in Albania using a recent survey conducted by the authors. The target companies are manufacturing and trading companies mainly operating in Tirana and Durres. The data collected from Albanian companies are used to conduct the descriptive analysis and the factor analysis. The main objectives of the research are: to identify the challenges and obstacles of supply chain management, to identify types of information they share with chain members, to assess the level of suppliers and customers’ involvement in company’s activities, and to identify the main factors of supply chain management. The results of factor analysis indicate that supply chain integration, supply chain coordination, supply chain development and information sharing among the chain members are the main factors of supply chain management.