Integrating Financial Flows Into Supply Chain Management: A Bibliometric Analysis

Supply chain management (SCM) faces increasing dynamism and complexity, impacting material, information, and financial flows. Integrating these elements in SCM is crucial for efficient, transparent, and informed decision-making throughout the supply chain. While material and information flows are commonly addressed, financial flows have received limited attention in the past. Therefore, this paper analyses past research contributions on the role of financial flows within SCM to examine the relevance of financial flows within the literature and highlight key themes in this often-overlooked area. A bibliometric analysis of over 5,500 papers is presented, revealing a significant increase in publications, especially since 2018. The analysis also identifies six thematic areas: 'supply chain finance', 'risk management', 'digital technologies', 'sustainability', 'performance measurement', and 'decision-making'. By systematically mapping this field of research, the paper provides an overall picture of the integration of financial flows in SCM and offers valuable insights to guide current and future research in these thematic areas.