Graduate students' perceptions of supply chain skills for supply chain managers

Purpose - The aim of this research is to identify the relevant skills and their relative importance, required by supply chain managers, and to suggest the key skill items that require improvement. Design/methodology/approach - Using a survey questionnaire, data were collected against forty one supply chain management skills. Using expert opinion these skill items were then grouped to create four higher level supply chain skill-categories. These are supply chain general management (SCG) skill-category, supply chain analytical (SCA) skill-category, supply chain information technology (SCIT) skill-category, and supply chain environmental-related (SCE) skill-category. Subsequently, the importance-performance matrix (IPM) analysis was conducted to these higher level skill-categories to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the offered skills as perceived by the respondents. Findings - The analysis reveled that in order to prepare supply chain managers to face up to the future challenges educational institutions are required to devote their attention on areas such as warehousing management, distribution planning, demand forecasting, negotiation skill, cross-functional coordination skill, and knowledge of environmental issues in supply chains. Originality/value - This research provided insight into skills need for supply chain managers using importance-performance matrix (IPM) analysis. The results of the study could be adopted to upgrade the existing logistics and supply chain management program or design new logistics education and training programs to meet the current and future needs.