THE MODEL OF DOMINANT SPECIES AND KEYSTONE SPECIES IN SCM

摘要

In view of the competition between supply chains, many researchers have tried to use the quintessence of life science for reference in their research work. But two very important concepts, dominant species and keystone species in biology are very easliy confused in the research of management-bionics.There are a lot of similarities between supply chains in business society and food chains in natural world. So an attempt to distinguish dominant species and keystone species in supply chain management (SCM) is made. In this paper, the enterprises with the same or similar business are defined as a species in SCM. The value chain is adopted as the essential of supply chain. Imitating the general model of energy flow in food chain, the general model of value flow in supply chain is brought forward. The asset in the general model of value flow is analyzed and confirmed as the imitational variable of the biomass.The relative profit is analyzed and confirmed as the imitational variable of the species influ-ence. Imitating the model of distinguishing dominant species and keystone species in biology based on the relationship of the relative biomass and the influence of species, the model of distinguishing these two species in SCM based on the relationship of the relative asset and the relative profit is put forward.The examples also show the benefit of paying more attention to the keystone species in SCM.Recognizing and using these two species in SCM correctly may be helpful for better undestanding of SCM. A new bridge between the future quantitative analysis and the traditional qualitative analysis of studies on management-bionics or business ecosystem is also set up.