The development of supply chain policy clearly is not an automatic, unlimited and concluded process. Its real forms and limits are determined by different phenomena – economic, political and technological, for example. But a closer re-examination of supply chains in distinct areas of economic activity demonstrates that the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly from Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities, within them is an asymmetric and unevenly distributed process. In any case, the development of supply chains has a direct impact on SMEs regardless of industrial sector and location.

Changes in both the economy and the development of public funded business support activities leave policy-makers with a complex task. There are three main lines of action that have to be taken into account when designing a broadly orientated supply chain policy. First, policies that impact the pressure for change in the business environment among SMEs, such as research and regulation. Second, policies that take into account SMEs’ ability to adapt and absorb change, such as human resource development. Third, policies developed to address problems of market failure, such as economic development policies supporting businesses involved in particular economic activities or sub-regions. These three policy areas need to be coordinated in such a way that they promote SMEs within supply chains. Naturally, these lines of action do not limit other areas of development, for instance between scales of delivery at a local, regional and national level. But they do contribute to the creation of mechanisms to collect policy insight.

In order to transform empirical evidence gained from business support activities into effective supply chain policies there is a need for a stronger connection between policy learning based on practical experience and systematic evaluations of policy programmes. Three main lines of action can be identified for policy formation relevant for supply chains. Firstly, there is a strong need for increased awareness of the importance of supply chains for SMEs. In order to benefit from the overall appreciation of supply chain issues continuing collaborative relationships should be developed. The question of geographical scale must be recognised by policy makers as crucial to supply chain development, especially in the genesis of tacit knowledge and the capacity to exploit it. Moreover, current supply chain support programmes need to be reviewed and, if necessary, projects should be developed to improve access to them by SMEs in supply chains. In this case effective mechanisms to integrate developing public procurement mechanisms into business support are required; that is, greater coordination among statutory bodies and business support agencies involved in economic and business development activities is required to emphasise the importance of supply chains for SMEs. Crucially, a generic blanket approach to supply chain development is unlikely to succeed and business support agencies need to be more sensitive to sector specificity. Here policy evaluation mechanisms – the chief source of policy creation – need to take into account internal developments of firms. In particular ‘policy lock-in’ must be avoided as a manifestation of policy continuation in business support for SMEs.

A second policy area centres on the skills agenda. Given the need for multi-skilled labour, supply chain development as well as business support more generally, needs to work closely with training and lifelong learning provision. Here supply chains must be considered as means of transferring learning and technology between SMEs, and any resistance among SMEs to partnership working through supply chains must be addressed with new forms of collaborative partnering involving the design, planning and costing of projects. That noted, awareness and use of supply chain development techniques is still in its infancy among SMEs and practitioners, and a link between these techniques and SMEs must be pushed to adopt a more forward-looking approach. Importantly, systems in businesses to protect intellectual property, such as patents or copyright, should be examined within the wider context of supply chain development. In a general sense, then, there is some reason to re-consider the lexicon of supply chains and look at new concepts, such as ‘value networks’.

Third, companies in key sectors, such as construction and manufacturing, have to be supported through focussed long-term projects that will both improve their efficiency and maximise local small-scale supply chain opportunities. Here realistic targets for supply chain support need to be established with less focus on exploiting large supply chain projects and more emphasis on targeted help in identifying small-scale opportunities. Importantly, unlike procurement support, supply chain development has to be aimed at both existing businesses and developing new ones. Put differently, the development of effective supply chains comprising new and existing businesses should be considered as an end in itself. In a specific sense, although there are important benefits to exploit e-commerce it is important that the technical aspects of any technology focused business support activity meets the specific needs of businesses with target supply chains. Importantly, the influence of crude economic theory should be circumscribed in policy making and the distance between new and broader theoretical results and new policy ideas bridged. Importantly, a balance between supply chain policy with a greater focus on framework conditions to the interests of particular specific industrial interests must be maintained. Here a focus on wider ‘resource areas’ including policy makers and industrialists to encourage informal debate is required.

By teasing out important characteristics of supply chains in economic activity involving SMEs, and BME communities in particular, the gap between business support delivery and policy-makers can be bridged. Naturally, how these suggestions are translated into future endeavours remains the most important challenge facing policy makers.

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