Supply Chain Finance: some conceptual insights

While the integration of material and information flows within the supply chain has long been discussed in the science community and tested in practice, it is therefore now that the flow of financial resources is increasingly drawing the centre of attention. Following this new way of understanding logistics and supply chain processes, the task of supply chain managers begins with the financing and capital budgeting decisions of supply chain investments and ends only after the payment from the customer is received. The challenges arising with this development bring along a new understanding and role of the supply chain actors as well as their mutual relationships. New inter-functional and inter-organizational tasks at the intersection of finance and logistics open new areas of business for banks as well as financial and logistics service providers. This paper can be understood as a first step enabling executives to gain all impacts lying in the Supply Chain Finance (SCF) approach.