Recent contributions to supply chain finance: towards a theoretical and practical research agenda

Supply chain finance (SCF) is an innovative solution dedicated to optimising financial flows in supply chains, and has drawn tremendous attention from academia and industry. Considering the ever-evolving nature of SCF, the existing literature reviews in this field are limited due to a lack of integration of recent findings. Motivated by the limitation, we attempt to fill this gap by investigating the novel achievements that have been reported in the current literature. By conducting a systematic literature review, we selected 99 qualified papers published between 2010 and the first quarter of 2021, and then used descriptive analysis to identify the literature characteristics, followed by in-depth content analysis. We synthesised nine research dimensions in the selected SCF literature. By virtue of comprehensive analysis, we illustrated the embedded mechanisms among all participants in SCF practices, updated the SCF research framework, summarised the most dominant methods applied in current research, made two classifications of the financial service providers (FSPs) and SCF instruments, and provided five future research directions. The significance of this paper lies in providing both a novel theoretical foundation for academic researchers and a practical guide for industrial practitioners.