Supply chain management ontology from an ontology engineering perspective

•We deduce a conceptual model of ontology engineering from extant literature.•We review 16 supply chain management ontologies and synthesize the review results.•Adoption of ontology engineering techniques is increasing, though relatively low.•Future empirical research should study the usefulness of engineering techniques.

Knowledge sharing and reuse are important factors affecting the performance of supply chains. These factors can be amplified in information systems by supply chain management (SCM) ontology. The literature provides various SCM ontologies for a range of industries and tasks. Although many studies make claims of the benefits of SCM ontology, it is unclear to what degree the development of these ontologies is informed by research outcomes from the ontology engineering field. This field has produced a set of specific engineering techniques, which are supposed to help developing quality ontologies. This article reports a study that assesses the adoption of ontology engineering techniques in 16 SCM ontologies. Based on these findings, several implications for research as well as SCM ontology adoption are articulated.