SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer co-wrote a research paper with Illinois Professor of Business Administration Anupam Agrawal noting that firms can manage their sourcing better by developing relationships not only with their suppliers but also with their suppliers' suppliers. According to the paper, the creation of a "sourcing hub" – a collaborative centre involving the firm, its suppliers and raw material suppliers as a mechanism for capturing and deploying sourcing knowledge of the raw material – would be beneficial.