TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose While classical operations strategy research argues that manufacturing organizations should be managed in line with the operational strategic priorities, recent studies have brought up potential institutional explanations for adoption of various managerial practices, including supply chain management practices. The key point in the institutional argument is that organizations are especially affected by other organizations; imitation and isomorphism are a critical part of organizational behavior. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the institutional argument in explaining the use of supplier integration mechanisms – one of the focal management practices in today’s organizations.Design/methodology/approach The authors assess empirically the extent to which various economic institutional factors explain the use of supplier integration mechanisms in manufacturing plants with a multi-country and multi-industry survey sample.Findings The results indicate that institutional explanations play a significant role in explaining supplier integration. The findings suggest that further emphasis on building research around the institutional argument in various areas of supply chain and operations management is important.Originality/value As research on supply chain integration – including supplier integration – has focused on its performance implications, more research on the antecedents to integration is needed. This study provides a test of institutional theory as an antecedent to supplier integration.
VL  - 37
IS  - 8
SN  - 0144-3577
DO  - 10.1108/IJOPM-10-2015-0608
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-10-2015-0608
AU  - Turkulainen Virpi
AU  - Kauppi Katri
AU  - Nermes Emma
PY  - 2017
Y1  - 2017/01/01
TI  - Institutional explanations: Missing link in operations management? Insights on supplier integration
T2  - International Journal of Operations & Production Management
PB  - Emerald Publishing Limited
SP  - 1117
EP  - 1140
Y2  - 2024/04/24
ER  -