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The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically validates a measure of the anticipation of new technologies (ANT) construct, first suggested by Hayes and Wheelwright (1984). ANT allows establishment of a sustained competitive advantage through acquiring new technologies and the capability to use them, in advance of actual need. The theoretical foundation for ANT is developed using the literature on absorptive capacity. Several elements of supply chain management are proposed as antecedents to ANT.

Perceptual survey data from 317 manufacturing plants in ten countries was used to test the hypotheses using structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis.

The key supply chain antecedents of ANT are supply chain planning, internal integration and supplier integration. ANT was related to both operational and cost performance.

Potential limitations include the use of an existing database, the plant as the unit of analysis and the need to include customer integration, as well as supplier integration. The results demonstrate the competitive importance of the ANT construct and the key role that relationships with suppliers play in its development.

This research sheds new light on a construct whose roots are inherently practical. Suppliers and their extended networks are an important source of external knowledge about technology and future customer needs, thus, supply chain relationships are an important contributor to ANT.

Although the role of technology in establishing a competitive advantage has been thoroughly studied, the effectiveness of developing technologies that are expected to be important in the future has not, although this concept was first introduced almost 30 years ago. The authors use absorptive capacity to develop the role of supply chain relationships in building an organization's ANT capability, contributing to the operations strategy literature by grounding a practical construct in the theoretical literature and demonstrating its importance.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between supply planning, trust and integration, and the influence of them on operational performance.

The paper used a survey with 335 respondents from three different industries. The paper analyzed the data with structural equation modeling.

The results suggest that supply planning and trust are positively related and both influence supply integration and operational performance. At the end the paper proposed a classification for supply integration based on planning use and trust.

The sample is composed by companies from only three industries (machinery, electronics and automobile), what does not allow generalization.

Managers are challenged to develop simultaneously supply chain planning practices and trust-based relationship within buyers and suppliers. They must pay attention to different integration drivers and use them accordingly and in the context analyzed. The study suggests a 2×2 matrix that might help managers’ decision making.

Despite the importance of planning in supply and manufacturing management, few papers analyzed the role of supply planning integrated to trust. The combination between these aspects brings a more realistic and pragmatic view of the supply chain management.