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The purpose of this paper is to explore the topic of customer integration into supply chains. Particular attention is focused on literature concerning customer-driven and customer-centric supply chains. The aim is to provide a deeper understanding of these two approaches, clarify the differences, compare them and provide a conceptual model and research propositions, leading to theoretical and managerial implications.

The paper presents a systematic literature review conducted using a consolidated methodology. The protocol used allows for the identification, analysis, synthesis, reporting and discussion of the results stemming from the literature on customer integration into the supply chain. This analysis enables us to summarize the results in a conceptual framework and introduce new research propositions.

Using the results of the literature review, the authors first systematized the literature on customer-driven supply chain and on customer-centric supply chain in the conceptual framework. For each of the two sets of studies, the authors highlighted three main streams of research concerning customer integration into the supply chain. The authors analyzed three different topics: why customer integration is needed, how customer integration takes place and which intra-organizational issues are necessary to implement customer integration into the supply chain. Second, the authors developed a conceptual framework to confront customer-driven and customer-centric approaches to supply chain management in an evolutionary perspective. The authors thus formulated research propositions aimed at entering in greater depth the management of the shift from the customer-driven to customer-centric supply chain.

The systematic literature analysis developed in the paper contributed to more integrated and comprehensive knowledge of customer integration into the supply chain. The paper identifies and describes the characteristics of different supply chain approaches through the organization and interpretation of academics’ contributions. The paper suggests the need for further research in at least three areas: the study of variables supporting customer-driven or customer-centric approaches, the relevant intra-organizational issues underscoring the customer-centric supply chain and the impact of digitalization on supply chain processes.

The paper outlines the main structural elements that compose the customer-driven and customer-centric supply chains. The results of the systematic analysis of the literature can be used to inform managers about the different levels and approaches for achieving customer integration. These diverse configurations of customer integration imply administrative and organizational considerations. Major issues to be considered when managers want to integrate the customer into the supply chain are identified. In addition, conditions underscoring different options – namely, customer-driven and customer-centric supply chains – are provided.

The originality of this work lies in the systematic review of literature examining customer integration into supply chains, which highlights two main levels of customer integration: customer-driven and customer-centric. The main contribution is the formulation of a conceptual framework and new research propositions from the comparison and merger of these two configurations. The information presented in this paper enhances the literature on recent developments in customer integration, thereby enabling managers to select the most suitable configuration for the supply chain structure.

The purpose of this study is to provide a unique competitive advantage to businesses in providing a wide range of products to prospective customers. To the best of the author’s knowledge, there is no study to discuss the impact of customer-centric retailing on total supply chain profit under price competition between organized and unorganized retailers.

This paper considers a supply chain comprising of organized and unorganized retailers and a single manufacturer. This paper proposes three mathematical models considering a customer-centric approach in a competitive environment. Stackelberg game is used to examine how members of the chain interact, and Nash equilibrium was used to find optimal strategies for players under different customer-centric approaches.

The results show that the total supply chain profit is higher when both organized and unorganized retailers use a customer-centric approach independently instead of collaborating process. The result, in addition, establishes that when the dissatisfying cost exceeds a certain threshold (1.5), the total profit is higher for the organized customer-centric effort model compared to the other two models.

The main contribution of the study is to examine the effect of customer-centric retailing, considering dissatisfying costs on supply chains profit and individual decision-making under price competition between organized retailers and unorganized retailers. The authors developed different mathematical models in the different customer-centric approach.

This research aims to profoundly investigate the post-COVID-19's opportunities for customer-centric green supply chain management (GSCM) and perceived customer resilience by studying the correlation between fear-uncertainty of COVID-19, customer-centric GSCM, and the perceived customers' resilience. Moreover, to examine how the perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities moderates the relationship among the variables.

In this study partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was adopted on a sample of 298 managers and customers in the Egyptian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) market for data analysis and hypotheses testing.

Preliminary results indicate that the fear-uncertainty of COVID-19 positively affects customer-centric GSCM. Also, external CSR moderates the association between fear-uncertainty towards COVID-19 and customer-centric GSCM. However, internal CSR does not moderate this relationship. Customer-centric GSCM has a significant positive impact on the perceived environmental and social resilience. However, it has an insignificant effect on the perceived financial resilience. Also, customer-centric GSCM has a significant mediation outcome on the relation between fear-uncertainty of COVID-19 and the perceived environmental and social resilience. However, this relation is insignificant regarding the perceived financial resilience.

Managers could develop a consistent strategy for applying CSR practices, providing clear information and focusing on their procedures to meet their customer needs during COVID-19. Governments and managers should develop a consistent strategy to apply customer-oriented green practices to achieve customers' resilience, especially during the pandemic.

Based on the “social-cognitive,” “stakeholder” and “consumer culture” theories, this study shed light on the optimistic side of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it also brings the concepts of social responsibility, resilience and green practices back into the light, which helps in solving customers' issues and help to achieve their resilience.

Recently, reverse logistics (RL) has become more prominent due to growing environmental concerns, social responsibility, competitive advantage and high efficiency by customers because of the expansion of product selection and shorter product life cycle. However, effective implementation of RL results in some direct advantages, the most important of which is winning customer satisfaction that is vital to a firm’s success. Therefore, paying attention to customer feedback in supply chain and logistics processes has recently increased so that manufacturers have decided to transform their RL into customer-centric RL. Hence, this paper aims to identify the features of a mobile phone which affect consumer purchasing behaviour and to analyse the interrelationship among them to develop a framework for customer-centric RL. These features are studied based on website analysis of several mobile phone manufacturers. The special focus of this paper is on social media data (Twitter) in an attempt to help the decision-making process in RL through a big data analysis approach.

A portfolio of mobile phone features that affect consumer’s mobile phone purchasing decisions has been taken from website analysis by several mobile phone manufacturers to achieve this objective. Then, interrelationships between the identified features have been established by using big data supplemented with interpretive structural modelling (ISM). Apart from that, cross-impact matrix multiplication, applied to classification analysis, was carried out to graphically represent these features based on their driving power and dependence.

During the study, it has been observed from the ISM that the chip (F5) is the most significant feature that affects customer’s buying behaviour; therefore, mobile phone manufacturers realize that this is to be addressed first.

The focus of this paper is on social media data (Twitter) so that experts can understand the interaction between mobile phone features that affect consumer’s decisions on mobile phone purchasing by using the results.

Digital technologies (DTs) have emerged as a major driving force, transmuting the ways Supply Chains (SCs) are managed. The integration of DTs in supply chain management (SCM), Digital Supply Chain Management (DSCM), has fundamentally reshaped the SCM landscape, offering new opportunities and challenges for organizations. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of modern DTs and the way they impact modern SCM. This chapter has twofold objectives. First, it illustrates the major changes that DTs have brought to the supply chain landscape, unraveling their multifaceted implications. Second, it offers readers a deeper and comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities arising from the incorporation of DTs into supply chains. By going through the chapter, readers will be able to have a comprehensive grasp of how DTs are reshaping SCM and how organizations can survive and thrive in the digital age. This chapter commences by shedding light on how DTs have and continue to redefine SCM, improving supply chain resilience, visibility, and sustainability in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. It also highlights the role of DTs in enhancing SC visibility, agility, and customer-centricity. Furthermore, this chapter briefly highlights the challenges related to the adoption (pre and post) of DTs in SCM, elucidating on issues related to talent acquisition, data security, and regulatory compliance. It also highlights the ethical and societal implications of this digital transformation, emphasizing the significance of responsible and sustainable practices. This chapter, with the help of three cases, illustrates how the adoption of DTs in SC can impact the various SC performance indicators.

Digital supply chain (DSC) is an agile, customer-driven and productive way to develop different forms of returns for companies and to leverage efficient approaches with emerging techniques and data analytics. Though the advantages of digital supply chain management (DSCM) are many, its implementation is quite slow for several reasons. The purpose of this paper is to identify the major barriers which hinder the adoption of DSC and to analyse the interrelationship among them. The barriers of DSC are explored on the basis of existing literature and experts’ opinion.

This paper uses the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) approach to develop a hierarchical structural model which shows the mutual dependence among the barriers of DSC. Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification analysis was performed to represent these barriers graphically on the basis of their driving power and dependence.

The research demonstrates that the barriers “no sense of urgency”, “lack of industry specific guidelines”, “lack of digital skills and talent” and “high implementation and running cost” are the most significant barriers to digital transformation of supply chain. This paper also suggests some managerial implications to overcome the barriers which hinder the implementation of digital transformation of supply chain.

This paper assists managers and policymakers to understand the order in which these barriers must be tackled and adopts a roadmap for successful implementation of DSCM and reap its benefits.

This is one of the initial research studies which has analysed the barriers of DSC using ISM approach.

Recently, reverse logistics (RL) has become more prominent due to growing environmental concerns, social responsibility, competitive advantages and high efficiency by customers because of expansion of product selection and shorter product life cycle. However, effective implementation of RL results in some direct advantages, the most important of which is winning customer satisfaction that is vital to a firm's success. Therefore, paying attention to customer feedback in supply chain (SC) and logistics processes has recently increased, so manufacturers have decided to transform their RL into customer-centric RL. Hence, this paper aims to identify the features of a mobile phone which affect consumers’ purchasing behavior and to analyze the causality and prominence relations among them that can help decision-makers, policy planners and managers of organizations to develop a framework for customer-centric RL. These features are studied based on analysis of product review sites. This paper's special focus is on social media (SM) data (Twitter) in an attempt to help the decision-making process in RL through a big data analysis approach.

This paper deals with identifying mobile phone features that affect consumer's mobile phone purchasing decisions. Using the DEMATEL approach and using experts' insights, a cause and effect relationship diagram was generated through which the effect of features was analyzed.

Eighteen features were categorized in terms of cause and effect, and the interrelationships of features were also analyzed. The threshold value is calculated as 0.023, and the values lower than that were eliminated to obtain the digraph. F6 (camera), F13 (price) and F5 (chip) are the most prominent features based on their prominent score. It was also found that the F5 (chip) has the highest driving power (1.228) and acts as a causal feature to influence other features.

The focus of this article is on SM data (Twitter), so that experts can understand the interaction between mobile phone features that affect consumer's decision on mobile phone purchasing by using the results. This study investigates the degree of influence of features on each other and categorizes the features into cause and effect groups. This study is also intended to help organizational decision-makers move toward a reverse customer SC.

Using the assumptions of the resource-based view, relational view and swift, even flow theories and the overarching principles of supply chain management, the study aims to test the role of information technology (IT) capability (cross-functional application, supply chain application and data consistency) in enabling supply chain integration (SCI; internal, customer and supplier integration) and the impact of SCI on firm's operational performance in terms of quality, delivery, production cost, inventory level, customer service and product-mix flexibility.

The structural equation modeling approach is used to test theoretical predictions underlying the relationship among dimensions of IT capability, SCI and operational performance based on data obtained from senior executives of 108 large manufacturing firms listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The results suggest that IT capability has positive impact on SCI, except for data consistency, which is found to have negative impact on internal integration. The results further indicate that SCI, especially customer integration, has positive and significant impact on all operational performance indicators.

The findings inform future initiatives associated with the SCI improvement via specific IT capabilities. When undertaking such initiatives, managers are advised to consider the differential impact of the following IT capabilities on SCI: cross-functional applications, supply chain applications, and data consistency capability.

The study makes an empirical contribution to the body of knowledge by demonstrating the value of the multidimensional representation and analysis of IT capability, SCI, and operational performance given a differential and even opposed influence by some of the dimensions in specific business contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the alignment between product design and the supply chain and to identify how this alignment impacts on a firm's supply chain responsiveness and resilience.

An in‐depth case study methodology was adopted to uncover the strategies undertaken by one of the UK's fastest growing fashion retailers to create a competitive advantage through its management of the product design/supply chain alignment.

The findings of this case illustrate that not only is the alignment of product design with the supply chain important in improving competitive advantage for the focal company, but it also has a significant impact in improving supply chain resilience and supply chain responsiveness. This case illustrates how fundamental shifts in the organisation, particularly in integrating product design and supply chain have enabled the repositioning of the company from a low priced fashion store to becoming a leading global fast fashion retailer.

The paper provides guidance for companies seeking to improve supply chain costs and performance by a higher alignment of product design and the supply chain.

This case study highlights the importance of the product design/supply chain alignment and highlights the benefits of adopting a “design centric” approach. The findings from this paper also contribute to the growing debate on supply chain risk management.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the role of organizational and cultural tools to increase supply chain security within the intermodal rail and road industry. Three main research questions are set, regarding: what organizational and cultural tools are used by companies within the intermodal rail and road industry; how these tools impact on security performance; and what environmental factors trigger the use of each tool.

In total, 13 companies within the intermodal rail and road industry have been studied in detail through in-depth case studies.

Results suggest that organizational and cultural tools impact positively on supply chain security, by reducing collusion and both operative and planning mistakes. In particular, such tools mitigate the effect of lack of cooperation and communication between partners and of inadequate partners.

Results point out that the ability of organizational and cultural tools to increase supply chain security has not been fully exploited yet. Tools to mitigate the negative effects on security of inadequacy of partners are not popular or they are not considered as powerful enough, despite it has been highlighted as the most relevant causal factor of lack of security.

This paper introduces a thorough overview of the effects of cultural and organizational tools on supply chain security and a detailed study of these tools in the area of intermodal rail-and-road transport.