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This research seeks to identify the motivations, means and outcomes of supply chain integration (SCI) among firms in the middle market (i.e. those with annual revenues between US$10m and US$1bn). These firms often interface with larger, more powerful firms in the supply chain – both suppliers and customers. Understanding how these firms are challenged and benefit from integrative mechanisms in supply chain relations can lead to better outcomes more often.

The research utilizes an online focus group methodology featuring 39 participants. The participants were able to interact in written form with a professional moderator, as well as each other, over the course of three days.

The research presents evidence that firms in the middle market adopt SCI as a response to pressure from customers and suppliers. These firms also view technology as a primary means of achieving integration. Despite their disadvantageous size position relative to larger customers and suppliers, firms in the middle market achieved positive outcomes from integration.

Because of the specific context of middle-market firms, this research may lack generalizability. However, providing contextualization regarding firm size contributes specificity to the large number of studies detailing the challenges and benefits of SCI.

Managers of firms in the middle market should find value in this study as it explicates the possible benefits their firms may realize through integration with customers and suppliers. Moreover, this research outlines several of the possible means through which integration can be achieved. Further, managers in smaller and larger firms can better understand the motives and needs of middle-market companies with which they interact.

Despite voluminous literature on SCI, this paper provides context-specific findings by isolating the implications of SCI to firms in the middle market.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of human resource (HR) and manufacturing plant information technology (MP-IT) resource on companies’ internal integration capabilities and how these resources/capabilities influence supplier integration.

Using data collected from 604 Chinese manufacturers, the authors empirically test the effects of different types of resources/capabilities on supplier integration.

The results show that HR has both direct and indirect effects on supplier integration through their effects on internal integration capabilities. MP-IT resource only has significant indirect effects on supplier integration through internal integration capabilities. The results also indicate that HR is more important than MP-IT resource in improving internal integration capabilities and supplier integration.

This study empirically investigates enablers of supplier integration in China, contributing to supply chain integration literature and practices.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the relationships among supply chain risks (SCRs), supply chain integration (SCI), and company performance in a global context.

This study is based on the High Performance Manufacturing (HPM) project database collected from 317 manufacturing plants in ten countries and three representative industries (machinery, electronics and transportation components), using structural equation modeling (SEM) methods.

Results show that SCRs, especially supply delivery risk (SDR), are negatively related to SCI. There is a contingent relationship between SCI and performance. Different types of SCI play different roles in improving different types of company performance. Supplier, internal, and customer integration are the most important drivers for schedule attainment, competitive performance, and customer satisfaction, respectively.

This study is one of the first empirical studies to explore how SCRs affect SCI. It also expands current SCI research by linking three dimensions of SCI with three dimensions of company performance, using the global database collected from HPM companies in ten countries.

Many manufacturing firms source components and subsystems from suppliers. Consequently, the suppliers' product and manufacturing knowledge is a central concern at the interface between R&D and manufacturing. This paper aims to specifically investigate how supplier knowledge is integrated and what role trust plays in knowledge integration with suppliers at the R&D-manufacturing interface.

The study is based on qualitative case studies of two different collaborations with suppliers at one firm.

Two distinct processes are identified. First, capturing represents knowledge integration through decoupling, for which a basic level of trust specifically with regard to the competence of the supplier is necessary. Capturing can take place through interactions that are limited in time and scope. Second, joint learning represents a coupled knowledge integration process and takes place during a more extended period of time preceding and following the R&D-manufacturing interface and builds on relational-based trust.

The interface between R&D and manufacturing needs to be extended to include a focus on suppliers' contributions in terms of product and manufacturing knowledge. The choice for suitable knowledge integration processes needs to be guided by concerns about the level of trust and the character of the supplier contributions.

The paper adds new insights to previous literature by distinguishing between different types of knowledge integration processes and levels of trust. It bridges the gap between innovation and operations management and clearly shows that the interface between R&D and manufacturing crosses organizational borders.

This research intends to investigate whether there are synergies that a firm could or should exploit by simultaneously implementing customer and supplier integration. In particular, the aim is to analyze the impact of customer integration on efficiency, and the moderating role of supplier integration.

This study analyzes data from a sample of 200 manufacturing plants. Two hypotheses are tested through a hierarchical regression analysis. Customer and supplier integration constructs consider items related to different aspects of the integration (e.g. sharing of production plans and customers' forecasts, feedback on performance, communication on quality considerations and design changes, joint quality improvement efforts, close contact, partnerships). The focus of the integration clearly extends beyond the dyad, as it includes the integration of focal operations upstream and downstream, with both suppliers and customers.

Supplier integration positively moderates the relationship between customer integration and efficiency, whereas the analyses do not support the hypothesis that in general customer integration positively impacts on efficiency. They also reveal that, when supplier integration is at a low level, customer integration can even produce a reduction in efficiency.

Efficiency performance optimization requires levering simultaneously on customer and supplier integration to foster their interaction, rather than investing and acting on customer integration only. In addition, before deciding whether to invest in customer integration, managers should ascertain the level of supplier integration, since it acts as a prerequisite for the successful implementation of customer integration.

Compared with previous studies investigating the main impact of customer and supplier integration on a company's performance, this research analyzes a model that considers the interaction effect between these integration strategies. This provides a number of original implications for the interpretation of the relationship between customer and supplier integration and efficiency.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive conceptual model for the impact of hospital-supplier integration on the overall performance of healthcare organisations. It also investigates the moderating role of lean practices between hospital-supplier integration and hospital performance.

Data were collected from 498 public and private hospitals in Saudi Arabia using a survey. Structural equation modelling was used for data analysis.

The results indicate that hospital-supplier integration has a positive impact on the hospital performance. These effects are even more notable when adopting lean practices in the hospitals.

The data were collected from one developing country, namely Saudi Arabia. Thus, the findings may be relevant to the Saudi context but not those of other developing countries. Second, the data were collected from the hospitals’ end but not from the suppliers, so the latter’s perspectives on the themes covered here are not known. Future research may investigate the validity of the model in various developing countries whose healthcare systems have different characteristics, and the relationships between hospitals and their suppliers may follow different governance models.

The developed model and results will help hospitals in the Saudi health system to make better decisions on managing their logistics and supply partners.

This study extends the current research by developing a model that highlights the impact of hospital-supplier integration on the overall performance of healthcare organisations and tests this model to confirm its validity. To the authors’ knowledge, this study would be one of the first that uses both lean thinking and relational view of competitive advantage theory combined to examine the moderating role of lean practices on the inter-organisational relationships in Saudi Arabia.

This paper investigates the inhibitors and enablers of supply chain integration (SCI) across multiple tiers in the supply chains of manufacturing-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malawi.

Following a qualitative approach, data were collected through face-to-face interviews across three supply chains, each consisting of a focal manufacturer, a major supplier and a retailer.

The research identified interpersonal relationships, supplier cost transparency and joint supply chain management (SCM) investments as key enablers of SCI. Concerning the inhibitors of SCI, the study found that a lack of external integration inhibited internal integration by acting as a source of disruption to intra-firm processes and relationships. Further, the research found weaker links between manufacturer–-retailer dyads than in manufacturer–supplier dyads, which constrained the ability to achieve multi-tier supplier–manufacture–retailer integration. The study also revealed that resource and infrastructural deficiencies, a culture of fear and intimidation within and between firms, corruption in sourcing transactions and a lack of inter-firm trust inhibited SCI.

The paper extends earlier evidence that internal integration is a prerequisite for external integration demonstrating that a basic level of external integration is necessary to prevent disruptions to internal integration.

This study is one of the few to go beyond the focal firm perspective and explore the inhibitors and enablers of SCI across multiple supply chain positions, and provides new evidence on the role of external integration in achieving internal integration.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the configurations of supply chain integration.

The authors use qualitative data from manufacturers shortlisted for the UK’s Manufacturing Excellence awards over three years. Detailed processes and policies of 68 manufacturers are analysed.

Process structure and product newness require different supply chain configurations, which change as products mature. Supply chain integration is dynamic, and the extent of collaboration between suppliers and customers will be different at different moments in time. The authors define and discuss four key supply chain configurations: customised; ramp-up; recurring; coordinated.

Future studies on supply chain integration should be controlled for the variation in the configurations. A limitation is the use of data which were derived for an award. The paper explains how the authors have mitigated the associated risks.

The configuration of integration will change as the manufacturing plant becomes more familiar with a product. Additionally, different suppliers may provide better support at different stages of a product’s lifecycle. To yield better performance, supply chain integration would need to take different forms. Efforts to integrate with suppliers should not be avoided as, when certain conditions are met, integration can lead to improved performance.

The authors have identified manufacturers’ main process structures and products’ newness as two strategic characteristics that differentiate integration approaches with customers and suppliers, and defined four integration configurations. To the authors’ knowledge this is the first study to argue that these also define the configuration of supply chain integration.

There are two major objectives in the research. First, the authors investigate the impact of knowledge integration in terms of joint decision-making and joint sense-making, on relational performance, including operational efficiency and innovation. Second, the authors examine the key antecedents that might facilitate knowledge integration: strategic supply management and trust. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper expands and tests theory drawing upon survey data from 133 buyer-supplier relationships (BSRs). The authors employed a two-step process of analysis to evaluate first the measurement model and then the structural model. The measurement model test built upon confirmatory factor analysis, while the structural model quality test built upon path analysis.

The results suggest that both integrative mechanisms, joint decision making and joint sense making, affect performance although in different ways. This study also finds that while trust has multiple significant influences and consequently must be viewed as an organizing principle, strategic supply management is required to jointly understand the dynamic and complex context but not to jointly make ongoing decisions.

Three limitations: first, this study was cross-sectional rather than longitudinal. Second, in line with accepted practice, the authors surveyed only one side of the relationship. The suppliers’ viewpoint is thus not fully taken into account. Third, another potential limitation of the study is that the sample stems from just one country and its size does not distinguish subgroups in the analysis of the path model.

Managers should be advised that: first, a trusting partnership built on knowledge integration is a hard order, especially with a new, unknown supplier in a low-cost country, where intellectual property protection is less obvious; second, strategic supply management may not improve cost or operational performance, but in its absence, it is unlikely that a supplier has insight into the exact needs of its buyer and thus, may not add considerable value to their customers; third, building a dynamic knowledge integration capability (valuable, rare, and difficult to imitate) takes time, as does creating reliable learning mechanisms. Joint teams, visit partners’ workplace, early involve suppliers in developing new products or selection of supplier with high-learning capabilities may help to create a knowledge integration capability.

The authors suggest that companies should move from an arm-length relationship and turn their supplier relationships into a tool for innovating faster while cutting cost. In order to do this, joint sense-making and joint decision should be seen as institutionalized inter-firm routines rather than ad hoc activities. Thus, the authors recommend managers to proactively build certain knowledge-based capabilities that hinges heavily upon a strategic stance toward supply management and trustful relationships with selected suppliers.

The major intent of this research is to expand understanding of knowledge integration by building a more testable, complex model around its creation. While previous research relied on a configuration approach to explore the relationship between knowledge integration and performance, the authors evaluate causal relationships at the level of the formative dimensions rather than higher order knowledge integration, as this has proven to be a superior analytical method. Second, although supply chain scholars have expressed great interest in trust, an in-depth examination of prior studies in knowledge integration indicate that trust has been analyzed alone. In contrast, the study empirically examines the simultaneous effect of trust and strategic supply management in BSRs.

The purpose of this paper is to study the phenomenon of customer-supplier interaction and integration from a resource perspective. In economic terms, a fish may be seen as a more or less homogeneous resource. If the herring is seen as a homogeneous resource, a market should be the best way to handle the selling and buying. However, if the herring is seen as a heterogeneous resource, a more extensive type of interaction is needed. One interesting aspect with herring is that different business actors apparently see this resource in different ways. Thus, the authors will have a mixed situation, creating possible difficulties for the actors involved.

The authors start this study in Germany, one of the most important export markets for Norwegian herring. Today, Norwegian legislation hinders the possibility of vertical integration and cooperation at the supply side of the network. However, the industry sees opportunities for growth and integration on the marketing side. To examine this issue, the study uses a qualitative design methodology, incorporating personal in-depth interviews with selected respondents in Norway and Germany. Secondary data is also used. To analyse the data, the authors introduce five interaction and integration patterns termed pure exchange – no integration; limited interaction and integration; extensive interaction and developed integration and; indirect interaction and structural integration; and full integration.

The findings suggest that there is a link between how the actors perceive herring as a resource and how they interact with counterparts. The authors find that the actors who see the resource as homogeneous have limited interaction and little or no integration, whereas the actors who see the resource as heterogeneous have a much more extensive interaction and closer ties.

The paper is an investigation of the link between the resource heterogeneity and the patterns of customer-supplier integration.