Search results

The purpose of this study is to assess (a) the relationship between internal and external IS integration and their respective impacts on internal and external cost management strategies, (b) the relationship between internal and external cost management strategies, and (c) the effects of internal and external cost management strategies on profitability, controlling for firm size. Furthermore, this study investigates whether internal and external IS integrations produce direct significant effects on firm profitability or whether these relationships are established through cost management strategies.

The study uses survey data from a cross-section of 241 U.S. manufacturing firms. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that neither internal IS integration nor external IS integration has a direct significant impact on firm profitability. Rather, internal cost management strategy fully mediates the relationship between internal IS integration and profitability; similarly, the relationship between external IS integration and profitability is fully mediated through external cost management strategy. The results provide evidence that firms seeking profitability solely by investing in IS integration may not necessarily realize enhanced profitability; the firms must focus their attention on intervening processes, such as business strategy, in order to determine the profitability derived from IS integration.

As far as it can be ascertained, this study is the first to explore the impact of internal and external IS integration on firm profitability within the context of internal and external cost management strategies.

Outsourcing by corporations is increasing the demand for complex services (such as customization) from third-party logistics providers (3PLs). Effective integration between 3PLs and their customers, known as the external integration of 3PLs, not only allows 3PLs to respond rapidly to shippers’ needs but also to increase customer satisfaction and the effective allocation of resources while increasing operational efficiency (such as by proposing comprehensive plans for future logistics services to meet shippers’ demands). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the causal relationships among the external integration capabilities, cost advantages, and the financial performance of 3PLs.

A survey of 3PLs in Taiwan and China was performed. The research model was tested using a structural equation modeling technique along with the partial least square (PLS-SEM/PLS) approach.

The results herein demonstrated a positive relationship between 3PLs’ external integration capabilities and resource efficiency. The results also suggested that cost competitiveness positively affected the financial performance of 3PLs. Although the external integration capabilities of 3PLs were not found to directly affect their financial performance, the results in this study indicated that external integration capabilities enable a firm to improve financial performance by capturing cost advantages.

This study provides useful information about the effects of external integration capabilities on the financial performance of 3PLs in a bi-regional context. The sample in this study was drawn from the 3PL industry in Taiwan and China, enabling a comparative analysis of these two countries of similar cultural backgrounds but different degrees of development of their logistics industry and different related demands.

The paper investigates the mediation role of external integration in the relationship between internal integration and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) performance. Information and communication technology (ICT) was used to moderate the relationship between internal and external, and external integration and SMEs performance.

Cross sectional method was used to distribute questionnaires to owners of SMEs in Abossey Okai business enclave to assess the various dimensions in the study. Structural equation modeling was employed to assess the relationship among the dimensions, based on 163 validated questionnaires. Analysis of Moment Structures (Amos) and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) were used in analyzing the data.

The results indicate that, external integration mediated the relationship between internal integration and SMEs performance. In addition, ICT had positive moderating effect in the relationship between internal and external integration, and external integration and SMEs performance.

Practically, this research informs owners and managers of SMEs to appreciate the importance of developing internal structures of a firm and further linking their operations with external partners. Additionally, findings will aid managers’ and owners’ leverage on ICT capabilities to enhance performance in their operations.

Engaging external integration to mediate the relationship between internal integration and SMEs performance and extending the relationship to include moderating role of ICT in both relationship that is internal and external integration on one side, and external and firm performance, the current study contributes to supply chain integration (SCI) and ICT available literature.

Information technology plays a critical role in the open innovation process. The purpose of this study is to explore the inner mechanism of external information technology (IT) capability that affects open innovation performance.

In this paper, responses to 232 questionnaires from different firms were collected in China. Then, the proposed hypotheses were tested using regression analysis by statistical product and service solutions (SPSS).

The results indicate that external knowledge integration plays a mediating role in the relationship between external IT capability and open innovation performance, openness breadth positively moderates the influence of external IT capability on external knowledge integration and openness depth negatively moderates the relationship between external IT capability and external knowledge integration.

The results, which are based on Chinese responses, provide useful suggestions for firms in China. To use external IT capability to improve open innovation performance, firms should not only stress the role of external knowledge integration but also consider their search strategy.

Both researchers and practitioners are interested in the relationship between information technology and open innovation. However, the way in which the inner mechanism of external IT capability affects open innovation performance has not been thoroughly researched. Based on knowledge integration theory, the authors construct a model that includes external IT capability, external knowledge integration, search strategy and open innovation performance. The results of this paper confirm the mediating and moderating roles of external knowledge integration and search strategy, respectively.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationships between the different dimensions of supply chain integration (SCI). First, the sequence in which these dimensions should be implemented and some possible mediating effects are investigated. Then, relationships are examined more closely to observe whether they present more complex non-linear forms than those usually analysed.

Required information was gathered from a sample of 477 Spanish industrial companies (23.4 per cent response rate). PLS structural equation modelling was applied to capture non-linear relationships between SCI dimensions.

The results indicate that internal integration leads to external integration and that within external integration, information flow integration provides the basis for financial flow integration and physical flow integration. Thus, the results suggest the existence of a logical sequence to achieve SCI. In addition, clearly different non-linear relationships are observed between the analysed variables.

It seems that a sufficient minimum value has to be reached for internal integration to have a positive effect on external information and financial integration. In addition, a higher degree of information integration appears to facilitate financial and physical integration, although a medium degree of information integration results in a lower degree of financial integration. Therefore, managers should not expect that efforts made to increase one integration dimension will always produce the same effect on the other dimensions.

An empirical contribution is made to knowledge of the logical SCI sequence. This contribution is not only important for academia, but also for managers seeking to improve supply chain performance through integration.

This paper examines the logistics‐production and logistics‐marketing interfaces and their relation with the external integration. The study also investigates the causal impact of these internal and external relationships on the company's logistical performance.

An empirical study was conducted in the Spanish FMCG sector and the theoretical model was subjected to analysis using SEM.

The generic results derived from this study are: Internal and external integration influence each other. Integration in the logistics‐marketing interface does not lead to reductions in costs, stock‐outs and lead‐times, while the integration achieved in the logistics‐production interface does improve these performance measures, if there is no external integration. The external collaboration among supply chain members does always contribute to improving firms’ logistical performance.

The study has some limitations: other important members of the grocery supply chain (such as retailers, TPL, etc.) have not been considered and the effect of inter‐firm co‐ordination has only been analyzed from the perspective of the provider (as most studies do). Further research on the logistics‐marketing impact on performance should be carried out and other important supply chain members should be considered.

The study contributes to the existing literature by showing that the impact on performance of internal integration depends on the functional areas that are being integrated and the level of external integration.

It is believed that this paper will be insightful to researchers and managers in the SCM field. For researchers, this paper has provided new lines of research. And, for managers, this paper has shown that there is a positive relationship between firms’ logistical performance and SCM.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships at the level of plant in a manufacturing network, labelled as networked plant in the paper, between inter-plant coordination and operational performance, supply chain integration (SCI) and operational performance and inter-plant coordination and SCI.

This paper is developed based on the data obtained from the sixth version of International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS VI). Specifically, this paper uses a subset of the IMSS VI data set from the 606 plants that identified themselves as one of the plants in a manufacturing network.

This paper finds that external integration is significantly related to operational performance of networked plant, whereas internal integration is not. As an enabler for external integration, the influence of internal integration on operational performance of networked plant is mediated by external integration. This paper also provides evidence to the purported positive impact of internal integration on inter-plant coordination, as well as the positive impact of inter-plant coordination on external integration. It further suggests that inter-plant coordination can influence operational performance of networked plant through external integration and also mediate the relationship from internal integration to performance through external integration.

This paper contributes to the SCI literature and extends the understanding of the impact of SCI on the operational performance by selecting networked plant as a unit of analysis. Besides, this paper distinguishes inter-plant coordination from SCI and investigates the relationship between inter-plant coordination, SCI, and operational performance for the first time.

Building on the resource- and knowledge-based views, this paper aims to explore how coopetition affects radical innovation and the roles of knowledge structure and external knowledge integration in the relationship between coopetition and radical innovation.

This study proposes a research model to examine the mediating role of external knowledge integration on the coopetition-radical innovation link, where the mediation is moderated by the firm’s knowledge structure (including component knowledge and architectural knowledge). The authors use regression and bootstrapping to test the proposed model with survey data from 241 Chinese technology firms.

This study finds that coopetition positively affects radical innovation and the effect is fully mediated by external knowledge integration. Additionally, component knowledge negatively moderates the coopetition-external knowledge integration link and architectural knowledge positively moderates this relationship. Further, the mediating effect of external knowledge integration is also moderated by component knowledge and architectural knowledge.

Firms should engage in coopetition to promote radical innovation. Further, it is necessary for firms to appropriately manage coopetition according to their internal knowledge structure.

This study explains why scholars have different ideas about the relationship between coopetition and radical innovation by exploring the mediating role of external knowledge integration and the moderating effect of knowledge structure. Firms possess increased possibilities for knowledge leakage and partner opportunism with high levels of component knowledge, which will reduce the positive effect coopetition on external knowledge integration; thus, they are less likely to realize radical innovation. Instead, firms possess increased opportunities for resource sharing with high levels of architectural knowledge, thus improving the positive effect coopetition on external knowledge integration and they are more likely to achieve radical innovation.

This study empirically tests a conceptual framework that shows how integration practices are significantly associated with supply chain (SC) performance. This study also intends to achieve the following purposes: first, how the performance is influenced by the integration practices, i.e. internal and external; second, to measure the mediating effect of organizational antecedents (market orientation, learning orientation) between integration practices and firm’s SC performance.

In a noncontrived study environment, a cross-sectional study design was used with a questionnaire. The study used a stratified proportionate random sample of 205 managers from manufacturing firms in China. Six hypothesized relationships were examined using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique in AMOS software, and five were shown to be valid. The proposed model was validated through various techniques.

Results of this study indicate that both external and internal integration influence SC performance and confirms the mediating role of organizational antecedents between integration practices and SC performance. According to the findings, five out of the six hypotheses are accepted. Findings of this research also offer very expedient insights for the companies’ management which can help them to ensure optimal output by giving due importance to external as well as internal integration.

The data for the study were only obtained from one province, which was Henan Province, and one industry, which was manufacturing; this constrained the generalizability of the study. The findings may be further validated in the future by expanding the scope of the studies to include various cultural contexts and types of businesses. Second, this study used data from a cross-sectional analysis; however, future research may potentially make use of a longitudinal design in order to more thoroughly confirm the findings.

Findings of this study offer substantial managerial insights suggesting various ways to develop better internal as well as external integration to get better results. Management of the company should focus and give more importance to job rotation, trainings and management commitment as part of internal integration. Moreover, management should strive for improving the capabilities of integration in internal functions prior to external integration as internal collaboration, teamwork and interaction within the company are considered as a precondition to maintain integration with external stakeholders. It is also a social process which needs to be built up over a longer period of time.

The authors contribute to the literature by experimentally evaluating the effects of integration practices on SC performance using a conceptual model drawn from current theories. The study also offer additional empirical evidence for Han et al. (2007), who found that SCI enhances firm performance through quality management in their analyses of the relationships between SCI, quality management practices and firm performance.

The purpose of the study is to examine the influence of internal integration and external integration on three types of shared knowledge (shared knowledge of internal capabilities, customers, and suppliers) and whether more leads to superior firm innovation capability and product competitive advantage.

The paper draws on results from a large‐scale survey. The empirical data used in the study comprises of 245 high technology firms in Taiwan. This study applies the confirmatory factor analysis to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement model, and the structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the hypotheses and research model.

The results show that internal integration and external integration significantly influence shared knowledge of internal capabilities, customers and suppliers among new product development (NPD) team members. The results also indicate that team members' shared knowledge enable the firm to improve innovation capability and new product competitive advantage.

As the data used in the study was cross‐sectional, the causal relationships and the sustainability of firm and product innovative performance cannot be easily captured. Future research can examine how factors of individual traits, organizational characteristics, and external environmental factors may influence the shared knowledge and product competitive advantage.

This study emphasizes the importance of the firm's integration to utilize and share knowledge of internal capabilities, customers and suppliers effectively. Besides, the relationships among internal/external integration, shared knowledge, firm innovation capability and product competitive advantage may provide a clue regarding how firms can manage integrations and promote knowledge‐sharing culture to sustain their firm innovation capability and product competitive advantage.

As only little empirical research has been conducted on the impact of internal/external integration on the firm's innovative capability and product competitive advantage through shared knowledge, the empirical evidence reported here makes a valuable contribution in this highly important area.