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Studies show the benefits of supplier integration, but behavioral constraints to integration exist that can result from negative attitudes toward the practice. Research, however, is lacking as to what influences such attitudes. Using the theory of reasoned action, our study closes this research gap by investigating how various contextual drivers-namely, a collaborative organizational culture, time-based manufacturing practices (TBMP), and country culture-interact to affect managers' attitudes toward supplier integration. A cross cultural study is conducted by using secondary data collected from 224 US manufacturing managers and 117 Chinese manufacturing managers. We test the hypothesized model using a multi-group SEM approach. The results show that collaborative organizational culture significantly increases the positive attitudes towards supplier integration in both US and Chinese sample, while TBMP significantly increases the positive attitudes towards supplier integration only in the Chinese sample. In addition, we find the Chinese cultural context diminishes the effect that a collaborative culture has on supplier integration due to the strong in-group collectivist belief system. Our results show that overcoming negative attitudes will require more than simply espousing the benefits of supplier integration; looking deeper into an organization's situational context is required.

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