This study extends the developing body of literature on supply chain integration (SCI), which is the degree to which a manufacturer strategically collaborates with its supply chain partners and collaboratively manages intra‐ and inter‐organizational processes, in order to achieve effective and efficient flows of products and services, information, money and decisions, to provide maximum value to the customer. The previous research is inconsistent in its findings about the relationship between SCI and performance. We attribute this inconsistency to incomplete definitions of SCI, in particular, the tendency to focus on customer and supplier integration only, excluding the important central link of internal integration. We study the relationship between three dimensions of SCI, operational and business performance, from both a contingency and a configuration perspective. In applying the contingency approach, hierarchical regression was used to determine the impact of individual SCI dimensions (customer, supplier and internal integration) and their interactions on performance. In the configuration approach, cluster analysis was used to develop patterns of SCI, which were analyzed in terms of SCI strength and balance. Analysis of variance was used to examine the relationship between SCI pattern and performance. The findings of both the contingency and configuration approach indicated that SCI was related to both operational and business performance. Furthermore, the results indicated that internal and customer integration were more strongly related to improving performance than supplier integration.

Supply chain integration (SCI) has received increasing attention from scholars and practitioners in recent years. However, our knowledge of what influences SCI is still very limited. Although marketing and management researchers have investigated power and relationship commitment issues between organizations, few have examined their impact on SCI. This paper extends the powerrelationship commitment theory established in Western marketing literature and links it with SCI in China, through examining the relationship between power, relationship commitment and the integration between manufacturers and their customers. We propose and empirically test a model using data collected from 617 manufacturing companies in China. The results show that different types of customer power impact manufacturers' relationship commitment in different ways. Expert power, referent power and reward power are important in improving manufacturers' normative relationship commitment, while reward power and coercive power enhance instrumental relationship commitment. We also found that normative relationship commitment had a greater impact on customer integration than instrumental relationship commitment. These findings are interpreted in light of national culture differences between China and the U.S. in terms of power distance and collectivism, which provide a new perspective on SCI. #

a b s t r a c tSupply chain integration (SCI) among internal functions within a company, and external trading partners within a supply chain, has received increasing attention from academicians and practitioners in recent years. SCI consists of internal integration of different functions within a company and external integration with trading partners. While both supply chain internal and external integration have been studied extensively, our understanding of what influences SCI and the relationship between internal and external integration is still very limited. This paper argues that external integration with customers and suppliers is simultaneously influenced by internal integration and relationship commitment to customers and suppliers. Internal integration enables external integration because organizations must first develop internal integration capabilities through system-, data-, and process-integration, before they can engage in meaningful external integration. At the same time, before external integration can be successfully implemented, organizations must have a willingness to integrate with external supply chain partners, which is demonstrated by their relationship commitment.We propose and test a model that specifies the relationship between internal integration, relationship commitment, and external integration, using data collected from manufacturing firms in China. The results show that internal integration and relationship commitment improve external integration independently, and their interactive effect on external integration is not significant. However, internal integration has a much greater impact on external integration than relationship commitment.We also examine the model for companies with different ownerships, and the results indicate that for Chinese controlled companies where there is a strong collectivism culture and more reliance on "Guanxi" (relationship), relationship commitment has a significant impact on external integration with suppliers and customers. This is in stark contrast to foreign controlled companies, characterized by a more individualistic culture and more reliance on technological capabilities, where no significant relationship between relationship commitment and external integration could be found. The model is also tested across different industries and different regions in China, providing useful insights for Chinese companies in particular. This study makes significant contributions to the SCI literature by simultaneously studying the effects of internal integration and relationship commitment on external integration, and providing several future research directions.