Pursuing Supply Chain Integration: Roles of Resources, Competences, Experience, and Industry-type

Although supply chain (SC) integration is well discussed in literature, there is a missing link in its multi-faceted nature, in terms of implementation, at the empirical level. Existing empirical research focus has largely been on examining the impact of SC integration (SCI) on business performance while other issues such as barriers and enablers of SCI have mostly been conceptual. This study was thus set to examine the manner in which firms pursue integration; and how resources, competences, experience, and industry-type influence this course. Using questionnaires, data were collected from 117 service and manufacturing firms operating in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The contribution of this study lies in its ability to critically examine how SCI is pursued and providing validations to the root barriers/enablers of SCI from a contextual standpoint. The findings of the study do not only fill the void in literature but also offer invaluable directions to practitioners and researchers.