The impact of the core company’s strategy on the dimensions of supply chain integration

Purpose: Nowadays, supply chain integration (SCI) is considered as an enabler of competitive firm performance. It has three important dimensions: internal, supplier and customer integration. Understanding the interaction between these dimensions and organisational strategy would pave the way for effective implementation of SCI. The famous Mileset al. (1978) strategy typology classifies firms into four strategy types: defenders, prospectors, analysers and reactors. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of the core company’s product-market innovation strategy on the dimensions of SCI, and to investigate the comparative strength of each dimension of SCI in defenders and prospectors. Design/methodology/approach: Primary data were collected through an online survey of 112 firms in 24 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. Direct and mediated relationships were assessed by conducting structural equation modelling on the dimensions of SCI and product-market innovation strategy variables. Cluster analysis was conducted on organisational strategy variables to group the firms into different strategy types. Next, a one-way analysis of variance was applied to assess the impact of organisational strategy on each dimension of the SCI. Finally, apost hocanalysis was conducted to compare the strength of each dimension of the SCI against the different strategy types. Findings: The results indicate that internal integration (II) mediates the positive effects of the core company’s product-market innovation strategy on supplier and customer integration. Furthermore, the results indicate that prospectors have stronger internal, supplier and customer integration as compared to defenders. Research limitations/implications: This study had two main limitations. One limitation is the lack of consideration of possible differences in the strengths of the investigated relationships across different geographical locations and cultures. The second limitation is the inability of the cross-sectional research design to capture the dynamics in the process of adopting SCI and organisational strategy. Practical implications: The present study highlights to executives the need for understanding the implications of specific strategies on the SC linkages and relationships that are required to implement those strategies. Thus, it could serve as a preliminary clue in decision-making for establishing integrated SC that is compatible with the organisational strategy. Furthermore, it could serve as a guidance to managers in steering their firms in the organisational adaptive cycle, by indicating that the implementation of product-market innovation strategy requires adopting strong SCI, and by highlighting the importance of adopting II prior to external integration. Originality/value: This paper tests relationships that explain how the core company’s strategy influences each dimension of SCI.