Competition and supply chain integration: a taxonomy perspective
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of competition on supply chain integration (SCI).
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data from 617 manufacturers in China were used in this study. Taxonomy with cluster analysis was used to investigate the patterns of competition, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to investigate the influence of these competition patterns on SCI.
Findings
Seven competition patterns composed of local competition, international competition, and operational challenges were identified from the survey data. The ANOVA results showed that companies with different patterns achieved significantly different levels of SCI, indicating that higher levels of local competition, international competition, and operational challenges drove higher levels of SCI. Post hoc analyses revealed that international competition had stronger effects than local competition on SCI.
Research limitations/implications
The data were collected from a single country, which may limit the generalization of the findings. The data were cross-sectional and thus lacked causal explanatory power.
Practical implications
The findings provide suggestions for managers to use different configurations of SCI to adapt to different patterns of competition.
Originality/value
This study makes three main contributions to the literature. First, it extends the research on the relationship between competition and cooperation to the supply chain management area. Second, it extends the concept of competition by incorporating not only competitive intensity, but also competitive scope and competitive capability. Third, the use of a configuration approach rather than a dimensional approach to investigate the effects of competition on SCI solves many methodological problems.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71372058, No. 71420107024, No. 71132006) and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. LR13G020001).
Citation
Cao, Z., Huo, B., Li, Y. and Zhao, X. (2015), "Competition and supply chain integration: a taxonomy perspective", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 115 No. 5, pp. 923-950. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-10-2014-0315
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited