Supply chain collaboration and firm performance in manufacturing

Abstract

Supply chain collaboration is often referred as a way to integrate business processes up- and downstream the supply chain. Information systems tend to be important enablers for such collaborative actions. This paper presents empirical evidence on how supply chain collaboration and information systems support is connected with firm performance. Here firm performance is defined as financial performance and intra-firm supply chain performance including logistics costs, service performance and asset utilisation. For the analysis, survey data from 86 manufacturing firms operating in Finland were gathered and merged with financial reports data. The data-set was analysed through correlation analyses, confirmatory factor analyses and generalised linear models. The findings suggest that lower logistics costs and better financial performance are associated with increased collaboration in the supply chain. The results also imply that practitioners should perhaps opt more for collaborative actions in the supply chain than the technical capabilities of their information systems.