The contingent effect of supply chain strategies on the relationship between supply chain integration and operational performance in manufacturing context

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the contingent effect of supply chain strategies on supply chain integration (SCI)-performance relationship in manufacturing organizations.Design/methodology/approachThis research hypothesized the moderation effect of agile, responsive, risk-hedging and efficient strategies on the relationship between SCI and operational performance (OP). Survey data were collected from a sample of 112 Egyptian manufacturing firms and analyzed using moderated regression analyses to test the study hypotheses.FindingsThe results provide supporting evidence that the four strategies moderate the relationship between internal integration (II) and OP. The results also indicated that agile strategy moderates the relationship between customer and supplier integration and OP. Besides, the results indicated that responsive strategy moderates the effect of customer integration (CI) on OP. Finally, the results did not provide sufficient evidence regarding the moderating effect of risk-hedging strategy on supplier integration (SI)-performance relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThe nature of the surveyed sample and the use of a single informant might limit the ability to generalize the research findings outside the research context.Practical implicationsThe research results provide managers of manufacturing organizations with the roadmap to maximize the benefits from their integrative efforts through emphasizing the appropriate supply chain strategy (SCS) with respect to the market demand/supply conditions.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to knowledge by empirically validating the contingent effect of SCS on the relationship between SCI and OP.