Though there is a wide acceptance of the strategic importance of integrating operations with suppliers and customers in supply chains, many questions remain unanswered about how best to characterize supply chain strategies. Is it more important to link with suppliers, customers, or both? Similarly, we know little about the connections between supplier and customer integration and improved operations performance. This paper investigated supplier and customer integration strategies in a global sample of 322 manufacturers. Scales were developed for measuring supply chain integration and five different strategies were identified in the sample. Each of these strategies is characterized by a different “arc of integration”, representing the direction (towards suppliers and/or customers) and degree of integration activity. There was consistent evidence that the widest degree of arc of integration with both suppliers and customers had the strongest association with performance improvement. The implications for our findings on future research and practice in the new millennium are considered.

This paper investigated the relationship between Internet-enabled supply chain integration strategies and performance in manufacturing and services. It summarizes the literature on demand and supply integration and describes four web-based strategies. A stratified random sample was collected from UK manufacturers and services, and there was strong evidence that demand chain management (DCM) led to the highest performance in manufacturing, but few signs of DCM in services. Manufacturers and services relying on only web-based demand or supply integration outperformed their low integration counterparts, but lagged DCM in manufacturing. The study also investigated DCM adoption drivers and found that rational efficiency and bandwagon effects drove change. The findings have some important implications for theory as well as for manufacturing and service companies interested in improving their performance.

While our field has done commendable work putting forward new ideas in operations strategy, we have historically done a less effective job validating concepts after their introduction. Given this issue, we attempted to test and extend one of the most influential OM configurations — Miller and Roth’s [Management Science 40 (1994) 285] taxonomy of manufacturing strategies. Their taxonomy was longitudinally replicated with a newer set of North America Manufacturing Futures data as well as an entirely different global sample. Our replications partially supported Miller and Roth’s taxonomy of three strategy‐types (Caretakers, Marketeers, and Innovators), but found no evidence of the two underlying dimensions of manufacturing strategy that they called market scope and differentiation. Interestingly, the Marketeers were replaced in the 1990s by a new strategy called Designers, and three other unique manufacturing strategies were identified in the global data.

Current opinion holds that Internet-based supply chain integration with upstream suppliers and downstream customers (called "e-integration" in this paper) is superior to traditional ways of doing business. This proposition remains untested, however, and similarly we know little about what are the upstream, internal, and downstream barriers to implementing e-integration. This paper empirically addressed these questions using data from a large single nation study, and found (1) a positive link between e-integration and performance, and (2) that internal barriers impeded e-integration more than either upstream supplier barriers or downstream customer barriers. Findings from this study contribute to our theoretical understanding of implementing change in contemporary supply chains, and have important implications for manufacturers interested in improving their supply chain's performance using the Internet.

Response rates are an important indicator of survey research success and a methodological concern in OM today. An analysis was done of 233 OM survey research papers published over the past 12 years which showed that the average managerial response rate flattened‐out in the mid‐1990s at, approximately 32% and has not improved since then. This paper goes on to examine the theories and techniques found in the diverse survey research literature on improving response rates including OM survey research benchmarks that achieved very high response rates. By following the tactics outlined in this paper, OM survey researchers stand an excellent chance of not only improving the overall respondent yields for their studies but also reducing the bias caused by non‐response.

Many retailers are increasingly turning to home delivery as a new arena of operational competition. This study controlled for industry by investigating the online home delivery grocery business, and an analysis of 1,919 customers of home delivery grocers identified four groups of online customers based on reasons for selecting this service. These four groups were next linked to operational execution in terms of service, product, and Internet quality, and found to vary in predicable ways. Subsequent to the initial data collection, five month's of post hoc longitudinal purchasing history was collected on the four groups of online customers to determine the relative profitability. Finally, as a follow‐on analysis, the study used regression to predict future consumer purchases based upon operational execution. Time savings and service quality emerged as the two most important independent variables in terms of future buying from such online home delivery services.

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Few plants have initial success with advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs), and adaptations are commonly required after installing new technologies. We especially know little about the outcomes of adaptations that manufacturers regularly employ in the context of AMTs. Sociotechnical theory and the technology literature suggest that AMTs commonly require four types of adaptations including those to process technologies, human resources, operational structures, and information systems. This study investigates which of these four adaptations and their interactions lead to improved operational performance. Data were collected on 104 plants that implemented a single type of manufacturing AMT. Findings indicate that information systems (IS) adaptation during the course of AMT implementation was the most important action. Surprisingly, human resource and process technology adaptations were linked to lower performance, and no interactions had any clear effects. The results also show that practitioners underestimated the relevance of IS adaptations during contemporary or "second-generation" AMT implementation projects and overemphasized the need for shop floor changes.