Supplier integration has become an important concept for improving supply chain performance. The aim of this paper is to identify factors that facilitate and inhibit supplier integration in the context of the Chinese automotive industry. An inductive approach based on grounded theory was chosen as the research methodology, where data was collected through 30 detailed case interviews with subsidiaries of foreign automotive companies operating in China. The results indicate that buyer‐side leadership is an important antecedent for building motivation, trust, and commitment among suppliers and for shaping their mindsets. This, in turn, facilitates strategic alignment and enables suppliers to build collaborative capabilities, which are finally shown to be a key enabler for successful supplier integration.

PurposeThis paper aims to develop an integrated analytical approach, combining quality function deployment (QFD) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach, to enhance the effectiveness of sourcing decisions.Design/methodology/approachIn the approach, QFD is used to translate the company stakeholder requirements into multiple evaluating factors for supplier selection, which are used to benchmark the suppliers. AHP is used to determine the importance of evaluating factors and preference of each supplier with respect to each selection criterion.FindingsThe effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated by applying it to a UK‐based automobile manufacturing company. With QFD, the evaluating factors are related to the strategic intent of the company through the involvement of concerned stakeholders. This ensures successful strategic sourcing. The application of AHP ensures consistent supplier performance measurement using benchmarking approach.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed integrated approach can be principally adopted in other decision‐making scenarios for effective management of the supply chain.Practical implicationsThe proposed integrated approach can be used as a group‐based decision support system for supplier selection, in which all relevant stakeholders are involved to identify various quantitative and qualitative evaluating criteria, and their importance.Originality/valueVarious approaches that can deal with multiple and conflicting criteria have been adopted for the supplier selection. However, they fail to consider the impact of business objectives and the requirements of company stakeholders in the identification of evaluating criteria for strategic supplier selection. The proposed integrated approach outranks the conventional approaches to supplier selection and supplier performance measurement because the sourcing strategy and supplier selection are derived from the corporate/business strategy.

This paper presents the results of an empirical analysis of the current practices of, and key challenges to, domestic supplier integration in the Chinese automotive industry from the buyer's perspective. The results are based on case interviews with thirty automotive firms from various countries of origin with manufacturing operations in China. The research findings indicate that domestic supplier integration in terms of joint product development and advanced production planning activities between buyers and suppliers currently takes place to a relatively low extent. The study results also reveal that a lack of critical supplier capabilities as well as buyer‐side constraints act as inhibiting factors.

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This paper seeks to develop a supplier integration framework in a Chinese context based on existing theories and empirical insights from the Chinese automotive industry. The objective is to develop a framework and identify a number of factors that can potentially facilitate supplier integration and ultimately improve supply chain performance. The framework comprises a causal chain with four key constructs, starting with supply chain leadership as an antecedent to alliance readiness, which in turn is proposed to yield a higher degree of supplier integration. Eventually, a higher degree of supplier integration is proposed to positively influence supply chain performance. By building on prior research and 30 case studies, the framework provides a China-specific approach to supplier integration and offers insights into the current status in the Chinese automotive industry.