a b s t r a c tSupply chain integration (SCI) among internal functions within a company, and external trading partners within a supply chain, has received increasing attention from academicians and practitioners in recent years. SCI consists of internal integration of different functions within a company and external integration with trading partners. While both supply chain internal and external integration have been studied extensively, our understanding of what influences SCI and the relationship between internal and external integration is still very limited. This paper argues that external integration with customers and suppliers is simultaneously influenced by internal integration and relationship commitment to customers and suppliers. Internal integration enables external integration because organizations must first develop internal integration capabilities through system-, data-, and process-integration, before they can engage in meaningful external integration. At the same time, before external integration can be successfully implemented, organizations must have a willingness to integrate with external supply chain partners, which is demonstrated by their relationship commitment.We propose and test a model that specifies the relationship between internal integration, relationship commitment, and external integration, using data collected from manufacturing firms in China. The results show that internal integration and relationship commitment improve external integration independently, and their interactive effect on external integration is not significant. However, internal integration has a much greater impact on external integration than relationship commitment.We also examine the model for companies with different ownerships, and the results indicate that for Chinese controlled companies where there is a strong collectivism culture and more reliance on "Guanxi" (relationship), relationship commitment has a significant impact on external integration with suppliers and customers. This is in stark contrast to foreign controlled companies, characterized by a more individualistic culture and more reliance on technological capabilities, where no significant relationship between relationship commitment and external integration could be found. The model is also tested across different industries and different regions in China, providing useful insights for Chinese companies in particular. This study makes significant contributions to the SCI literature by simultaneously studying the effects of internal integration and relationship commitment on external integration, and providing several future research directions.

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Service organizations increasingly create new service offerings that are the result of collaborative arrangements operating on a value network level. This leads to the notion of "elevated service offerings," our definition of service innovation, implying new or enhanced service offerings that can only be eventuated as a result of partnering, and one that could not be delivered on individual organizational merits. Using empirical data from a large telecommunications company, we demonstrate through structural equation modeling (SEM) that higher-order dynamic capabilities in services are generated as a result of collaboration between stakeholders. Furthermore, it is through collaboration and education of the stakeholders that additional higher-order capabilities emerge (customer engagement [CuE], collaborative agility [CA], entrepreneurial alertness [EA], and collaborative innovative capacity), all of which influence the service innovation outcome. Our study also reveals empirical evidence for an ongoing process of continuous dynamic capability building in accordance with the changing dynamics of business. Managers of service organizations should recognize the potential embedded in these higher-order skill sets, starting from collaboration, learning, and management of creative ideas for both strategic and operational benefits. Moreover, the capabilities of CA, EA, and CuE are even more important in managing the flexibility, timely delivery, and reliability of service offerings. Managers should take measures to inculcate, promote, and manage these dynamic capability skill sets to foster innovation in services.

Purpose -The aim of this paper is to develop an overarching framework to better understand drivers of performance in third-party logistics (3PL) linked to the operations strategy literature. Design/methodology/approach -A path model is specified and estimated based on constructs and relationships grounded in the literature, as well as self-developed constructs, using empirical data from 159 3PL providers in Hong Kong. Findings -Some dimensions of internal and external environments have positive influences on differing operations emphases. Furthermore, operational performance is positively affected by corresponding operations emphases and functional involvement. Finally, good operational performance can bring about better financial performance. However, strict adherence to the low cost operations emphasis will lead to worse financial performance. Originality/value -This research provides a novel overarching framework to link competition in the market place, challenges in the operations and functional involvement through operations emphases to operational and financial performance.

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