The impact of upstream supply and downstream demand integration on quality management and quality performance

Abstract

PurposeThere are many studies on the impact of supply chain integration (SCI) on performance. However, the definitions, the measurements, the sample sizes, and scope of both SCI and the performance vary significantly from research to research. Conclusions are not consistent either. Researchers still believe that little is known about the impact of SCI on performance and call for more empirical research. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact on quality practices and quality performance of upstream integration with suppliers and downstream integration with customers.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on the empirical data from a large international survey of over 600 manufacturing companies from 20 countries. An intensive literature review was conducted on the definition and scope of SCI as well as its relationship with quality practice and performances. In total, five hypotheses were formulated and a conceptual model was proposed. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses reflecting and interrelationship among the four variables.FindingsThe research reveals that downstream integration with customers influences both the quality management practice and the quality performance of the company, while upstream integration with suppliers only influences the quality practice but not the quality performance.Originality/valueThis research is different to previous research in three aspects. First, SCI covers both the upstream integration with suppliers and downstream integration with customers. Second, integration measurement covers both material integration and information integration. Third, it considers both quality management practices and quality performance.

Determining critical success factors related to the effect of supply chain integration and competition capabilities on business performance

“…However, the definitions, the measurements, the sample sizes, and scope of both SCI and the performance vary significantly from research to research. Conclusions are not consistent either (Sun and Ni 2012). Researchers still believe that little is known about the impact of SCI on performance and call for more empirical research.…”

“…Some of them define integration as upstream (with suppliers) and downstream (with customers) (Frohlich and Westbrook 2001;Sun andNi 2012, internal or external Richey et al 2009), integration with supplier and customer and internal (Lee et al 2007;Boon-itt and Wong 2011;Huo 2012) so on. Kannan and Tan (2010) extended the discussion of integration to explicitly incorporated firms beyond first tier suppliers and customers.…”

“…Frohlich and Westbrook (2001); Rosenzweig et al (2003) and Vickery et al (2013) found support for the positive impact of integrating with suppliers and customers (upstream and downstream integration). Sun and Ni (2012) studied the effect of SCI on quality performance. They used integration -as upstream and downstream-and quality initiatives as performance measurement.…”

Supply Chain Integration Strategy: A Conceptual Model of Supply Chain Relational Capital Enabler in the Malaysian Food Processing Industry

“…Some authors claimed that internal integration is prerequisite to external integration (Horn, Scheffler, & Schiele, 2014) and the dimensions of SCI in the past literature were not consistent. For instance, Narasimhan and Kim (2002) operationalized supply chain integration from the aspect of internal and external integration, and meanwhile some authors have only considered internal integration (Foerstl, Hartmann, Wynstra, & Moser, 2013;Pagell, 2004) or external integration (Koufteros, Edwin Cheng, & Lai, 2007;Sun, 2012) in their studies. Importantly, most of supply chain integration studies revealed that there is association between supply chain integration and firm performance (Flynn et al, 2010;Rajagopal, Zailani, & Sulaiman, 2009).…”

“…Internal integration is regarded as supply chain activities that are carried out by several functions within the firms (Flynn, Huo, & Zhao, 2010). Meanwhile, external integration is generally referred to the integration among supply chain partners across firm's boundaries that encompasses of upstream and downstream supply chain (Sun, 2012) with the aim is to create value to the entire supply chain. Some authors claimed that internal integration is prerequisite to external integration (Horn, Scheffler, & Schiele, 2014) and the dimensions of SCI in the past literature were not consistent.…”