The Impact of Clusters Characteristics on Supply Chain Performance in Cluster Networks

摘要

This paper seeks to illustrate the advantages for firms who build local supplier and customer relationships in clusters. Specifically, supplier integration is proposed as a mediating strategic supply chain management behavior that may yield strategic advantages for supply chain partners. Using survey data from mainland China, the results show that cluster characteristics in terms of physical proximity and connectedness have a positive relationship with supplier integration which reveals that upstream and downstream partners may exist in cluster areas that can provide synergistic benefits more easily than firms in distant supply chain configurations. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.