THE STUDY OF SUPPLY CHAIN INTEGRATION (SCI) AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE USING HIERARCHICAL LINEAR MODELING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SMES VS LES

摘要

Supply chain integration which links the activities, functions, processes, and systems of a firm with its customers and suppliers can reduce uncertainty, enhance responsiveness, reduce costs, and improve customer service. This study compares small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) with large size enterprises (LEs) on the extent of relationships between supply chain integration (SCI) and organizational performance. To further explore hierarchical relationships and two sub-constructs of SCI - customer integration (CI) and supplier integration (SI) are introduced. The model is empirically tested using survey data gathered from 220 members of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. The results show that the extent of SCI is negatively related to the size of the company and CI is positively related to SMEs and SI is positively related to LEs.