Internal and external collaboration and supply chain performance: a fit approach

Figures & data

Figure 1. The conceptual framework.

Table 1. Main demographics of the samples.

	Item	Number of samples	Percentage
Ownership	Private enterprise	77	37.57
	State-owned enterprise	43	20.98
	Collectively owned enterprise	26	12.68
	Foreigner-owned enterprise	24	11.70
	Sino-foreign joint ventures	35	17.07
Industry	Textile and apparel	49	22.96
	Food and beverage	36	13.62
	Chemical and petroleum products	10	41.63
	Automobile assembly	5	8.95
	Plastics and rubber	33	12.84
	Hotel	35	17.07
	Leisure agriculture	37	18.05
Firm size	Less than 300	46	22.44
	300–600	56	27.32
	600–900	33	16.10
	900–1200	33	16.10
	More than 1200	37	18.04

Table 2. Cronbach’s alpha, AVE, CR and collinearity statistics.

Constructs	Mean	Standard deviations	Cronbach’s alpha	Composite reliability	Average variance extracted	Collinearity statistics
						Tolerance	VIF
IC	5.841	0.593	0.905	0.896	0.634	0.927	1.079
EC	4.917	0.608	0.891	0.888	0.613	0.773	1.294
SP	4.967	0.792	0.860	0.860	0.552	0.852	1.173

IC: internal collaboration; EC: external collaboration; SP: supply chain performance.

Table 3. Correlations, and the square roots of AVEs.

Constructs	IC	EC	SP
IC	0.796
EC	0.490***	0.783
SP	0.472***	0.509***	0.743

IC: internal collaboration; EC: external collaboration; SP: supply chain performance.

***p < 0.001.

Figure 2. The results of PLS analysis.

Table 4. Results of polynomial regression.

Independent variable	Dependent variable: SP
	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3
Constant	5.062***	1.877***	1.482***
Firm size (log 10)	0.082	−0.103**	−0.096**
Ownership	−0.103	−0.095	−0.063
Industry	0.217***	0.162**	0.094
IC		0.378***	0.225***
EC		0.206***	0.307***
$\mathrm{I}\mathrm{C}\times \mathrm{I}\mathrm{C}$			0.080***
$\mathrm{E}\mathrm{C}\times \mathrm{E}\mathrm{C}$			0.069**
$\mathrm{I}\mathrm{C}\times \mathrm{E}\mathrm{C}$ interaction			−0.056**
R^2	0.414	0.462	0.511
Adjusted R^2	0.390	0.439	0.490
F	24.058***	37.178***	34.355***
$\mathrm{\Delta }$F	–	66.065***	25.933***

IC: internal collaboration; EC: external collaboration; SP: supply chain performance.

***p < 0.001.

**p < 0.01.

Figure 3. The results of the polynomial regression in the full data.

Table 5. Results of polynomial regression in the case of different levels of external collaboration.

	High external collaboration			Medium external collaboration			Low external collaboration
Independent variable	Dependent variable: SP			Dependent variable: SP			Dependent variable: SP
	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3
Constant	6.913***	2.026***	9.462***	3.972***	1.877***	2.148***	3.992***	3.296***	1.296***
Firm size (log 10)	0.232	0.203**	−0.171**	0.108	0.096**	0.082**	0.105**	−0.199**	−0.199**
Ownership	−0.273	−0.158	−0.080	−0.099	−0.101	−0.100	−0.086	−0.166	−0.166
Industry	0.199***	0.189**	0.106**	0.194***	0.188**	0.176	0.225**	0.203**	0.203**
IC		0.355***	0.960***		0.226***	0.189***		0.430***	0.430***
EC		0.474***	−0.204***		0.306***	0.208***		0.276	0.276
IC × IC			−0.095**			0.063***			0.079
EC × EC			−0.101**			0.055**			0.061
IC × EC			0.030**			0.039**			−0.077
R^2	0.420	0.459	0.554	0.416	0.460	0.532	0.339	0.507	0.401
Adjusted R^2	0.399	0.4397	0.538	0.404	0.449	0.522	0.307	0.483	0.372
F	12.255***	39.086***	25.266***	14.979***	44.848***	2.779***	8.941***	41.013***	9.609
$\mathrm{\Delta }$F	–	69.456***	19.072***	–	66.664***	18.488***

IC: internal collaboration; EC: external collaboration; SP: supply chain performance.

***p < 0.001.

**p < 0.01.

Figure 4. Performance implications of the fit of internal and external collaboration. (a) High external collaboration. (b) Medium external collaboration.