Abstract
The best supply-chain integration strategy has been developed and explored in recent years. The related literature has argued that the structure of the best integration strategy is complete integration between suppliers and customers in the supply-chain operational environment, which improves competitive performance. However, considering the limitations in internal/external resources and the development environment, most manufacturers are often unable to develop the best integration strategy, and usually develop other integration strategies such as supplier integration, customer integration, and incomplete integration.
Different integration strategies have different integration structures, and different integration structures lead to different practical results and performance. However, most practitioners find it difficult to characterize the practical results and performance of different supply-chain integration strategies. This study investigated the practical results and performance of different supply-chain integration structures. The test results allowed us to identify the best and alternative integration strategy, and through our findings, manufacturers can understand which integration strategy can be considered when considering their limited resources and the nature of their development environment.
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