Relationship between supply chain integration and performance

This study analyzes survey-based studies examining the benefits of supply chain integration (SCI) and presents opportunities for further empirical examination. The literature review method is used to evaluate the empirical research published from 1990 to 2012. The analysis reveals that internal integration serves as a foundation for establishing external collaboration. There is empirical evidence on the positive effect of supplier integration on performance, whereas the findings on benefits through customer integration are conflicting. While researchers have made significant progress in our understanding of SCI, there is a substantial need for more work to provide in-depth insights into the potential of SCI and to improve the methodological issues. This study makes three contributions. First, this study expands the current understanding of benefits and considerations in implementing internal, supplier, and customer integration. Second, this study provides a critique of the empirical work and offers research agendas that can stimulate future researchers to carefully explore the topic. Finally, this study enhances the quality of analysis by employing the five-step approach proposed by Vokurka and O’Leary-Kelly (J Oper Manag 18(4):485–501, 2000).