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Product Complexity, Variety and Supply Chain Integration

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Supply Chain Integration for Sustainable Advantages

Abstract

The need for aligning products and processes has been emphasized in the operations strategy literature for a long time. Drawing on the product–process fit perspective, this study aims to examine the relationships between product-level characteristics (i.e., product complexity and product variety) and the three dimensions of supply chain integration (SCI) (i.e., internal, supplier and customer integration). Structural equation modeling is employed to test the proposed hypotheses using survey data. The results show that for high product complexity, firms tend to implement internal and supplier integration, while product complexity does not directly impact customer integration. Product variety is confirmed as being positively related to all three dimensions of SCI. This study contributes to the SCI literature by providing empirical evidence on the relationships between product complexity, variety, and SCI.

This chapter is a revised version of the following journal paper:

Shou, Y., Li, Y., Park, Y. W., & Kang, M. (2017). The impact of product complexity and variety on supply chain integration. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 47(4), 297–317.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Number 71472166, the Fundamental Research Funds of Shandong University, and Shandong Provincial Social Science Foundation under Grant Number 16CGLJ13.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Yongyi Shou & Mingu Kang

  2. Faculty of Economics, Saitama University, Saitama, Japan

    Young Won Park

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  1. Yongyi Shou
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Correspondence to Yongyi Shou .

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Shou, Y., Kang, M., Park, Y.W. (2022). Product Complexity, Variety and Supply Chain Integration. In: Supply Chain Integration for Sustainable Advantages. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9332-8_3

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