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Enablers of Supply Chain Integration: A Socio-Technical System Perspective

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Supply Chain Integration for Sustainable Advantages

Abstract

Although supply chain integration (SCI) and its antecedents has been extensively studied, whether digital manufacturing technology (DMT) will support SCI in this ever increasingly competitive era and how this link may work is still not clear. Drawing on the socio-technical system (STS) perspective, we propose that human resource (HR) is an important social counterpart of DMT. Besides, this study also introduces industrial competition as an environmental factor that may influence the way of how social and technical factors will support SCI. By adding the infrequently discussed environmental part into this study on SCI implementation, a more comprehensive model is proposed and tested with data from the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) project database. The results show that DMT and HR have significant and positive effects on the three dimensions of SCI. Competition moderates the effects of HR on SCI dimensions differentially but do not influence the relationship between DMT and SCI. By investigating the effects of HR and DMT on SCI in the context of competition, this study contributes to the relevant literature.

This chapter is a revised version of the following journal paper: Tian, M., Huo, B., Park, Y., & Kang, M. (2021). Enablers of supply chain integration: a technology–organization–environment view. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 121(8), 1871–1895.

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Shou, Y., Kang, M., Park, Y.W. (2022). Enablers of Supply Chain Integration: A Socio-Technical System Perspective. In: Supply Chain Integration for Sustainable Advantages. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9332-8_5

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