Research On The Effects Of Supply Chain Concentration And Integration On Firm Performance

With the increasing trend of economic globalization and fierce market competition,firms are facing severe challenges in the business environment.Supply chain management has become the critical ways for firms to deal with uncertain environment,and finally obtain competitive advantage.Firms in the supply chain have realized the importance of partnership with upstream and downstream firms.Particularly,supply chain concentration and supply chain integration are used by the firms to manage relationship among partnerships in the supply chain.Existing research has focused on the impact of supply chain concentration and integration on firm performance,however,the results are inconclusive.Thus,it's necessary to further explore the mechanism of supply chain concentration and integration on firm performance.Previous studies have suggest that the main purpose of establishing relationship with supply chain partners is to create value by utilizing resource and information of external partners during the process of cooperation,and appropriate value during value distribution.Based on this,from the perspective of value creation and value appropriation,this study explores the moderating role of value creation and appropriation on the relationship between supply chain concentration and firm performance,and divides different processes of supply chain integration.Moreover,from the perspective of external ties,this study further explores the moderating role of political ties and board interlocks in the relationship between supply chain concentration and firm performance.According to uncertainty management theory and social exchange theory,this study also investigates the moderating role of justice during the process of value creation and appropriation.The current research put forwards the following three studies.Study one focuses on exploring the moderation on the relationship between customer concentration and firm performance.At first,based on resource dependence theory and social exchange theory,Study one investigates the curvilinear relationship between customer concentration and firm performance.Moreover,customers are the demand side on the supply chain and the ultimate source of focal firm value.Thus,based on value appropriation,Study one investigates the moderating effect of value appropriation on the relationship between customer concentration and firm performance.Finally,by integrating with the perspective of external ties,Study one further explores the moderating effect of political ties.Study two focuses on the moderation on the relationship between supplier concentration and firm innovation.First,Study two considers the difference between customer concentration and supplier concentration and explores the relation between supplier concentration and firm innovation.Secondly,suppliers are the supply side on the supply chain and can co-create value with the firm.Thus,from the perspective of value creation,Study two investigates the moderating role of value appropriation on the relationship between supplier concentration and firm innovation.In addition,based on social network theory,Study two further investigate the three-way interactions of the centrality and structural hole of board interlocks.Study three pays attention to the moderating effects of distributive justice and procedural justice during the different process of supply chain integration.From the perspective of value creation and appropriation,Study three considers the internal and external integration as the process of value creation and value appropriation respectively.Moreover,according to uncertainty management theory and social exchange theory,Study three integrates with distributive and procedural justice to further examine the relationship among internal integration,external integration and firm performance.There are several theoretical contributions in the current research.First,from the comprehensive perspective of supply chain relationship,this study explores the impact of demand side(customer concentration),supply side(supplier concentration),internal and external integration on firm performance.Secondly,from the perspective of value creation and appropriation,this study explores the moderation on the relationship between supply chain concentration and firm performance,and differentiates the processes of supply chain integration.Thirdly,from the perspective of external social network,this research expands the moderation on the relationship between supply chain concentration and firm performance.Finally,according to the theory of uncertainty management and social exchange,the current study provides a nuanced insight into how internal and external integration play their roles under distributive and procedural justice,thus helping to solve the paradox of the relationship between supply chain integration and firm performance in previous research.