Editorial: Integrating the global supply chain

Abstract

The integration of the supply chain is an important research area as supply chain integration has been posited by many authors to be akin to supply chain excellence ([Christopher, 1998] and [New, 1996]). Indeed, in the current climate of global competition, integration on a global scale is regarded as a prerequisite for enabling winning performance ([Lee, 2000] and [Margetta, 1998]). Past studies have mainly focused on power position in the supply chain (Cox, 2001); purchasing integration (Narasimhan and Das, 2001); impacts of simplified material flow (Childerhouse and Towill, 2003); barriers to implementation (Pagell, 2004); and shared resources (van Donk and van der Vaart, 2005).