Over the years, most firms have focused their attention on the effectiveness and efficiency of separate business functions such as purchasing, production, marketing, financing, and logistics. The lack of connectivity among these functions, however, can lead to sub-optimal organizational goals and create inefficiency by duplicating organizational efforts and resources. To capture the synergy of interfunctional and interorganizational integration and coordination across the supply chain and to subsequently make better strategic decisions, a growing number of firms have begun to realize the strategic importance of planning, controlling, and designing a supply chain as a whole. In today’s global marketplace, individual firms no longer compete as independent entities with unique brand names, but rather as integral parts of supply chain links. As such, the ultimate success of a firm will depend on its managerial ability to integrate and coordinate the intricate network of business relationships among supply chain partners (Drucker, 1998; Lambert and Cooper, 2000). A supply chain is referred to as an integrated system that synchronizes a series of interrelated business processes in order to: (1) create demand for products; (2) acquire raw materials and parts; (3) transform these raw materials and parts into finished products; (4) add value to these products; (5) distribute and promote these products to either retailers or customers; (6) facilitate information exchange among various business entities (e.g., suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, third-party logistics providers, and retailers). Its main objective is to enhance the operational efficiency, profitability, and competitive position of a firm and its supply chain partners. More concisely, supply chain management is defined as “the integration of key business processes from end-users through original suppliers that provide products, services, and information and add value for customers and other stakeholders”.
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