The impact of supply chain integration on operational performance: A reseach of somali international trading enterprises

The effective implementation of supply chain integration is commonly associated with the creation of supply chain competitiveness and enhanced performance. However, very little attention has, thus far, been given to the empirical investigation of the influence of the successful implementation of supply chain integration on operational performance in Somalia. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of Supply Chain Integration (supplier, internal, customer and information) on operational performance (flexibility, time, quality and cost) at the Somali international trading enterprises. The current study is considered as a causality study, it investigates the effect of SCI elements on OP of the export and import companies in Somalia. The study surveyed managers working at 154 international trading companies, and by means of a questionnaire, 281 managers have collected a data. A principal component analysis was performed for factor reduction and dimensional groupings using SPSS 21 software. Statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics, correlation, and variance analyses were employed. The principal finding of this study reveals that supply chain integration has a strong positive and significant influence on the operational performance at the Somali international trading enterprises. Furthermore, empirical results indicated that there are strong inter-relationships and interactions among the four dimensions of SCI and between them and OP. finally, results indicated that the internal integration was having the highest effect on OP, followed by customer integration then supplier integration, and lastly information integration. The results of this thesis draw conclusions from an empirical investigation showing that the purposed relationship among supply chain integration (dimensions) and operational performances does exist, and in the case of Mogadishu Region import and export companies implement supply chain integration that is a significant contributor to the company's performance. In conclusion, the current study recommends improving the four dimensions of the Supply Chain Integration, because they are strongly interrelated and all positive affect the OP.