The impact of supply chain integration on firm performance: The food retail sector in Turkey

The concept of supply chain integration and its effects on firm's performance has received many attentions from researchers for some time. Even though, majority of the previous research have found a positive relationship between supply chain integration and firm performance, researchers are still calling for further research to be conducted on the real effects. None of the previous research has concentrated solely on the other parties of supply chain management including retailers and hence, this study researched into the impact of supply chain integration and firm performance of food retailers in Turkey. Two big cities, Eskişehir and Istanbul, in Turkey were selected for this study due to the availability of major food retailers in these cities. Supply chain integration was classified into internal and external; and firm performance was also classified into operational and business performance. Stratified sampling method was used to select the respondents. In total, 216 firms were selected out of which only 208 firms responded to the questionnaire distributed. Structural Equation Model specifically Amos was used to analyse the data since the independent variables were more than one. The study found a positive and significant relationship between internal and external integration, and a significant and a positive relationship between internal integration and firms' operational and business performance. The study also found a significant and a positive relationship between external integration and firms' operational and business performance. Generally, retailers and firms were admonished to practice strong collaboration activities by first managing internal collaborations and extending it to outside partners namely both customers and suppliers. Keywords: Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Integration, Food retailers, Operational Performance and Business Performance.