The Mediating Role of Product Performance on the Effect of Process Integration with Suppliers on Firm Performance
Bülent Yıldız, Ahmet ÇetindaşThis study investigates the mediating role of product performance on the effect of the supplier process integration on Firm performance. Additionally, the moderator effect of market uncertainty on the effect of process integration on firm performance is also analyzed. For this purpose, data were collected by surveys from 156 manufacturing companies operating in Istanbul. A structural equation model was established and analyzed. As a result of the analysis, it was found that process integration had a positive effect on company performance. In addition, it has been determined that product performance has a positive effect on firm performance. The mediation role of product performance on the effect of process integration on firm performance was made by a bootstrap method. The mediating role of product performance could be found but the moderating role of market uncertainty could not be proven.
Tedarikçilerle Süreç Entegrasyonunun Firma Performansı Üzerindeki Etkisinde Ürün Performansının Aracı Rolü
Bülent Yıldız, Ahmet ÇetindaşBu çalışmada tedarikçilerle süreç entegrasyonunun firma performansı üzerindeki etkisinde ürün performansının aracılık rolü araştırılmıştır. Ayrıca süreç entegrasyonunun firma performansı üzerindeki etkisinde piyasa belirsizliğinin düzenleyici rolü analiz edilmiştir. Bu amaçla İstanbul’da faaliyet gösteren 156 imalat firmasından anket ile veri toplanmıştır. Araştırma kapsamında yapısal eşitlik modeli kurularak analiz edilmiştir. Analiz sonucunda süreç entegrasyonu ve ürün performansının firma performansını pozitif yönde anlamlı olarak etkilediği bulgusuna ulaşılmıştır. Ayrıca ürün performansının da firma performansını pozitif yönde anlamlı olarak etkilediği tespit edilmiştir. Süreç entegrasyonunun firma performansı üzerindeki etkisinde ürün performansının aracılık rolü boostrap yöntemi ile yapılmıştır. Analiz neticesinde ürün performansının aracılık rolü bulunduğu tespit edilmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda piyasa belirsizliğinin düzenleyici rolüne ulaşılamamıştır
As emphasized in this study, integration with suppliers is possible with the integration of processes. A process is a set of activities designed to produce a specific output for a particular customer or market (Davenport, 1993). Process integration, on the other hand, refers to the management of various activities that aim to combine relevant business processes within and across companies, and to eliminate duplicate or redundant processes in order to create a better functioning supply chain (Chen vd., 2009).
Process integration with suppliers requires regular communication between cross-organizational work teams and partners. Firm integration ensures that inter-organizational business processes work in collaboration. Thus, it improves firm performance by creating synchronous processes (Frohlich ve Westbrook, 2001) throughout the supply chain and provides operational synergy, resulting in higher productivity.
Mellat-Parast and Spillan (2014) stated that supply chain process integration is the most important indicator of the competitive position of the company, and determined its positive effect on firm competitiveness. Chen et al. (2009) dimensioned process integration with suppliers as internal process integration and external process integration, and found that external process integration positively affects firm performance. Langerak et al. (2007) also investigated the effect of product performance on firm performance, and found a positive effect. Narasimhan and Kim (2002) investigated the moderating effect of market uncertainty in the relationship between planning integration and profitability, and found that profitability increased in markets with low uncertainty. Liao and Tu (2008) found that the integration of production processes had more impact on production performance under conditions of high environmental uncertainty. For these reasons, the hypotheses of the research are determined as follows.
H1: Process integration with the supplier has a positive effect on firm performance.
H2: Process integration with the supplier has a positive effect on product performance.
H3: The effect of process integration on firm performance is mediated by product performance.
H4: Product performance has a positive effect on firm performance.
H5: Market uncertainty has a moderating effect on the effect of Process Integration with Supplier on firm performance.
The research was applied on SMEs operating in Istanbul and Gebze. The sample of the research consists of 156 industrial companies. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and reliability analyzes were performed to test the validity and reliability of the scales. As a result of EFA, factor loads were obtained at over 0.50 for all scales, and KMO values were obtained at over 0.70. Reliability analysis showed that the alpha coefficient value for all scales was determined by over 0.70. CFA showed, that the scales meets the goodness of fit criteria. As a result of the correlation analysis, it was found that there was a significant relationship between variables in the same direction at the level of 0.01 significance.
As a result of structural equation analysis of the model, the process integration with suppliers positively affected product performance and firm performance; It has also been determined that product performance affects firm performance positively. The bootstrap method was used to test the mediation role of product performance on the impact of process integration with suppliers on firm performance. In order to test the mediating role of product performance, the significance of indirect effects was examined, and the bootstrap method was used for this. The highest likelihood method was used in 95% confidence interval consisting of 1000 samples and the Monte Carlo parametric bootstrap option was chosen. Indirect effects confidence interval lower value was determined as 0.204, and the confidence interval upper value was found as 0.377. It was found that the significance level of indirect effects is below 0.01, which means it is meaningful. The fact that the confidence interval lower and upper value ranges do not include zero, and being meaningful indicates that product performance has an intermediary role in the impact of strategic integration with suppliers on firm performance.
Path analysis was conducted to analyze the moderating role of market uncertainty in the impact of process integration with suppliers on firm performance. For this purpose, an interaction variable is formed, which is the multiplication of the process integration and the market uncertainty variables. As a result of the moderating impact analysis, it was seen that process integration and market uncertainty had a positive effect on firm performance. However, the interaction variable did not significantly affect firm performance. This finding shows that market uncertainty has no moderating effect on the effect of process integration on firm performance. The reason for this is thought to be related to the fact that market uncertainty includes a more market-oriented perspective. According to this finding, it will be possible to say that the uncertainties in the market are not related to the procurement processes. As a result of the research, the H1, H2, H3 and H4 hypotheses were supported, while the H5 hypothesis could not be supported.