A Survey on Supply Chain Integration and Performance in Freight Transport and Manufacturing Firms in Tema: The Moderating Role of Firm Innovation

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to survey supply chain (SC) integration and performance, as well as the moderating influence of innovation in core firms in Tema, Ghana. Design/Methodology/Approach: The information was gathered from 250 firms situated in and around Tema. Respondents were company owners/CEOs/managers. Regression models were utilised in the research due to the formative character of measures of SC efficiency and effectiveness. Findings: The study indicates that the SC integration-performance link is dependent on the firms’ level of innovation. The results show that innovativeness has a favourable influence on aspects of SC integration, which affects business efficiency and effectiveness. The findings suggest the presence of firm innovation moderation in the link between the characteristics of SC integration and firms’ performance. The findings show that organisations should strive for innovativeness and SC integration since they both increase SC performance and company success. Again, firms can use innovativeness as an important tool to increase SC integration and SC performance. Practical Implications: Firms might obtain a competitive edge by engaging in integration methods such as operational integration, which exploits the transferred information to pursue supply chain management activities. To obtain the best benefits from SC integration, managers in organisations with a highly volatile and dynamic environment should accomplish SC integration and incorporate customer and supplier integration at the strategic level. Firms should allow suppliers/customers to be in direct contact with operational and domain experts who understand them better, rather than interacting with systems and processes. The prevalence of indirect impacts implies that innovation is an action-based method that requires appropriate SC behaviors to increase performance. Originality/value: This study adds to the SC literature by investigating the influence of a nascent determinant (innovativeness) on SC practices and performance to broaden and deepen existing understanding of the potential function of innovativeness in the SC setting. Additionally, examining company innovation as a moderator offers up new research possibilities to explicate the SC integration performance nexus in the context of newly developed markets.