The Effect of Competitive Strategies on Supply Chain Integration Practices in Small and Medium Scale Entreprises (SMEs) in Ghana

Firms look beyond their immediate resources to tap into other firms’ resources in a strategic and mutually beneficial way in what is now known as Supply Chain Management. This is not just aligning firms but, of course, their business processes. Earlier researches have revealed that there is significant benefit to firms that effectively manage their supply chain processes; and a positive relation between Competitive Strategies and Supply Chain Management practices; yet, these have focused on large firms. But small firms are very important and as a result there is the need to better understand the roles competitive strategy play in the management of supply chain of SMEs. This research examines supply chain management in SMEs and how the competitive orientation of SMEs affects the integration of supply chain. It revealed that there are three dimensions of Supply Chain Integration namely Product/Information flow, Communication and Attitudes. A self-administered questionnaire is used to investigate
the extent of Supply Chain Management and Supply Chain Integration practices adoption; and the effect of Competitive Strategies on Supply Chain Integration in 108 SMEs in Ghana. The research revealed that SMEs deploy a number of supply chain practices in their operations. The roles of six differentiation methods and seven overall strategy methods were investigated. It is observed that Competitive Strategies has significant on Supply Chain Integration but its effect on the three dimensions varied considerably. Again it tends to support the view that instituting and implementing
competitive strategies in SMEs is very important as it has a significant impact on the supply chain practices within the SMEs. Researchers can use these findings to generate ideas for further studies.

Copyright and Licenscing
©2016 Gilbert Kwaku Antwi
This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Under the terms of this license, no permission is required from the author(s) or publisher for members of the research community to copy, distribute, transmit or adapt the article content. This is on condition that a proper, prominent and unambiguous attribution is made to the authors in a manner that clarifies the materials are being reused under permission of a Creative Commons License. Views, opinions and conclusions expressed in the research article are views, opinions and conclusions of the author(s).

Disclaimer
Noyam Publishers provides this research item to end users for use and re-use. However, Noyam Publishers is not responsible for any improper use of this item by other parties.