Title: Integrating supply chain operations in the internet era

Authors: Aristides Matopoulos, Vicky Manthou, Maro Vlachopoulou

Addresses: Department of Applied Informatics, University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia St., 54006, Thessaloniki, Greece. ' Department of Applied Informatics, University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia St., 54006, Thessaloniki, Greece. ' Department of Applied Informatics, University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia St., 54006, Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract: The internet|s potential impact on supply chain operations is often approached in the literature in a quite generic way due to the complex nature of supply chains and the different levels of operations| integration. Drawing on existing research, this paper proposes an overall framework of supply chain integration and then attempts to provide a categorisation of the internet|s role in the supply chain activities, providing insights from various sectors. The purpose of this paper is to describe and present the alternative ways that the internet impacts on the integration of supply chain operations, by comparing four different sectors: the automotive, the computer, the food and the grocery sector. The paper concludes that in the food, grocery and computer sector, internet|s impact on supply chain operations has been quite poor, particularly forward integration, while it has been significant, in the backward integration of the automotive sector.

Keywords: integration intensity; internet; supply chain operations; supply chain management; SCM; supply chain integration; automotive sector; computing sector; food sector; grocery sector.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2007.012995

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2007 Vol.3 No.3, pp.305 - 314

Published online: 03 Apr 2007 *

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