Comparative Study of Supply Chain Relationships, Mass Customization, and Organizational Performance between SME(s) and LE(s)

Abstract

The influence of information technology (IT) exceeds in providing financial and operational support to organizations. ITis being used to facilitate customer and supplier involvement indesigning specialized product offerings, implementing process improvements, enhancing manufacturing flexibility, and controlling manufacturing operations. Together, these advances are enabling firms to not only customize their product offerings (i.e. mass customization) and market the mat prices close to those quoted by traditional mass producers but also contribute to organizational performance (OP). Organizational performance (OP) is the extent to which a firm fulfills its market and financial goals. While much research on mass customization has been reported in the literature, empirical studies investigating the impacts of IT on creating cooperative and integrative relationships with customers and suppliers and the impacts of these relationships on the level of mass customization and organizational performance are sparse and represent a missing link in manufacturing research. The contributions of this study include supply chain relationship in SMEs and LEs, mass customization, and organizational performance. Using data collected from 220 manufacturers, this study finds that large firms (LEs) have higher levels of cooperative relationships with suppliers and customers and enjoy higher levels of mass customization and organizational performance than small and medium size firms (SMEs).