An exploration of supply chain integration

During these recent years supply chain integration has gained considerable attention from both academics and firms¿ managers. Anyway, our knowledge on creating an integrated supply chain and how companies manage to coordinate their internal and external activities is yet limited. Limited is also our knowledge on the extent that supply chain integration relates to or impacts customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and firm¿s competitiveness. This study aims to shed light on some of the unknown aspects of supply chain integration. Focusing on retail businesses in Albania, it tries to develop a deep knowledge on antecedent factors that lead to an integrated supply chain, as well as to uncover the impacts that supply chain integration has on customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and firm's competitiveness.