The impact of supplier integration and customer integration on firm performance of garment-exporting firms in Vietnam’s Southern key economic region, Vietnam

Abstract

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This study examines the impact of supplier integration and customer integration on the performance of garment-exporting firms in Vietnam’s southern key economic region. The research is grounded in the Relational View and the theory of Transaction Cost Economics. Data were collected from 253 garment-exporting firms located in the area and analyzed by the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling technique (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that both supplier integration and customer integration have a positive impact on operational and business performance, with operational performance having a positive influence on business performance. Additionally, operational performance acts as a mediating factor between supplier integration and business performance, as well as between customer integration and business performance. These insights underscore the importance of external integration across the supply chain, emphasizing the need for firms to cultivate strong relationships with both suppliers and customers actively. The research then proposes several managerial implications for strengthening supplier and customer integration to boost overall firm performance.</span></p>