Achieving Responsiveness through Supply Chain Integration: A Moderating Effect of Industry-4.0

This article is aiming to investigate the emerging impact of industry-4.0 on supply chain integration and responsiveness in the electronics industry in China. Specifically, it is to investigate the moderating effect of industry-4.0 as a strategic factor on the causal relationship from operational integration to supply chain responsiveness. This study develops hypotheses based the on selected literature reviews in the relevant research areas, and tests the hypotheses in the empirical sample data set collected from 76 electronics firms by using hierarchical multiple regression method. The results of this study shows that industry-4.0 as an emerging strategic factor has not only directly helped the level of market responsiveness of the firms, but also has significantly strengthens the already proven positive causal relationship from operational integration within the supply chain to the overall market responsiveness as part of supply chain performance. To improve the supply chain responsiveness in the electronics industry, managers can now make more confident and informed decisions to channel their resources towards the initiatives of industry-4.0 by up-grading perhaps their current information systems and business processes, knowing full well the dual benefits offered by the Industry 4.0 initiatives. The study extends the concurrent literature by conceptualising the moderating effect of industry-4.0 on the causal relationship between supply chain integration and business responsiveness.