A Review of e-Business and Supply Chain Integration: Case Studies of Four Automobile Companies in Nigeria (M.Sc Thesis)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine how the automobile industry in Nigeria has approached the implementation of e-business components such as e-procurement, sales-order-processing, private exchange, and online-reverse auctions in their supply chain integration, and the objectives of the study are to determine whether the automobile industry recognized supply chain integration as their goal and to evaluate and measure the level of integration attained with the implementation of e-business solutions.

The study carried out an extensive literature review on supply chain integration linking it with the scope of integration, areas of supply chain integration, level of relationship in supply integration and three frameworks are used in the study.The research method of the study is qualitative approach and case study is adopted as the research strategy in order to achieve the objectives of the study. The case studies are about how four automobile companies have approached the implementation of e-business components in their supply chain integration. Also, justifications are given for choosing a qualitative approach and case study research strategy. Moreover, the methodology presents the method of data collection, sample method, and method of data analysis, the research philosophy, and ethical consideration are also discussed being in the study.

The findings showed that there is a low level of external integration in three case studies of the automobile companies; this is because their business reasons for adopting and implementing the e-business solutions (sell-side and buy-side applications) in the supply chain integration were purposely for their internal benefits. Their applications were designed to create value by reducing their specific operating costs which mostly at the expense of their partners in the supply chain integration. In contrast, the fourth case study showed a wider external integration with its partners with the aid of the value added by the virtual enterprise network in the supply chain integration, and it was able to achieve broader external integration because their partners benefited greatly especially from the use of the ecosystem which has two outward-facing applications which enabled sharing of demand data and efficient management of inventories resulting to reduction of risks and operational costs.

This research work has contributed to studies in the supply chain domain by illustrating that functional silo virtual enterprise still derives present-time e-business components implementation in supply chain management. Evidence from the first three case studies analysis illustrated that SOPs, e-procurement, and ORAs did not result to genuine integrated supply chain solutions because they are implemented basically by the first three case studies for their internal benefits which resulted to a low level or inward-facing external integration. The findings also showed that the e-business components in the first three case studies analysis are hindrances to further supply chain integration because the applications are implemented to accomplish only functional targets. In contrast, the private exchange application through the use of ecosystem supported a high level or outward-facing external integration among partners because it allowed for sharing of benefits which resulted in operational performance.

Keywords Supply chain integration, electronic business, information technology, and partners