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Research Methodologies in Supply Chain Management pp 47–58Cite as

Measuring Supply Chain Integration — Using the Q-Sort Technique

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Summary

Supply chain integration is an important topic for researchers and practitioners. However, the major concerns constraining the full and complete use of this concept in supply chain management research has been that the construct takes on its own meaning depending on individual subjectivity and different points of view. There is a need for researchers to operationalize and measure what it means by “supply chain integration.” The basic research question is whether a meaningful measure of supply chain integration could be developed. The Q-sort techniques could be used to cluster stimuli from subjective judgments to form a description of an indescribable object. This paper describes how the Q-sort technique could be used in the scale development process, and applies it to the context of measuring supply chain integration. The results indicate that the Q-sort technique is a useful methodological approach in eliminating the validity and reliability problems particularly in the early scale development stages for defining the construct of supply chain integration.

Keywords

  • Supply Chain Integration
  • Q-Sort Technique

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Industrial and Operations Management, Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy, Thammsat University, 2 Prachan, Rd. Pranakorn, Bangkok, Thailand, 10200

    Sakun Boon-itt M.Sc.

  2. School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Khlong-Luang, Patumthani, Thailand, 12120

    Prof. Dr. Himangshu Paul

Authors
  1. Sakun Boon-itt M.Sc.
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  2. Prof. Dr. Himangshu Paul
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Operations Management SCM-Group, Copenhagen Business School, Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Herbert Kotzab

  2. Supply Chain Management Center, Institute of Business Adaministration, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany

    Stefan Seuring  & Martin Müller  & 

  3. Department of Production Management, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Nordbergstraße 15, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Gerald Reiner

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© 2005 Physica-Verlag Heidelberg

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Boon-itt, S., Paul, H. (2005). Measuring Supply Chain Integration — Using the Q-Sort Technique. In: Kotzab, H., Seuring, S., Müller, M., Reiner, G. (eds) Research Methodologies in Supply Chain Management. Physica-Verlag HD. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-7908-1636-1_4

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