The Roles of Cloud-Based Supply Chain Integration on Firm Performances and Competitiveness

Abstract

Cloud computing systems have emerged as a useful technology that contributes to this optimization SCI process by providing infrastructure, platform, and software solutions for the whole supply chain via the internet. But in developing regions like Ethiopia, there's a weak traditional, fragmental, non-integrated, weak, and underdeveloped supply chain process. There’s still space for research on real industrial applications where Ethiopian firms strive for cloud-based integration and implement new models and integration strategies practices in their supply chains. Thus, this study is designed to investigate the impacts of cloud computing technology on the supply chain integration process to improve the performance and comparative advantage of manufacturing industries in general, and the Ethiopian basic metal industry in particular. Using primary and literature survey data, the study has been carried-out through SPSS correlation and regression analysis methods. The study shows that the adoption and utilization of cloud-based services in supply chain integration leads to improvements in both the performance and competitiveness of the firm at regional and global levels. In particular, the cloud-based supply chain integration strategies provide enhanced resource utilization, reduce the constraints on information flow in the firm, increase product and service visibility, and create flexibility within systems within supply chain partners, and manufacturing industries as a whole. According to these investigations, cloud computing has a great impact on supply chain integrations so as to improve the performance and comparative advantage of the firm. Thus, effective and efficient utilization of cloud-based supply chain integrations has a higher positive impact on firm performance and competitiveness. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that data privacy, information risk, security issues, cloud architecture, process customization, and trust among collaborators must be prioritized for long-term supply chain systems and joint ventures in cloud-based supply chain integration.