Efficacy of supply chain integration in meeting customers’ on-time delivery needs: moderating effect of product life cycle

Purpose This study aims to examine a moderated mediation model that addresses an effective usage of supply chain integration (SCI) for on-time delivery to customers by leveraging logistic outsourcing and considering the product life cycle (PLC). Design/methodology/approach The authors empirically examine the proposed hypotheses using survey data from 251 manufacturing firms worldwide. Findings The results demonstrate that SCI directly enhances customer delivery satisfaction and indirectly does so via logistic outsourcing. More importantly, the results reveal that the role of SCI in this indirect relationship is more effective when the PLC is shorter. Originality/value By combining the PLC with the SCI, this study contributes to extant SCI literature. It provides valuable insights into how SCI can be more effectively used to meet customers’ on-time delivery needs by leveraging external logistic outsourcing and considering the contingency of PLC length.