Flexibility Through Integration: Mediated Mechanisms in Pharmacy Supply Chains

This study investigates how supply chain integration (SCI) helps community pharmacies become more flexible (SCF) by looking at the roles of customer responsiveness, demand forecasting, and supplier performance. Using data from 236 community pharmacies in Konya, Türkiye, we tested these relationships using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) with a Maximum Likelihood Robust (MLR) estimator and bias-corrected and accelerated (BCa) bootstrapping (5,000 resamples). The findings show that integration does not lead to flexibility directly; instead, it works predominantly through indirect steps. Specifically, integration strengthens customer responsiveness and supplier performance, which serve as the primary indirect pathways to supply chain flexibility. Although demand forecasting is enhanced through integration and customer responsiveness, it does not directly predict flexibility; rather, its influence is channelled through supplier performance. The total indirect effect was statistically significant (unstandardised b = 0.952, 95% BCa CI [0.592, 1.468]; standardised β = .559) and the model explained 65.5% of the variance in supply chain flexibility (R² = .655). These results suggest that flexibility in community pharmacies is not an automatic consequence of structural integration; rather, it emerges through the quality of supplier relationships and responsiveness to patient needs. Ultimately, the study provides context-specific insights for improving medicine availability and building more resilient supply chains within Konya's community pharmacy sector.