Customer integration into supply chains: literature review and research propositions

The purpose of this paper is to explore the topic of customer integration into supply chains. Particular attention is focused on\r\nliterature concerning customer-driven and customer-centric supply chains. The aim is to provide a deeper understanding of these two\r\napproaches, clarify the differences, compare them and provide a conceptual model and research propositions, leading to theoretical and\r\nmanagerial implications.The paper presents a systematic literature review conducted using a consolidated methodology. The\r\nprotocol used allows for the identification, analysis, synthesis, reporting and discussion of the results stemming from the literature on\r\ncustomer integration into the supply chain. This analysis enables us to summarize the results in a conceptual framework and introduce new\r\nresearch propositions.Using the results of the literature review, the authors first systematized the literature on customer-driven supply chain and on customercentric\r\nsupply chain in the conceptual framework. For each of the two sets of studies, the authors highlighted three main streams of research\r\nconcerning customer integration into the supply chain. The authors analyzed three different topics: why customer integration is needed, how\r\ncustomer integration takes place and which intra-organizational issues are necessary to implement customer integration into the supply chain. Second, the authors developed a conceptual framework to confront customer-driven and customer-centric approaches to supply chain management in an evolutionary perspective. The authors thus formulated research propositions aimed at entering in greater depth the management of the shift from the customer-driven to customer-centric supply chain.