The Chain of Communication: A Study of Communication and Multiple Organizational Identification in Supply Chains

Abstract

Previous studies concerned with supply chains have not delved very deeply into the communicative aspects on which supply chains are built. This study examines the role that communication quality in multiple communication channels and that multiple organizational identification play in the supply chains. Specifically, it examines how these predictor variables affect the performance, profitability, satisfaction, and trust in members of supply chain alliances. The results demonstrate that communication greatly influences the outcome variables in question, while organizational identification with any target has no meaningful role. It also shows that quality communication in the channels of electronic mail and of the telephone have the most profound effect.