Supply chain coordination and innovativeness: A social contagion and learning perspective

This study investigates relationships among various types of supply chain coordination, innovativeness, and financial performance. Social contagion theory is mainly used to construct a research framework. Two underlining contagion mechanisms, cohesion and structural equivalence, were identified for various supply chain relationships. Data was collected from 617 Chinese manufacturers and employed to test the theoretical model. The results show that supplier coordination positively influences manufacturer, customer coordination, and supplier innovativeness. Manufacturer coordination promotes customer coordination and manufacturer innovativeness. Supplier innovativeness directly improves manufacturer innovativeness and indirectly enhances financial performance through manufacturer innovativeness. Customer coordination and manufacturer innovativeness positively influence financial performance. This study contributes significantly to theories and practices of supply chain coordination.