– The purpose of this paper is to analyze changes in the supply chain and production process, and the effects these changes have had on competitive performance.
– The study is longitudinal and was conducted in 1993, 2004 and 2010 with a standard questionnaire. The data have been analyzed by using the Mann-Whitney U-test.
– The study indicates that changing a role within the supply chain may help a company to adapt to surrounding changes, but there is no single best way to react to such changes. Companies must be able to position themselves in the new situation.
– Even though the study itself and the data are unique, there are still some limitations. Although the results are limited to the sample, they nevertheless give a good insight into the changes that occurred within the sample.
– This study is the only longitudinal study in this field to compare three periods of time. This gives a unique perspective to study the changes that have occurred during the last 15 years.
