Research on the Relationship between Network Insight, Supply Chain Integration and Enterprise Performance

Abstract

Based on the resource orchestration theory, this study built a research model to understand the effect of supply chain network insight and supply chain integration on enterprise performance. We also involved the contingency theory to investigate the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty on supply chain integration and enterprise performance. We collected the data samples from 405 enterprises and used the SEM approach to verify the model. Results demonstrated the direct path of network insight to promote enterprise performance, the indirect path of supply chain integration as a mediating factor, and the role of environmental uncertainty as a boundary condition for the relationship between supply chain integration and enterprise performance, thus making theoretical and practical contributions to the management of supply chain resources and relationships and the performance enhancement of manufacturing.

1. Introduction

The environment of the supply chain operation has recently experienced a profound change. In particular, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the disruption in global trade and the interruption of resource allocation and supply have aggravated supply chain instability [1]. Beyond that, introducing new technologies such as the Internet of Things and blockchain has stimulated the shortening of the product life cycle and the high-efficiency management and running of the whole supply chain. Therefore, the external environment of supply chain enterprises has become increasingly complex, heterogeneous, and high-dynamic, thus, enterprises’ demand for various resources has become increasingly urgent [2]. It has become an urgent problem for supply chain enterprises to find out how to identify and obtain the resources required to boost enterprises’ sound development. Supply chain managers and operators must take active measures against the disruption affecting the supply chain operation, especially the pressure and challenges from the resource shortage [3].

The supply chain network is an important source for enterprises to acquire core resources and information. It is essential to adopt the method of supply chain integration to integrate and re-construct heterogeneous resources acquired via network insight, effectively strengthen the core competitiveness of enterprises, and thus enhance enterprise performance. Supply chain integration is the key to creating value for the supply chain [4]. In the supply chain network, scarce resources do not exist in an explicit and integrated form, so enterprises should use the method of network insight to actively exploit and acquire high-value information, technologies, relationship resources, and other resources in the network, promotinig enterprises to find a new way to improve their performance [5]. The member enterprises in the supply chain network should focus on how to acquire high-value scarce resources from the external network environment, and also keep a close eye on the enterprise development situation after resource exchanges, that is, how enterprises achieve an efficient resource integration and utilization by facilitating internal coordination and external cooperation, to maximize the utilization of resources [6]. Therefore, enterprises of the supply chain network should adopt the perspective of resources to solve a series of problems related to “resource discovery and acquisition-resource integration and collaboration-resource utilization and output”, to guarantee the sustained supply and efficient utilization of resources, thus creating resource conditions for excellent enterprise performance.

Following the above logic, this research introduces the supply chain network insight as an important source of resource discovery and acquisition. The supply chain network contains a wealth of heterogeneous resources required by enterprises [7]. It is essential and crucial for supply chain enterprises to exploit the potential value of network resources and to find them [8,9]. By constructing network insights, enterprises can actively discover and intercept scarce value resources in the network, and re-assess the value and usability of the resources [5], to more effectively develop and utilize these resources and boost the enhancement of enterprise performance [10]. However, existing studies have not introduced and discussed the supply chain insight in the literature on supply chain management, so the key mechanism of whether and how supply chain insight helps enterprises to achieve good performance by acquiring and allocating resources remains unknown. The first objective of this research is to explore the relationship between supply chain network insight and enterprise performance.

Moreover, this research also introduces supply chain integration as a key step in resource integration and collaboration. Supply chain integration describes the extent to which enterprises collaborate with other supply chain partners and manage business processes in their supply chains [11]. This can maximize customers’ interests by efficiently exchanging products, services, information, money, and decisions [12,13,14]. In essence, supply chain integration connects different organizations’ processes through information integration, operational integration, and relational integration [4], and provides a channel for capturing and efficiently utilizing new resources [15]. So, supply chain integration connects the key link between resource discovery and resource output, enhancing resource utilization efficiency and effect. Thus, supply chain integration may mediate the relationship between supply chain network insight and enterprise performance. However, prior studies have not discussed the mediating impact of supply chain integration. The second objective of this research is to investigate whether the mediating effect exists, and further demonstrate the indirect path between supply chain network insight and enterprise performance.

Moreover, as the high environmental uncertainty of today’s society and commerce may trigger risks in resource utilization and transformation [16,17], this research introduces environmental uncertainty as a moderating variable between supply chain integration and enterprise performance, and figures out the boundary condition between resource integration and synergy and resource utilization and output, which is the third objective of this research.

In summary, this research adopts the perspective of resources and introduces the concept of supply chain network insight to discuss the mechanism of how the supply chain integration mediates the relationship between supply chain network insight and enterprise performance, we also try to explore the mechanism of how environmental uncertainty moderates the relationship between supply chain integration and enterprise performance. This study contributes to the existing literature in the following ways. Firstly, this paper introduces network insight into supply chain management and discusses the effect of network insight on enterprise performance. Secondly, supply chain integration, as a mediator between network insight and enterprise performance, further demonstrates the indirect path mechanism of network insight. Third, the study provides new knowledge for further understanding of how supply chain integration influence enterprise performance.

The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, a review is made of the existing literature on supply chain network insight and supply chain integration. Section 3 introduces the theoretical model of this research and puts forward the research hypotheses. In Section 4, the research methodology is presented. Section 5 reveals the research findings. Section 6 discusses the research conclusions, including theoretical contributions, practical implications for management, and research prospects.

2. Theoretical Analysis and Research Hypotheses

2.1. Supply Chain Network Insight

Based on the existing research, this research defines supply chain network insight as the chain member enterprises’ overall perception of the internal structure, relationship, and external environment of the supply chain network, which reflects the member enterprises’ understanding of network characteristics. By cultivating network insight, supply chain member enterprises can utilize the resources of other network members to create interactions and develop competitive advantages [18,19]. Lyu et al. [10] classified network insight into three dimensions: structural insight, relational insight, and environmental insight. Accordingly, this research also deconstructs the supply chain network insight from the three dimensions.

Supply chain network structural insight refers to an enterprise’s identification and perception of the network position of other member enterprises in the supply chain network. The quantity and quality of resources required by an enterprise are closely related to the network structure, such as network scale and network connection [9]. Generally, the larger the scale of a supply chain network, the higher the heterogeneity of its member enterprises and the richer resources are acquired from the network [20,21], but the more difficult the identification of the core enterprise. By quickly identifying the network position (such as the structural hole or core position) of the core enterprise, an enterprise can find the core enterprise and build connections with the core enterprise to win more market resources and cooperation opportunities [22,23]. It is essential for the member enterprises of the supply chain to find out the network positions of the member enterprises, especially the core enterprises, to build connections with other member enterprises and acquire and utilize resources. Enterprises should become extensively and deeply involved in the relationship network built based on the supply chain, work hard to build relationships, and strengthen cooperation with other member enterprises to boost the acquisition and absorption of resources. So, enterprises must build the network structure insight, as it can become a source for enterprises to acquire resources.

Supply chain network relational insight refers to the enterprise’s perception of the relationship between other member enterprises in the supply chain network. It is necessary for an enterprise to build structural relations with other member enterprises, and then achieve the objective of strengthening collaboration through relationship maintenance, which is also the main purpose of supply chain building. In relationship maintenance, supply chain member enterprises should deeply and continuously interact with each other to strengthen their mutual trust, reciprocity, and mutual benefit and even form alliances to complement each other’s advantages and boost the collaborative utilization and value creation of resources, thereby enhancing enterprise performance [24]. From this dimension, relational insight provides enterprises with a method and way for more effectively utilizing resources.

Supply chain network environment insight refers to the enterprise’s perception of the supply chain network and its external environment, such as the enterprise’s perception of the industry rules in the macro environment, prediction of industry technological changes, understanding of relevant policies, prediction of customer demand, and interaction with stakeholders. With the help of environmental insight, enterprises can go beyond the supply chain network and adopt a big-picture thinking mode to discuss the external factors that may affect the stability and development of the supply chain. These factors influence the stock and heterogeneity of resources within the supply chain [25,26]. For example, market changes may affect enterprises to choose to join or leave the supply chain network, thus inevitably affecting the already-built network structure and relational connection. Such a resource increase or disruption will affect enterprises’ subsequent resource activities, costs, and benefits. Therefore, environmental insight provides a perspective and reference for enterprises to cultivate views on dynamic resource changes.

Manufacturing enterprises face a lot of supply chain nodes, complex enterprise-enterprise relationships, and changeable competition conditions [27], so they should develop a supply chain network insight to identify and acquire potential resources in the supply chain, and transform resource advantages into performance advantages. However, the existing studies do not address how the supply chain network insight influences enterprise performance. To discuss this problem, research should deconstruct the definition and connotation of network insight in the manufacturing supply chain context and reveal the influence mechanism of network insight to provide new ideas and explanations for theoretically understanding how manufacturing enterprises improve enterprise performance in the supply chain environment. On this basis, this research discusses and investigates the influence path of supply chain network insight on enterprise performance.

2.2. Supply Chain Integration (SCI)

SCI refers to the ability of an enterprise to engage in negotiations with other supply chain partners in internal and external resources, technology, management, and other aspects to more efficiently gather resources, information, and capital of different enterprises in the supply chain to accomplish the purpose of maximizing the value of resources at a high rate but a low cost [28]. As an organizational capability, SCI is taken as a multidimensional concept consisting of two dimensions: Internal Integration (II) and External Integration (EI) [14,29,30]. II refers to the degree to which different functional departments within an enterprise coordinate processes, behaviors, and information via information sharing, common work, and joint decision-making [31]. II can guarantee timely communication within the organization, enhance the sharing ability of each functional department, break down internal barriers, and better gratify customer needs [32]. EI refers to the degree to which an enterprise can satisfy customer demands by coordinating with its major supply chain partners in strategy, behavior, and process [28], and EI mainly consists of supplier integration (SI) and customer integration (CI) [30]. SI requires a “state of collaboration” between buyers and suppliers [33], and the state of collaboration specifically refers to collaborative planning and management, and data and information sharing. Ayoub et al. [34] believe that SI includes the exchange of both intangible resources (such as knowledge) and tangible resources (logistics) in different directions. SI provides a way for enterprises to more effectively acquire suppliers’ resources (capabilities and knowledge) and helps enterprises gain sustainable competitive advantages, so it is considered a healthy development state of enterprises [35]. CI focuses on the enterprise-customer collaborative relationship, including collective decision-making, information sharing, and system coupling [4]. CI can help to lower transaction costs, monitoring costs, contract costs, search costs, and execution costs, thus reducing the net worth of the enterprise operation [36].

Existing studies have discussed the crucial role of supply chain integration in improving the efficiency of enterprise resource utilization. The current studies generally believe that supply chain integration is a core factor for enhancing the supply chain value, and provides important partner support for enterprises to manage internal resources and improve the overall efficiency of the supply chain [11,16,30]. Moreover, supply chain management can help enterprises to rationally arrange and utilize internal and external relationship resources, strengthen the willingness of information sharing, and improve the efficiency of product response to quickly gratify the dynamic demand of customers [37]. In particular, supply chain integration can simplify business processes, coordinate and integrate resources such as suppliers, manufacturing enterprises, internal enterprises, and customers, achieve a seamless connection of different codes, and reduce time and transaction costs [38]. In addition, supply chain integration can be used as a strategic resource capability. In strategic alliances, enterprises can integrate resources, achieve information resource sharing, and build seamless processes [39]. In summary, supply chain integration enables enterprises to strengthen their competitive advantages and enhance their operational performance through systematic integration, planning, and utilization of resources [30].

The existing studies have extensively discussed the influence of supply chain integration. However, they have not clearly determined whether supply chain integration is a mediating variable between network insight and enterprise performance, nor have they found out the boundary condition of supply chain integration influencing enterprise performance. This research aims to address the two problems mentioned above and further clarify the crucial role of supply chain integration.

3. Model Building and Hypotheses

Resources and capabilities are important prerequisites for enterprises to gain competitive advantages [40]. The value, rarity, uniqueness, and non-substitutability of these resources are important for enterprises. However, resources alone cannot ensure that an enterprise will have a prominent performance in a highly dynamic environment [41]. The resource orchestration theory (ROT) believes that enterprises should effectively organize, bundle, and manage resources to fully exploit the value of resources [42]. In practice, resource orchestration involves a comprehensive process covering links such as structuring resources (acquiring and gathering resources), bundling resources (integrating resources in some ways), and leveraging resources (coordinating and utilizing resources), so that enterprises can more effectively exploit business opportunities and gain competitive advantages. Resource orchestration is the combination of resources, capabilities, and managerial acumen that ultimately results in superior firm performance [43]. The challenging function of practicing effective resource orchestration is finding a proper channel or mechanism through which management could mobilize and structure resources [44]. We believe that supply chain integration is feasible for resource mobilization. ROT provides a theoretical basis for discussing the relationship between network insight, supply chain integration, and enterprise performance in this research [45]. With network insight, enterprises can efficiently identify and acquire resources from the supply chain environment, integrate internal and external resources in the supply chain to achieve precision management and collaborative utilization of the resources, and create enterprise values. From the perspective of ROT, this research attempts to build a “resource-capability-performance” model to investigate the relationship between supply chain network insight and enterprise performance and take supply chain integration as a mediating variable for the influence mechanism of supply chain network insight on enterprise performance. Network insight is classified into structural insight, relational insight, and environmental insight [10], while supply chain integration is classified into external integration and internal integration [30].

The Contingency Theory (CT) posits that firm performance is dependent on the fit between the structure and processes of a firm, and the environment [46]. Based on CT, external integration is expected to fit with a high EU [47]. As the change in the environment is unpredictable and uncontrollable, we should not avoid the influence of environmental uncertainty in discussing the influence of resource orchestration [48]. At a high level of environmental uncertainty, some original resources of the enterprise, such as products and technologies, are prone to abandonment by the market. The member enterprises in the whole supply chain should adjust the resource allocation and strategies to adapt to the external environment, and the enterprises should orchestrate high-quality resources constantly to acquire more stable resources to boost better the enhancement of enterprise performance and the continuity, stability, and development of the whole supply chain [49]. Therefore, we suggested that environmental uncertainty may be a moderator in the resource orchestration process on enterprise performance. On this basis, this research discusses the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty on the relationship between supply chain integration and enterprise performance and explores the boundary condition for supply chain integration to exert its influence. The research model is shown in Figure 1.

Network structural insight helps enterprises to identify and interpret the positions of different member enterprises in the supply chain network [8]. Network structural insight determines the number of resources a supply chain enterprise can acquire from the network, contributing to smooth enterprise production and operation [10]. Supply chain enterprises can build a network structural insight to accurately and comprehensively identify their supply chain member partners closely related to their business activities, cooperate with the partners, and thus enhance their enterprise performance [10].

Network relational insight helps enterprises to accurately identify the relationship between different entities affecting the business operation in the supply chain network. Cooperating with network member enterprises with a lower relational quality would restrain an enterprise from enhancing its performance [50]. Network relational insight can help supply chain enterprises to monitor the quality of their relationship with other enterprises, identify and eliminate the relationships hindering enterprise development and cooperation, and avoid performance losses [51,52].

Network environmental insight enables enterprises to respond timely to the changes in the internal and external environment of the supply chain network. Diversified market demands bring a series of competitive advantages. If an enterprise cannot timely identify and perceive changes in the external environment, it would restrain it from constantly enhancing its performance [53]. An enterprise must keenly perceive the dynamic changes in the external environment, give feedback and take some countermeasures against the changes, and on this basis, make rational behavioral decisions and far-sighted strategic layouts to minimize the negative influence of environmental changes [54], thereby continuously adding values for enterprise performance. Accordingly, the following hypothesis is developed.

Hypothesis 1 (H1).

Supply chain network insight (a) structural insight; (b) relational insight; (c) environmental insight positively influence enterprise performance.

Many supply chain node enterprises face resource shortages and difficulties acquiring required market resources [22]. As a carrier enriched with all kinds of resources, the supply chain network provides a material basis for supply chain enterprises to implement integration activities [2]. With network structural insight, an enterprise can take a panoramic view of the supply chain network structure, clearly identify its network position, precisely find out the core enterprises or enterprises with structural holes, and take some measures to build connections with the core enterprises or enterprises with structural holes, to become closer to the superior enterprises, thus creating possibilities for optimizing its integration of external resources [6,28]. Furthermore, the enterprise’s perception of the social network scope has a significant internal driving effect on implementing internal integration activities [55,56]. In the context of a supply chain network, sharpening the network structural insight capability can drive various departments within the enterprise to exchange and share key knowledge resources [8]. The acquisition of scarce resources also provides a new perspective for enterprises to re-plan and re-organize the residual value of existing resources and promote the efficient implementation of internal integration activities [57,58]. Accordingly, this research puts forward the following hypothesis.

Hypothesis 2 (H2).

Supply chain network structural insight positively influences supply chain integration (a) external integration; (b) internal integration.

Network relational insight can bring supply chain enterprises the relationship characteristics of other enterprises closely related to them, help the enterprises to identify high-quality relationship objects, and provide the enterprises with information such as the value of relationships within the supply chain network [8], facilitate the enterprises to acquire resources that can boost the improvement of their technological skills from the complex relationship network, and promote the building and maintenance of partnership [8,51]. When the internal resources of an enterprise are insufficient to satisfy the demand of its business activities, the enterprise re-examines the relationship between different member enterprises in the supply chain network. The network relationship is the key to the successful implementation of external integration, and it is an effective form of external integration to make non-market-oriented resource exchanges based on network relationships [59]. An enterprise must adopt internal integration to transform important value resources acquired from network relationships, especially the knowledge and technology resources of highly dependent partners into its core resources, because it is the only way to help the enterprise to develop its internal technological knowledge and other core capabilities [60]. On this basis, the following hypothesis is proposed.

Hypothesis 3 (H3).

Supply chain network relational insight positively influences supply chain integration (a. external integration; b: internal integration).

Network environmental insight enables enterprises to perceive the resource information beneficial to their interests and strategic development from the dynamic external environment. It drives managers of different member enterprises to achieve goal consistency, promoting the smooth implementation of external integration. Moreover, network environmental insight can help the enterprise to timely adapt to the changes in the external environment and accelerate the internal fit, thus weakening the work resistance [52], and boosting the continuous optimization of internal integration. Supply chain network environmental insight is a process by which enterprises analyze the dynamic environment changes in the supply chain network, perceive opportunities and threats, and create opportunities, and it can spur enterprise managers and participants to timely adjust their way of resource acquisition and integration [61]. Enterprises with great environmental insight can implement supply chain integration activities more smoothly. Enterprises with prominent environmental insight ability can analyze the external environment to gain insight into the future trend of the industry and technology development, and on this basis, formulate strategies early in line with their future development demand [39]. In essence, the enterprise strategy is to match the external environment of the supply chain network with the enterprise resources and formulate the optimal strategy. The key to creating the external integration strategy lies in whether enterprises can develop environmental insight to timely perceive external opportunities and threats as well as their strengths and weaknesses, and for enterprises select strategic resources beneficial to their future development in the supply chain network [57,62]. Moreover, the greater the environmental insight of an enterprise, the higher the consistency of its internal target perception, the recognition of its cultural values, and the complementarity between its resources and the resources of its partners [63]. Thus, greater environmental insight can boost the implementation of internal integration activities. Based on the above analysis, the following hypothesis is presented.

Hypothesis 4 (H4).

Supply chain network environmental insight positively influences supply chain integration (a) external integration; (b) internal integration.

It is essential to restructure and integrate the resources of supply chain enterprises to help enterprises develop and maintain their competitive advantages, thus promoting the enhancement of enterprise performance [64]. Supply chain integration is crucial in strengthening enterprises’ sustainable competitiveness. Existing studies have verified the positive influence of supply chain integration and enterprise performance. For example, Tarigan et al. [65] found that with the dynamic changes in the market environment, supply chain integration can improve the operational efficiency of enterprises to cope with the changes, thereby enhancing enterprise performance. Long and Chen [66] argued that supply chain integration could facilitate the exchange of information resources between enterprises, help the enterprises to strengthen their core competitiveness, and thus enhance their enterprise performance. An enterprise cannot directly transform its resources possessed but not integrated them into valuable resources to develop competitive advantages. Therefore, supply chain enterprises must effectively incorporate all kinds of resources, and constantly add value to their valuable resources to promote the increase in their enterprise benefits [67]. Internal integration is to allocate and reasonably combine the internal resources of an enterprise, while external integration is to flexibly integrate and gradually transform all kinds of external original heterogeneous resources to promote high-value flow among resources to maximize resource utilization and improve enterprise performance [68]. Therefore, this research puts forward the following hypotheses.

Hypothesis 5a (H5a).

External supply chain integration has a significantly positive influence on enterprise performance.

Hypothesis 5b (H5b).

Internal supply chain integration has a significantly positive influence on enterprise performance.

Environmental uncertainty describes the extent of the unpredictability of conditions in the organization’s environment [69]. Environmental uncertainty stems from a lack of access to sufficient information during decision-making and individuals’ inability to anticipate the future. High levels of uncertainty arise when the rationales and experiential bases of knowledge are inadequate [70]. Environmental uncertainty usually includes the uncertainty in measuring changing factors such as competitors, market environment, customers, technology, and industry, which can broaden the horizon of enterprises, provide more profound guidance for the supply chain integration and behavior decision-making of enterprises, spur enterprises to reform industry technology continuously, and constantly deepen knowledge [71]. In a highly uncertain environment, enterprises should urgently acquire new knowledge, information, and other resources to carry out supply chain integration activities, to maximize the value of their resources, thereby gaining new development opportunities [72]. When the environment is predictable and constant, acquiring resources is relatively stable, so that that external integration would be much easier. In other words, external integration positively enhances enterprise performance [73]. With high-level environmental uncertainty, external integration usually shows a low efficiency in integrating high-quality resources, which would pose difficulties in satisfying the widely different market demand, thus hindering enterprise performance improvement [74]. Internal integration can maximize resource utilization efficiency and improve enterprise performance by classifying and combining the internal resources of an enterprise. When the external environment Is relatively stable, enterprises will carry out internal integration activities to achieve a regular reconstruction and combination of their resources to continuously boost their enterprise performance [75]. With the gradual aggravation of environmental uncertainty, internal integration is negatively affected by various external resources, so the efficiency of internal resource integration would drop, and fail to satisfy the demand for internal resource integration, which would dampen the stable improvement of enterprise performance [76]. So, we put forward the following hypotheses.

Hypothesis 6a (H6a).

Environmental uncertainty negatively modifies the relationship between external integration and enterprise performance.

Hypothesis 6b (H6b).

Environmental uncertainty negatively modifies the relationship between internal integration and enterprise performance.

4. Methodology

4.1. Measurement of Constructs

In this questionnaire survey, all of the measurement items of the main constructs originated from the valid scales of the existing literature. However, given the actual situation of Chinese manufacturing enterprises in the supply chain, this research slightly adjusted some of the measurement items. The measurement scale of the supply chain network insight was built based on the research of [10]; the measurement scale of the mediating variable supply chain integration was constructed based on the measurement method of [30,77]; the measurement scale of the moderating variable environmental uncertainty was built based on the measurement scale of [78]; the measurement scale of enterprise performance was constructed based on the measurement of [11]. The Likert 5-point scale described the measurement items of all constructs, and the respondents were asked to fill in questionnaires according to the actual situation of their enterprises. Moreover, the heterogeneous attributes of enterprises may affect the relationship between variables, so the age, size, and industry category of enterprises are taken as control variables to weaken the potential impact on the research model. The number of employees approximately represents the enterprise size, and the number of establishment years is selected to represent the age of the enterprise.

4.2. Pilot Study

To ensure that the questionnaire is scientific, valid, and reliable, a small-sample survey was conducted before the large-scale survey. The feedback of the respondents in the small-sample survey was collected to revise some design defects, analyze the reliability and validity of the small-sample data, and eliminate inappropriate items. On this basis, the formal questionnaire was eventually developed. We selected manufacturing enterprises in some cities in East China as research objects, built connections with the management and technical personnel in line with the survey standards, distributed 100 questionnaires, and collected 85 valid questionnaires. To test whether the questionnaire has good reliability, Cronbach’s alpha (CA) was used to test the internal consistency of each variable. According to the test results, the CA values of all variables fell between 0.730 and 0.933, which were greater than 0.7. This indicates that all question items of the questionnaire have good reliability. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was adopted to evaluate the validity of the questionnaire. The KMO value of the small-sample questionnaire was 0.770, so the exploratory factor analysis was applicable. Moreover, the results showed that Bartlett’s spherical test was statistically significant (p < 0.001). The principal components analysis was selected to perform the EFA. The analysis results showed that the factor loadings of structural insight, relational insight, environmental insight, external integration, internal integration, environmental uncertainty, and enterprise performance were more significant than the standard 0.5, and no cross-loading phenomenon occurred. This indicates that each item of the questionnaire can be attributed to the main factor set before, and the questionnaire has good validity. In addition, seven principal factors had eigenvalues greater than 1, and they could explain 67.038% of the variance, greater than 50%, indicating a good explanation. That is to say, the seven factors selected have good representativeness. Thus, it can be seen that every variable is well characterized in this questionnaire. The final measurement scale were listed in the Appendix A.

4.3. Data Collection

The research samples were mainly manufacturing enterprises in coastal provinces of China, including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong provinces. We made field visits to distribute and collect paper questionnaires from local enterprises, and sent electronic questionnaires to enterprises in other regions via email and social media. The above two methods were used to complete the data-collecting work. The respondents of this questionnaire survey were mainly middle and senior managers in charge of supply chain management, procurement, production and processing, and other relevant departments. This group of personnel has a profound understanding or practical operation experience in the composition and operation of the enterprise supply chain as well as the enterprise’s supply chain strategy, so they are more suitable candidates for the research respondents, compared with ordinary personnel. The questionnaire was collected over a period of two months, and we finally collected 432 questionnaire samples (including 236 paper samples and 196 electronic samples). After questionnaire samples with regular answers and incomplete filling were eliminated, 405 valid samples were obtained. The descriptive statistics of the sample data are shown in

Table 1. Sample Characteristics (N = 405).

Category		Number	%
Gender	Male	225	55.6
	Female	180	44.4
Education	High School or Below	41	10.1
	Undergraduate Degree	251	62.0
	Master’s and Doctoral Degrees	105	25.9
	Others	8	2.0
Age	25 or younger	37	9.1
	26–35	198	48.9
	36–45	115	28.4
	46 or older	55	13.6
Position	Middle Management	301	74.3
	Top Management	104	25.7
Enterprise Size	Less than 100 people	47	11.6
	101–200 people	76	18.8
	201–500 people	128	31.6
	501–1000 people	61	15.1
	More than 1000 people	91	22.9
Years of Enterprise	Less than 5 years	43	10.6
	5–10 years	68	16.8
	11–15 years	159	39.3
	16–20 years	85	21.3
	More than 20 years	50	12.3
Industries	Auto industry	47	11.6
	Chemical/fossil industries	27	6.7
	Electronic and Electrical Industry	107	26.4
	Metal products processing industry	120	29.6
	Food, beverage/liquor industry	44	10.9
	Rubber/plastics industry	18	4.4
	Textile and clothing industry	33	8.1
	Others	9	2.2

. To reduce the potential non-response bias during the data collection, we regularly reminded the online subject to participate in the survey by email, and we also reminded the offline subject to fulfill all of the questions during their questionnaire filling period. Moreover, we also use the chi-square test to check the non-response bias. We compared the differences in demographic attributes between early and late responses. Results found no significant differences with respect to gender, age, education, and position, indicating no substantive non-response bias in this study.

5. Data Analysis and Results

Harman’s one-factor test was used to verify the common method variance from one single source. The test results showed that the variance explanation rate of the main factors was 18.29% (<50%), indicating that the one-single source variance would not fundamentally affect the reliability of the conclusion [79]. We also tested the VIF values, results indicated that all VIF values ranged from 1.010 to 1.421. All were far below 3.3 [80], indicating that multicollinearity was not an issue in these data.

5.1. Reliability and Validity Analysis

The reliability and validity of the data were tested. The contents of the questionnaire and the results of evaluation indexes are shown in

Table 2. Reliability and validity test results.

	CA	CR	AVE	SIN	RIN	EIN	EI	II	EU	EP
SIN	0.843	0.887	0.612	0.782
RIN	0.840	0.886	0.572	0.302	0.756
EIN	0.774	0.854	0.595	0.338	0.418	0.771
EI	0.833	0.875	0.540	0.382	0.559	0.581	0.735
II	0.778	0.849	0.531	0.287	0.374	0.430	0.664	0.729
EU	0.944	0.951	0.764	0.196	0.216	0.202	0.245	0.221	0.874
EP	0.765	0.842	0.516	0.324	0.536	0.530	0.610	0.534	0.214	0.718

Note: the bold numbers are the square root value of AVE values.

. The CA value and the combined reliability (CR) value of all constructs were more significant than 0.7. Moreover, the average variable extraction (AVE) was more significant than 0.5. SmartPLS calculated the discriminatory validity (shown in Table 2). The square root value of AVE of every construct was more significant than its correlation coefficient in other factor constructs, indicating that the data had good convergent and discriminatory validity [81]. Furthermore, HTMT was applied to verify the discriminatory validity again. The calculation results are shown in

Table 3. HTMT Testing Results.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
EP
SIN	0.389
RIN	0.670	0.358
II	0.689	0.343	0.464
EI	0.766	0.433	0.666	0.833
EU	0.099	0.048	0.053	0.060	0.056
EIN	0.684	0.413	0.529	0.545	0.714	0.049

. All of the HTMT values were less than 0.85, indicating a good discriminatory validity of the data [82].

5.2. Hypothesis Testing Results

In this research, SmartPLS 3.0 was used to verify the model. According to the hypothesis test results in Figure 2, 49.4% of enterprise performance, 47.7% of external integration, and 24.4% of internal integration were explained, indicating that the independent variables could well explain the mediating variable and the dependent variables.

Firstly, relational insight had the most significant influence (β = 0.250, p < 0.01) on enterprise performance, followed by environmental insight (β = 0.204, p < 0.01), while structural insight showed no significant influence on enterprise performance (β = 0.050, p > 0.1). Therefore, supply chain network insight (relational insight and environmental insight) positively influenced enterprise performance. So, hypotheses H1b and H1c were verified, while H1a was not.

Secondly, in terms of the impact of supply chain network insight on external integration, environmental insight had the most significant influence (β = 0.384, p < 0.01), followed by relational insight (β = 0.355, p < 0.01) and structural insight (β = 0.145, p < 0.01). That is to say, supply chain network insight (structural insight, relational insight, and environmental insight) positively influenced external integration, thus verifying hypotheses H2a, H3a, and H4a. In terms of the influence on internal integration, environmental insight had the most significant influence (β = 0.01, p < 0.01), followed by relational insight (β = 0.212, p < 0.01) and structural insight (β = 0.122, p < 0.05). Thus, it can be seen that supply chain network insight (structural insight, relational insight, and environmental insight) positively influenced internal integration, thereby supporting hypotheses H2b, H3b, and H4b. This demonstrates that supply chain network insight can bring rich resource information for supply chain integration activities, thus boosting the efficient implementation of supply chain integration activities.

Thirdly, bootstrapping was adopted to test the mediating effect of supply chain integration. The indirect effect of supply chain integration between structural insight and enterprise performance was 0.116 (p < 0.01). The indirect impact between relational insight and enterprise performance was 0.092 (p < 0.01). The indirect effect between environmental insight and enterprise performance was 0.122 (p < 0.01). The results were statically significant, and the mediating effect of supply chain integration was proved. The path coefficient between external integration and enterprise performance was 0.196 (t = 2.889, p < 0.01), and the path coefficient between internal integration and enterprise performance was 0.215 (t = 4.045, p < 0.01). After the mediating variable of supply chain integration was introduced into the model, the path coefficient between structural insight and enterprise performance changed from 0.101 (p < 0.1) to 0.050 (p > 0.1), indicating that supply chain integration produces a full mediating effect on the influence of structural insight on enterprise performance; the path coefficient between relational insight and enterprise performance changed from 0.361 (p < 0.01) to 0.250 (p > 0.01), and the path coefficient between environmental insight and enterprise performance changed from 0.346 (p < 0.01) to 0.204 (p > 0.01), indicating that supply chain integration has a partial mediating effect on the two paths. Therefore, hypotheses H5a and H5b were supported.

Lastly, environmental uncertainty negatively modifies the relationship between external integration and enterprise performance (β = −0.286, p < 0.01), which verifies Hypothesis H6a. With the aggravation of environmental variability and unpredictability, enterprises would be restrained from effectively implementing external resource integration activities. Environmental uncertainty showed no significant moderating effect on the relationship between internal integration and enterprise performance (β = 0.106, p > 0.1), so Hypothesis H6b was invalid. Environmental uncertainty had no moderating effect on the relationship between internal integration and enterprise performance, so internal resource integration of enterprises was not susceptible to the interference of the external dynamic environment. The moderating effect of environmental uncertainty is shown in Figure 3. A figure was drawn to show the negative moderating effect of environmental uncertainty on the relationship between external integration and enterprise performance. As the level of environmental uncertainty changes from low to high, the line gradually changes from steep to flat. This indicates that the relationship between external integration and performance gradually weakens along with the rise of the environmental uncertainty level, thereby proving the negative moderating effect of environmental uncertainty.

6. Discussion

6.1. Key Findings and Theoretical Contribution

Firstly, network relational insight and environmental insight positively influence enterprise performance, while network structural insight shows no significant influence on enterprise performance. This is perhaps because an enterprise cannot improve enterprise performance by directly using its supply chain network-related information, such as the network location and structure building, but should integrate the information, such as the network location, to indirectly boost the improvement of its enterprise performance. In addition, supply chain network insight positively influences supply chain integration. With supply chain network insight, manufacturing enterprises can acquire desired resources to run business smoothly. Internally, network insight can provide valuable resources to various departments within the enterprise and spur the implementation of internal resource integration. Externally, network insight can provide low-cost and convenient communication channels for node enterprises in the supply chain network, facilitating intimate cooperation among the network member enterprises and promoting the node enterprises’ external integration activities. Based on [10], this research has a theoretical contribution in introducing the variable of network insight into supply chain network research and clearly figuring out the mechanism of how each dimension of network insight affects the relationship between supply chain integration and enterprise performance to provide a new perspective and path for supply chain management and performance improvement of enterprises in the network environment from the perspective of network insight.

Secondly, supply chain integration fully mediates the influence path of structural insight on enterprise performance. Still, it partially mediates the influence paths of relational insight and environmental insight on enterprise performance. That is to say, relational insight and structural insight can directly enhance enterprise performance and indirectly affect enterprise performance via the mediating effect of supply chain integration. Structural insight can indirectly enhance enterprise performance after reconstructing and integrating the heterogeneous resources acquired from structural insight. After gaining resources from the diverse and closely connected supply chain network, supply chain enterprises should optimize and integrate the resources to maximize resource utilization [41,83]. This research has another theoretical contribution in revealing the mediating effect mechanism for the influence of supply chain network insight on improving enterprise performance: the mediating effect of supply chain integration. In previous studies on the influence of supply chain network insight on enterprise performance, studies also confirmed the collaboration and integration of the supply chain will enhance the values [84], however, most scholars just discussed the direct causal relationship between supply chain network insight and enterprise performance; still, they ignored the effect of mediating variables [85]. This study analyzes the mechanism of how supply chain enterprises transform supply chain network resources into enterprise performance, and expands the theoretical research scope of the supply chain network. Moreover, this research tests the supply chain integration model and deepens supply chain management theories.

Lastly, environmental uncertainty negatively moderates the influence path between external integration and enterprise performance. Still, it shows no significant moderating effect on the influence path between internal integration and enterprise performance. Environmental uncertainty negatively moderates the relationship between external integration and enterprise performance. Thus, it can be seen that the higher the environmental variability and unpredictability, the more significant the hindrance to restraining enterprises from efficiently implementing external resource integration activities. In particular, the external environment brings opportunities to all types and sizes of enterprises [86], at the same, it also contains uncertainty bringing risks into the supply chain [87]. Environmental uncertainty does not significantly affect moderating the influence path between internal integration and enterprise performance, perhaps because various departments within the enterprise are insensitive to environmental changes and unsusceptible to the interference of the external dynamic environment. This research further analyzes the differences in the influence mechanism of different kinds of supply chain integration. It reveals the boundary condition for environmental uncertainty affecting the relationship between external integration and enterprise performance, eventually enriching knowledge in the supply chain integration literature.

6.2. Practical Implications

Firstly, supply chain network insight is an important way for enterprises to acquire valuable resources, and enterprises should highly value and continuously strengthen supply chain network insight. By enhancing its structural insight, an enterprise can acquire precise information about its network position and the network positions of its main partners, clearly identify the core network position, and actively communicate and cooperate with the central position enterprises. By strengthening its relational insight, an enterprise can effectively communicate with other network member enterprises with consistent goals, similar corporate culture, and rich complementary resources to achieve the co-construction and sharing of resources and information. By sharpening its environmental insight, an enterprise can profoundly exploit the network environment, analyze the market development trend and business development opportunities, predict potential risks and threats, and constantly create opportunities amid the crisis. For example, the marketing department within the enterprise can try to timely capture favorable opportunities through the insight of the supply chain environment, or the senior decision-making leadership team can also use relationship insight and structural insight to understand the position of the enterprise itself in the supply chain network, so as to provide strategic guidance for the subsequent adjustment of the enterprise’s self-positioning, the discovery of key core enterprises and the formation of cooperative relations with them.

Secondly, supply chain integration positively mediates the relationship path between network insight and enterprise performance. Therefore, after acquiring external resources, enterprises should actively follow up on the implementation of integration activities and pay great attention to the continuous cultivation of network insight capabilities. Inside of the enterprises, we suggested that enterprises should continue to deepen the tacit understanding and information sharing among various departments, strengthen communication and cooperation, constantly hone their internal integration capability, improve product quality and creativity, and thus develop market competitiveness and win a profit margin. Outside of the enterprise, we also suggested that enterprises should continuously improve the integration ability of external suppliers and customers and the satisfaction and loyalty of suppliers and customers for transforming the various resources obtained from the outside into high-quality resources for the enterprise to improve its performance, ensuring stable performance growth.

Furthermore, supply chain network insight and integration are important strategies for enterprises. Enterprises should profoundly recognize the importance of combining network insight and supply chain integration, and constantly optimize and strengthen the complementarity and fit between the two strategies. Enterprise managers should actively build supply chain network channels, acquire high-quality resources from the channels, comprehensively communicate and cooperate with upstream and downstream node enterprises, and actively share high-quality resources with partners to jointly resist competitors and potential risks. It is an effective means for enterprises to timely learn about the ever-changing supply and demand data and the latest development trend and comprehensively apply the network insight capability and the resource integration strategy to enhance enterprise performance.

Lastly, enterprises should be susceptible to the changes in the external environment, timely know about the change rules, and guard against the potential negative influence of the changes, including the negative impact on the improvement of enterprise performance and the implementation of external integration activities. Enterprises should bravely face the uncertainty of the external environment instead of showing fear. They should take adequate measures to cope with the uncertainty, such as top management or supply chain managers actively improving the information-sharing mechanism between supply chain members, making timely interactions to strengthen mutual trust and collaboration, and working together to guard against the adverse effects of uncertainty.

6.3. Limitations and Future Study

This research also has limitations, which require further discussions in the future. First of all, static data is used for empirical tests in this research. In subsequent research, time-based comparisons can be made to discuss the dynamic change in each variable to enrich the research findings. Moreover, this research does not discuss the mechanism of lowering environmental uncertainty. It could become an important way for enterprises to build network insight to reduce environmental uncertainty. Structural insight can help recognize the strengths and weaknesses of an enterprise’s network, providing support to strengthen the enterprise network. Relational insight can help an enterprise to build favorable cooperative relationships and enhance mutual trust and assistance between member enterprises. Environmental insight can cultivate the enterprise’s ability for environmental recognition and rapid response. Structural insight, relational insight, and environmental insight can jointly create a good atmosphere of collaboration among the supply chain member enterprises. This atmosphere enables enterprises to timely respond to sudden changes in the external environment through information collaboration and sharing, risk sharing, and other ways. In future research, we can go deeper into this topic.