Kotzab et al. (2005) have associated the integration practices in SCM with partnership among or across the trading partners. Partnership can be divided into three stages, which are starting from cooperation, to coordination and lastly is collaboration (Kotzab et al., 2005). In cooperation stage, firms exchange the information and engage some
suppliers into a long-term contract. Next, in coordination stage, the trading partners exchange the specified materials and information to create the seamless connection among them. Finally, during collaboration stage, all the supply chain
trading partners become integrated into their suppliers’ or customers’ processes. The integration flow here requires a high level of trust and information sharing among the trading partners.