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.