Although these findings may appear somewhat inconclusive, the probability ( p-value) of obtaining the same positive result over ten consecutive years (under the null hypothesis of no difference) is 1/1024, or less than 0.001. Therefore, the results of these tests conducted over a ten-year period indicate that a relationship potentially exists between SCM competency and customer satisfaction. The study findings also provide support for H2 that proposes top SCM performer firms create higher levels of shareholder value than their respective industry averages. As shown in Table IV, the tests for equality of paired means indicate that the top SCM performer firms have higher EVAM5YABT scores than their industry averages for each of
the four years from 2006-2009. For three of the four years,the mean EVAM5YABT scores are significantly higher than
the mean industry EVAM5YABT scores (p , 0:01: 2006 and p , 0:05: 2008 and 2009). For the remaining year (2007), the
mean EVAM5YABT scores for the top SCM performer firms is higher than the industry average, but not significantly so.
Collectively, the results of the tests of H1 and H2 indicate the potential existence of relationships between SCM and the two
dependent variables by supporting our predictions that firms recognized by industry experts and peers for SCM
competency demonstrate higher levels of customer satisfaction and shareholder value than their respective
industry averages. However, further research is required to prove the existence of causality between these variables.