Accordingly, findings from Table 3 also
indicates that firms that integrate their SC
practices mainly with their customers (Level 2,
mean=3.856) tend to enjoy a higher growth in nonfinancial
aspects of business operations
compared to their counterparts whom integrate
their business processes within the company
(Level 1, 3.388). Furthermore, firms that are
internally integrating their business processes
enjoy a better growth in financial areas in contrast
to firms that pursue external integration practices
(Level 2, 3 and 4). This is because, with lower
level of integration (Level 1) which focuses on
the automation of some business transactions
across internal departments, these firms would
significantly enjoy drop in operational costs or
improvement in operating profit (Kaplan and
Norton, 2001).