Moreover, collaborative integration between internal and external supply chain participants focuses on better aligning supply chain participants’ incentives and reward systems (Fawcett et al., 2008; Narayanan and Raman, 2004) to reduce duplication and non-value creating activities. The ability to leverage information technology and process innovation to speed up the supply chain, reduce system-wide inventory and resource utilization (Hult et al., 2002) and sustain cashflow (Farris and Hutchison, 2002, 2003) is also well recognized in the literature as a significant source of competitive advantage.