OGBONNA Chibuzo O.
Department of Marketing, faculty of Administration and Management
Rivers State University Port Harcourt
NWULU Chinyere Stella
Department of Marketing, faculty of Administration and Management
Rivers State University Port Harcourt
Abstract
This study investigated the relationship between integrated supply chain effort and marketing competitiveness of downstream oil and gas companies in Nigeria. Integrated supply chain effort was used as the explanatory variable and was proxied by supplier integration and customer integration. Marketing Competitiveness was the explained variable, and was measured with brand awareness and cost reduction.
The study adopted the survey research design. The population for the study was 27 major petroleum product marketers, as listed by NNPC as of December 2022. The entire universe was surveyed. However, five copies of the research instrument was administered on each of the 27 companies, thus the total number of respondents for the study was one hundred and thirty-five (135). However, data generated from one hundred and eighteen (118) respondents was found useful. The Spearman rank order correlation was used to test the hypotheses. The findings revealed that integrated supply chain effort (supplier integration and customer integration) had significant relationship with marketing competitiveness (brand awareness and cost reduction). The study therefore conclude that integrated supply chain effort has significant relationship with marketing competitiveness; and recommends that management of downstream oil and gas firms should make integrated supply chain effort in terms of (supplier integration and customer integration) if they seek to achieve improved marketing competitiveness (brand awareness and cost reduction).
Keywords: Customer integration, integrated supply chain efforts, marketing competitiveness, supplier integration.