Understanding the link between IS capabilities and cost performance in services: the mediating role of supplier integration

Effect of integration capabilities with channel distributors on supply chain agility in emerging markets: an institution-based view perspective

Purpose

With emerging markets representing great growth opportunities and serving as indispensable components in the global supply chain, it is unclear how well modern supply chain management theories developed in advanced markets apply to emerging markets. This study integrates the institution-based view with supply chain management literature to examine how integration capabilities can be leveraged to achieve supply chain agility in emerging markets and how the efficacy of integration capabilities is shaped by internal and external institutional contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

This study examines how firms in emerging markets can leverage their platform integration and knowledge integration capabilities with channel distributors to improve the supply chain agility and how such relationships are shaped by both the internal (proxy by ownership structure) and external (proxy by regional openness) institutional contexts in which firms operate. Survey and archival data collected from 207 firms operating in China, one of the largest emerging markets, were used to test the proposed research model.

Findings

The results reveal that platform integration and knowledge integration are two driving forces for supply chain agility in the emerging markets. Moreover, the results indicate that state-owned firms are able to achieve higher supply chain agility from their investments in knowledge integration with channel distributors than non-state-owned firms. While firms in regions with a high level of openness enjoy higher supply chain agility from knowledge integration, firms in regions with a low level of openness can catch up by investing in platform integration with their channel distributors.

Originality/value

The authors extend the extant study on supply chain integration (SCI) research to examine how operational and strategic integration with channel distributors can help the focal firm achieve supply chain agility in emerging markets. The study results also enrich the existing studies in emerging markets by revealing the importance of the institutional context in which firms operate on B2B channel management.

Examining how and when digital platform capabilities drive technological innovation: a strategic information perspective

Purpose

This study aims to examine how and when digital platform capabilities drive technological innovation from a strategic information perspective, regarding information flow and information quality as mediators and business intelligence analytics as a moderator.

Design/methodology/approach

This study engaged corporate executives in surveys and obtained 182 firm data and then tested the hypotheses using linear regression models and the robustness using the structural equation model.

Findings

Digital platform capabilities drive corporate technological innovation through access to strategic information, i.e. strategic information mediates between digital platform capabilities and technological innovation. Business intelligence analytics increases the influence of strategic information on technological innovation.

Practical implications

This study underlines the importance for companies to construct digital platform capabilities to access strategic information to achieve technological innovation and the role of business intelligence analytics in processing strategic information.

Originality/value

This study finds a new perspective, strategic information, to explain the mechanisms by which digital platform capabilities drive firms’ technological innovation. In addition, the robustness of the resource-based view in understanding digital platform capabilities is stressed.

Understanding the relationship between IT capabilities and operational agility: a multi-method approach

Purpose

The system of information technology (IT)-oriented resources and processes that organizations need to develop to achieve operational agility remains unclear. The study research seeks to extend existing competency literature by incorporating the unique contextual nuances of the relationship between IT capabilities and operational agility.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a multi-method approach, this paper presents a theoretical framework of IT-enabled operations strategy that conceptualizes the role of IT capability in leveraging resources and processes for operational agility. Drawing on operations and information systems research, the authors advance that IT enables operational agility through two dimensions. From the perspective of a resource-based operations strategy, the authors explore the role of IT in resource-leveraging activities by investigating the nonlinear relationship between IT infrastructure and IT reconfiguration. From the perspective of a process-oriented operations strategy, the authors explore the role of IT in process-enhancing activities by investigating the nonlinear relationship between IT coordination and IT integration.

Findings

The study results, based on a sample of 113 organizations in Europe, Asia and North America, show that the interaction between IT infrastructure and IT reconfiguration positively influences operational agility, hence showing complementarity between the two constructs, while the interaction between IT coordination and IT integration negatively affects operational agility, hence indicating substitutability between the two constructs. A series of 62 interviews and a case study of Carrefour were further conducted to validate the field survey's results and to provide a finer grained explanation of the research model and quantitative findings.

Originality/value

The study findings offer an alternative explanation of the inconsistent relationship between IT capability and operational agility.