Information exchange in a supply chain: An empirical investigation

Entering the 21st century, organizations must consider the issues of increased competition, rising customer expectations and the demand for increased product variety to remain competitive. Other issues a firm must account for include decreased profit margins and stricter governmental controls like tariffs. To handle these pressures organizations are forced to consider the impact of operational decisions on not only their immediate company but also all members of their supply chain. The competition of the future will not be organization to organization, but rather supply chain to supply chain. Since the invention of Just-in-Time, supply chain partners have used information technology tools such as electronic data interchange (EDI) to exchange key pieces of information across companies. However, the success of these practices have been mixed, some firms have found remarkable success while others very little or no success. Many reasons exist that limit the success of these systems; two primary reasons are the cost prohibitive nature of EDI systems and failure of companies to modify their processes. This dissertation explores the impact of information technology and reengineering practices on supply chain performance. The results of the study indicate that successful supply chain reengineering efforts will positively impact supply chain performance. Supply chains that use either EDI or Internet systems to share data will achieve higher levels of performance when reengineering the supply chain. In addition, there are several organizational enablers that impact the overall success of the supply chain reengineering effort. Top management support, centralized decision making, positive organizational culture, resource management and human resource enablers were positively associated with successful supply chain reengineering efforts while resistance was negatively associated with successful supply chain reengineering efforts