Fostering Internet-enabled Supply Chain Integration (IeSCI) has been widely regarded as a
critical factor for firm success. However, although the benefits of IeSCI have been widely
proposed theoretically, the fact is that IeSCI is still seemingly rare in the real world, and
many firms engaged in it have not reaped the expected performance benefits. Meanwhile,
there is a great lack of systematic theoretical and empirical understanding of the antecedents
which can drive firms to engage in IeSCI, and of how such integration helps firms improve
performance. This study aims to derive a syncretic model to explain the underlying
mechanisms of the process of IeSCI development and the influences of IeSCI on firm
performance.
Drawing upon existing literature and the process perspective, this study conceptualizes IeSCI
into four integration degrees: online information integration, online planning synchronization,
online operational coordination, and strategic partnership. Furthermore, based on the lens of
the diffusion of innovation theory, institutional theory, and dynamic capability theory, the
study identifies three groups of factors related to firms’ motivation, opportunity, and ability
as prominent antecedents of the overall intensity and the four degrees of IeSCI with the
Motivation-Opportunity-Ability (MOA) paradigm. Specifically, the study hypothesizes how
efficiency motive, exploration motive, agility motive, complementarities motive, partner
power, partner digitization, competition intensity, IT capabilities, and absorptive capacity
influence IeSCI, and how the overall intensity and the four degrees of IeSCI separately
impact firm operational, customer service, and business performance.
Using data from 277 firms in China, the study finds that all identified antecedents, except
exploration motive, significantly drive the overall intensity of IeSCI. The study also shows
that the influences of the antecedents vary across the four degrees of integration: (1) for
online information integration, the key antecedents are efficiency motive, complementarities
motive, partner power, partner digitization, absorptive capacity, and IT capabilities; (2) for
online planning synchronization, the critical antecedents are all factors related to opportunity
and ability. No motives have significant impacts; (3) for online operational coordination, the
important antecedents are agility motive, partner promotion, partner digitization, absorptive
capacity, and IT capabilities. Noteworthy is that the impact of the exploration motive on
online operational coordination is negative; (4) for strategic partnerships, only agility motive,
partner promotion, competition intensity, and absorptive capacity act as significant
antecedents.
The research also finds that the overall intensity of IeSCI significantly improves firm
operational, customer service, and business performance. The results indicate that these four
degrees of integration play different roles in improving firm performance. Specifically, online
information integration only improves customer service, and online planning synchronization
only impacts business performance. Comparably, online operational coordination and
strategic partnership improves all three aspects of performance. Implications and suggestions
for future research are provided.
| Date of Award | 17 Feb 2010 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Awarding Institution | - City University of Hong Kong
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| Supervisor | Kwok Kee WEI (Supervisor) |
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