The impacts of supply chain management systems on information sharing and integrated-performance

As the business environment rapidly changes, closer connected activities have been involved in the buyer–supplier relationship. Among the four aspects of supply chain integration (cash flow, material flow, product flow and information flow), the integration of information flow is the most critical element in enabling coordinating activities and supply chain alliances. Yet, there are unanswered questions regarding the extent to which information exchanged is effective in the supply chain alliance. In this study, we adopted the ‘contingency theory’ as the theoretical foundation, and interviewed eight selected firms to investigate the impact of supply chain partners among organizations on information sharing quality, and the impact of inter-organizational information sharing quality on the supply chain integrated-performance. The results show that (1) supply chain partners within and between groups have a positive impact on inter-organizational information sharing quality, (2) inter-organizational information sharing quality has a positive impact on the supply chain integrated performance, and (3) information sharing quality should be multi-dimensional. We believe that the successful implementation of SCM systems among firms will produce significant synergy and be associated with the competitive advantages. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.