No abstract

Drawing upon organizational culture and institutional theory, this study investigates how institutional pressures motivate the firm to adopt Internet‐enabled Supply Chain Management systems (eSCM) and how such effects are moderated by organizational culture. The results of a survey of 131 firms suggest that the dimensions of institutional pressures (i.e., normative, mimetic, and coercive pressures) have differential effects on eSCM adoption intention. While mimetic pressures are not related to eSCM adoption intention, normative and coercive pressures are positively associated with eSCM adoption intention. In addition, organizational culture (i.e., flexibility orientation and control orientation) plays different roles in the relationships between these three dimensions of institutional pressures and eSCM adoption intention. While flexibility orientation negatively moderates the effects of coercive pressures and positively moderates the effects of mimetic pressures, control orientation positively moderates the effects of coercive and normative pressures and negatively moderates the effects of mimetic pressures. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided.

Research indicates that deploying appropriate information technology (IT) competency in a manner that fits the supply chain integration (SCI) of a firm induces superior firm performance; however, our understanding of how to empirically conceptualize and assess the performance effect of the fit remains limited. Drawing upon resource orchestration theory and the literature on fit assessment methodologies, our study employs both a contingency and a configuration perspective to conceptualize and operationalize “fit.” The results of a survey of 196 firms in China provide the first empirical evidence for the existence and nature of interrelationships between multiple components of SCI and IT competency and their effects on firm performance. In particular, fit as “moderation” approach indicates that IT competency could strengthen the relationship between SCI and both operational and financial performance. Fit as “profile deviation” approach further reveals that the more similar the IT competency configurations are to those of the top performers in the high‐level SCI group, the higher their operational and financial performance are. However, in the medium‐ and low‐level SCI groups, the SCI‐IT competency fit is significantly positively associated with financial performance and insignificantly associated with operational performance. The theoretical contributions and managerial implications of the study are discussed.

Abstract