Developing a model for supply chain agility and innovativeness to enhance firms’ competitive advantage

Abstract

Purpose Developing agility and innovativeness as dynamic capabilities are important for firms to sustain their competitive advantage in today’s global economy. The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a framework to investigate how the supply chain agility and innovativeness are achieved through IT integration and trust in members of supply chain and how these, in turn, can enhance firms’ competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach This research employs a survey method and data are collected from senior managers working in the supply chain or IT area. The model and hypotheses are tested utilizing data from 204 usable Taiwan manufacturing firms via structural equations modeling methodology. Findings The study demonstrates that both IT integration and trust in supply chain members significantly enhance supply chain agility and innovativeness, which in turn positively affect firm’s competitive advantage. The results indicate that IT integration and trust are antecedents and major joint partnership resources for improving supply chain agility and innovativeness. Research limitations/implications Data are collected from manufacturing industry in Taiwan and single respondent from each firm, the generalizability of current findings to other industries or countries should require additional investigation. Practical implications The study suggests that a firm should focus on IT integration and trust in supply chain members to achieve supply chain agility and innovativeness. To take advantage of supply chain agility and innovativeness, through maximizing firm’s competitive advantage, firms should continually adapt to the fast changing business environment and search for creative ways to satisfy new market needs. Originality/value Given the attention paid to supply chain agility and innovativeness in terms of importance to responding to business uncertainty and competitiveness, and more recently, as important capabilities in managing supply chain management, this paper investigates how IT integration and trust can contribute to supply chain agility and innovativeness. Provide evidence regarding the impact of IT integration and trust on agility of supply chains, innovativeness and competitive advantage.

Organizational agility: ill-defined and somewhat confusing? A systematic literature review and conceptualization

“…The systematic analysis of the literature reveals a shift in the research focus over time. While in earlier times agility as a whole was considered in the enterprise (Gunasekaran 1998(Gunasekaran , 1999Sharifi and Zhang 1999;Yusuf et al 1999;Zhang and Sharifi 2000), in the recent past, the research focus has been more on specific forms of agility, such as workforce agility (Alavi et al 2014;Qin and Nembhard 2010;Sumukadas and Sawhney 2004;Van Oyen et al 2001), supply chain agility (Chen 2019;Eckstein et al 2015;Naim and Gosling 2011), information systems agility (Lyytinen and Rose 2006;Rabah et al 2015), and strategic agility (Doz and Kosonen 2011;Fourné et al 2014;Lewis et al 2014;Morton et al 2018;Shin et al 2015;Weber and Tarba 2014). However, the research fails to consider how the various forms of agility in the enterprise then work together to increase the overall agility level of the organization.…”

The role of business analytics capabilities in bolstering firms’ agility and performance

“…To deal with turbulence and uncertainty, organizations require agility in their supply chains to provide superior value and to ensure uninterrupted service to customers (Chen, 2018). The issue of environmental turbulence has been divided into two main categories: technological turbulence and market turbulence (Slater & Narver, 1994).…”

Investigating the Strategies for Supply Chain Agility and Competitiveness

“…Customer sensitivity and network integration are about detecting market changes (Christopher, 2000;van Hoek et al, 2001). Firms detect market changes in real time, and they become sensitive to such changes (Chen, 2018;Yang, 2014). Information integration enabled through ICT furnishes real time access to information (Kim & Chai, 2017).…”

“…Additionally, integration of functional areas within the firm and with supply chain partners are key attributes of agility (Braunscheidel & Suresh, 2009). The process integration can be accomplished through cooperation and coordination with supply chain partners (Chen, 2018;Christopher, 2000;Yusuf et al, 2014). Learning also plays a significant role in integration since past experience is influential in deciding how to integrate processes with evolving opportunities and threats (Braunscheidel & Suresh, 2009).…”

“…Research (Carvalho, Azevedo, & Cruz-Machado, 2012;Chen, 2018;Wu, Tseng, Chiu, & Lim, 2017;Yusuf et al, 2014) has highlighted the Investigating the Strategies for Supply Chain Agility and Competitiveness significance of agile supply chains for competitiveness. The capability of a firm to be responsive and versatile in adjusting its supply chain to rapid market changes is important.…”