Title: Information technology and the supply chain integration: a business executives' context

Authors: José Luís Martinho; Carlos F. Gomes; Mahmoud M. Yasin

Addresses: ISEC, School of Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, Rua Pedro Nunes, Quinta da Nora, 3030-199 Coimbra, Portugal ' Faculty of Economics, ISR-Institute of Systems and Robotics, University of Coimbra, Av. Dias da Silva 165, 3004-512 Coimbra, Portugal ' Department of Management and Marketing, East Tennessee State University, P.O. Box 70625, Johnson City, TN 7614, Tennessee, USA

Abstract: Despite the abundance of research dealing with the impact of supply chain management on today's organisations, such research tended to emphasise discreet relationships. A cross-sectional sample of Portuguese organisations is used to test several hypotheses pertaining to organisational resources, competencies, different levels of supply chain integration and organisational performance. Based on the findings, the impact of information technology infrastructure flexibility exhibited mixed results on the constructs studied. Executive information technology competencies tended to positively influence the different types of supply chain integration. Internal integration was found to have a direct influence on organisational performance. Such internal integration is being encouraged by external entities including customers and suppliers. In this context, more integration might lead to more effective organisational performance. Therefore, it is concluded that organisations should integrate their resources, processes and in the process encourage effective utilisation of information.

Keywords: information technology; organisational performance; flexibility; IT competencies of business executives; supply chain integration; SCI.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2019.098243

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2019 Vol.30 No.3, pp.277 - 299

Received: 14 Sep 2016
Accepted: 24 Jun 2017
Published online: 07 Mar 2019 *

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