IS capabilities, supply chain collaboration and quality performance in services: the moderating effect of environmental dynamism
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-08-2021-0496 |
| Published date | 19 May 2022 |
| Date | 19 May 2022 |
| Pages | 1592-1619 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
| Author | Teng Teng,Christos Tsinopoulos,Ying Kei Tse |
IS capabilities, supply chain
collaboration and quality
performance in services:
the moderating effect of
environmental dynamism
Teng Teng
Faculty of Business and Law, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, UK
Christos Tsinopoulos
Durham University Business School, Durham University, Durham, UK, and
Ying Kei Tse
Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK and
York Cross-Disciplinary Centre for Systems Analysis, University of York, York, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to explore the effects that information systems (IS) capabilities can
have on supplier collaboration and customer collaboration and on quality performance in service contexts. In
addition, the study examines how supply chain collaboration influences quality performance under various
levels of environmental dynamism.
Design/methodology/approach –The conceptual model for this study is designed on the basis of the
resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities view (DCV). A survey of 156 UK service firms was
conducted and the data analyzed to test theoretical model using the structural equation modeling method.
Furthermore, the moderating effect of environmental dynamism was investigated.
Findings –The results show that IS capabilities are positively associated with supply chain collaboration.
Both supplier collaboration and customer collaboration are positively related to quality performance. Supplier
collaboration has a positive effect on customer collaboration. Environmental dynamism significantly
moderates the relationship between customer collaboration and quality performance, but no moderating effect
on the relationship between supplier collaboration and quality performance.
Originality/value –This study takes a step toward quelling concerns about the business value of IS,
contributing to the development and validation of the measurement of IS capabilities in the service supply
chain context. The study deepens our understanding of supply chain collaboration by making a distinction
between supplier collaboration and customer collaboration and investigating the correlation of supplier
collaboration and customer collaboration. The findings extend the empirical application of RBV and DCV. In
addition, this study’s findings direct service firms to develop IS capabilities that can enhance specific kinds of
supply chain collaboration activities, thereby enabling improved quality performance.
Keywords IS capabilities, Service supply chain, Supplier collaboration, Customer collaboration,
Quality performance, Environmental dynamism
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In today’s hypercompetitive marker environment, firms are competing as part of a supply
chain,against other supply chains,to better respond to market changes(Wu et al.,2014;Li et al.,
2019). Given the nature of interdependencebetween supply chain members, collaboration is a
necessary requirement for integrating operations in order to achieve the mutual goals of all
IMDS
122,7
1592
The authors are thankful to the Editor and two anonymous reviewers for their supportive comments and
suggestions.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0263-5577.htm
Received 16 August 2021
Revised 16 March 2022
Accepted 27 April 2022
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 122 No. 7, 2022
pp. 1592-1619
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-08-2021-0496
entities in a supply chain(Jayaram et al., 2011). Successfulcollaboration with external parties,
suppliers and customers, is critical for service firms to maintain or strengthen their
competitiveness by offering superior service to customers (Heirati et al.,2016). Supply
chain collaboration is one of thekey capabilities that enablefirms to leverage their resourcesto
create a seamlessand synchronized supply chain (Flynnet al.,2010;Liu et al., 2015). Although
firms perceive supply chain collaboration as integral to their strategy and make huge
investments in creating and sustaining effective supply chain collaboration (Chen et al., 2017),
many of them failto capitalizedon its potential (Zhang and Cao,2018). Therefore, it is crucial to
understand the key drivers of supply chain collaboration and implement them efficiently (Li
et al.,2019;Cui et al.,2022).
Information technology (IT) has been argued as a major driver of supply chain
management (SCM) as supply chain partners have become increasingly integrated via IT
(Huo et al., 2015). This is because IT can facilitate the collaboration of inter-firm processes and
span the whole supply chain, including both supply-side and demand-side operations
(Asamoah et al., 2021). From the resource-based view (RBV) (Barney, 1991), IT resources by
themselves are not sufficiently “unique”and thus it would be more useful and theoretically
relevant to focus on IT/IS capabilities as performance differentials (Yu et al., 2017). Despite the
emerging evidence of the contributing role of IT/IS capabilities on SCM, the empirical studies
in this field predominantly operationalized the constructs of IT/IS capability as the use of IT,
or as single or formative constructs (refer to Table A1 for a review of this body of literature),
which has resulted in a relatively limited understanding of the influence of IS capabilities on
SCM and operational performance. Many studies have focused on the use of specific types of
technologies, for example, integrative information technologies (Vickery et al., 2003,2010;
So and Sun, 2011;Kim, 2017), or the patterns of IT use (Subramani, 2004;Sanders, 2008;Jiang
et al., 2020). While other studies have operationalized IT as highly aggregated concepts, such
as IT capability (Sanders and Premus, 2005;Peng et al., 2016), IT use/implementation (Xu
et al., 2014;Prajogo et al., 2018;Yu et al., 2021), or IT investments (Devaraj et al., 2013).
Although a few studies have considered IT as a formative construct consisting of different
sub-constructs (Rai et al., 2006;Asamoah et al., 2021), their tests cannot disentangle the
individual role of each IT capability in enhancing SCM. Consequently, these studies
investigating the relationships between IT/IS capabilities, SCM and operational performance
are yet to empirically test the influence of different dimensions of IT/IS capabilities on SCM.
Supply chain collaboration requires joint work between the supply chain members, to
achieve desirable performance outcomes (Jayaram et al., 2011). For instance, supplier
collaboration is critical given that firms increasingly rely on their supplier to obtain
competitive advantages (Wang et al., 2016) and suppliers have a great impact on cost, quality,
speed and responsiveness of firms (Yu et al., 2021). Similarly, customer collaboration ensures
that the voice of the customer is embedded in the product development effort (Huo et al., 2015)
and boosts a firm’s product flexibility and quality performance (Ganbold et al., 2020). Despite
this increasing interest, there are some significant gaps in the research on supply chain
collaboration in the service sector. First, the context of most relevant studies in operations
management (OM) and SCM remains in manufacturing settings (refer to Table A2 for a
review of this body of literature). Research on supply chain collaboration and supply chain
integration (SCI) in the service sector is highly limited, with only a few studies available on
conceptual definitions and/or measurement scales (Aitken et al., 2016;Boon-itt et al., 2017;
Wang et al., 2018). Second, relatively little distinction has been drawn on the differences
between SCI in manufacturing and service supply chains. Because the visible common link of
managing the flow of goods is not presenting in service supply chains and flows may not
follow observable sequences, the management of services is often quite different form
manufacturing (Harvey, 2016). The intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and
perishability nature of services also makes the service SCM more dynamic (Boon-itt et al.,
IS, supply
chain
collaboration
and quality
1593
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