Exploring relationships among IT advancement, IT assimilation, supply chain capabilities and supply chain performance

Rapid advancements in information technology (IT) have created new opportunities and challenges for the manufacturer-supplier network of a supply chain to improve their synergy and performance. The study explores the impact of IT capabilities (IT advancement, IT assimilation) on the supply chain capabilities (flexibility, information exchange, and coordination); and supply chain performance. The Extended resource-based view (ERBV) was adopted as a theoretical lens for developing the conceptual framework. A survey was conducted across manufacturing industries in India for this study. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis technique was used to test a set of proposed hypotheses. Results show that IT advancements and IT assimilation were found to impact supply chain capabilities and eventually supply chain performance. The mediating role of suppliers' flexibility, information exchange, and supply chain coordination was found to be significant. The paper is concluded with implications for practices and further research directions.