| The purpose of this study is to examine whether or not there is a performance enabling effect between supply chain management (SCM) and information technology (IT). This study is motivated by the following observations. To compete effectively and efficiently, firms have invested enormous amounts of resources in both areas. While prior research in both SCM and IT has examined the performance effects of such investments, few studies have taken explicit consideration of the contingency nature of either investment on performance, let alone the enabling effect between the two. In fact, most prior research on SCM and IT has taken an "event-based" approach, by focusing on the direct (or main) effect of such an investment on performance, while treating other contingency factors as exogenous. This orientation is in sharp contrast to the common beliefs that (1) IT enables firms' strategic initiatives, business processes, and organizational design, and (2) IT itself, to result in performance effects, often must be enabled by other managerial initiatives such as SCM alliances and changes to the existing business processes.;This study uses operational level data from over one thousand plants in durable manufacturing industries in the United States to examine the performance enabling effects between SCM and IT. The results support the thesis that there is an enabling effect between IT and SCM on manufacturing performance. The managerial implications of the preceding findings are discussed accordingly. |
