Supply Chain Information Integration and Firm Performance: Are Explorative and Exploitative IT Capabilities Complementary or Substitutive?

Abstract

ABSTRACTDrawing upon organizational information processing theory, we investigate how explorative and exploitative information technology (IT) capabilities independently and interdependently moderate the relationship between supply chain information integration and firm performance. Data collected from 215 firms in China reveal that explorative IT capability positively moderates the relationship between information sharing and firm performance but exerts no moderating effect on the association between collaborative planning and firm performance. By contrast, exploitative IT capability positively moderates the impact of collaborative planning but negatively moderates the influence of information sharing on firm performance. Furthermore, building upon the ambidexterity perspective, we develop and test a three‐way interaction hypothesis that explorative and exploitative IT capabilities would interdependently moderate the relationship between supply chain information integration and firm performance. Our results indicate that explorative and exploitative IT capabilities are complementory in moderating the link between collaborative planning and firm performance but substitutive in moderating the relationship between information sharing and firm performance. By integrating insights from both information systems and operations management, our study thus provides an in‐depth understanding on how and when IT business value can be created in supply chain information integration context.