The impact of aligning supply chain and information system strategies on performance

Abstract

Supply chain (SC) strategies and information system (IS) strategies in implementing supply chain management (SCM) processes have been individually regarded as vital to SCM performance. However, in empirical research, it remains unclear what kinds of IS strategies should be implemented under what particular SC strategies. The purpose of this study is to provide a theoretical understanding of the alignment between SC strategies (caretaker, marketeer and innovator) and IS strategies (efficiency, flexibility and comprehensiveness) and then to investigate its impact on SCM performance. A profile deviation approach is utilised to compute the alignment between these two strategies. A survey was conducted on 151 manufacturers. Our results indicate that the correct alignment between SC strategy and IS strategy contributes a positive effect to the overall SCM performance.