دسترسی به اشتراک گذاری اطلاعات و کیفیت اطلاعات در مدیریت زنجیره تامین

This paper empirically examines the impact of environmental uncertainty, intra-organizational facilitators, and inter-organizational relationships on information sharing and information quality in supply chain management. Based on the data collected from 196 organizations, multiple regression analyses are used to test the factor impacting information sharing and information quality respectively. It is found that both information sharing and information quality are influenced positively by trust in supply chain partners and shared vision between supply chain partners, but negatively by supplier uncertainty. Top management has a positive impact on information sharing but has no impact on information quality. The results also show that information sharing and information quality are not impacted by customer uncertainty, technology uncertainty, commitment of supply chain partners, and IT enablers. Moreover, a discriminant analysis reveals that supplier uncertainty, shared vision between supply chain partners and commitment of supply chain partners are the three most important factors in discriminating between the organizations with high levels of information sharing and information quality and those with low levels of information sharing and information quality.

As competition in the 1990s intensified and markets became global, so did the challenges associated with getting a product and service to the right place at the right time at the lowest cost. Organizations began to realize that it is not enough to improve efficiencies within an organization, but their whole supply chain has to be made competitive. The understanding and practicing of Supply Chain Management (SCM) has become an essential prerequisite for staying competitive in the global race and for enhancing profitably [12], [44] and [51]. Information sharing is a key ingredient for any SCM system [37]. Many researchers have suggested that the key to the seamless supply chain is making available undistorted and up-to-date marketing data at every node within the supply chain [12] and [54]. By taking the data available and sharing it with other parties within the supply chain, an organization can speed up the information flow in the supply chain, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the supply chain, and respond to customer changing needs quicker. Therefore, information sharing will bring the organization competitive advantage in the long run. The advantage of information sharing in SCM has been intensively discussed [10]. Information sharing improves coordination between supply chain processes to enable the material flow and reduces inventory costs. Information sharing leads to high levels of supply chain integration [24] by enabling organizations to make dependable delivery and introduce products to the market quickly. Quality information sharing contributes positively to customer satisfaction [48] and partnership quality [30]. Information sharing impacts the supply chain performance in terms of both total cost and service level [63]. According to Lin et al. [33], the higher level of information sharing is associated with the lower total cost, the higher order fulfillment rate and the shorter order cycle time. While information sharing is important, the significance of its impact on the performance of a supply chain depends on what information is shared, when and how it is shared, and with whom [13] and [22]. Literature is replete with example of the dysfunctional effects of inaccurate/delayed information, as information moves along the supply chain [35]. Divergent interests and opportunistic behavior of supply chain partners, and informational asymmetries across supply chain affect the quality of information [17]. It has been suggested that organizations will deliberately distort information that can potentially reach not only their competitors, but also their own suppliers and customers [35]. It appears that there is a built-in reluctance within organizations to give away more than minimal information [6] since information disclosure is perceived as a loss of power and companies fear that information may leak to potential rivals. To facilitate quality information sharing across supply chains, an understanding of the factors influencing information sharing is needed so that a strategy may be developed to overcome the barriers preventing information sharing and encourage seamless information flow in supply chains. Previous studies have addressed the importance of certain factors in information sharing and information quality in SCM but few studies have considered simultaneously the impact of environmental factors, intra-organizational factors, and inter-organizational factors on information sharing and information quality in SCM. To fill this gap, this paper first identifies a set of factors, including environmental uncertainty (customer uncertainty, supplier uncertainty, and technology uncertainty), intra-organizational facilitators (top management support and IT enablers), inter-organizational relationships (trust in supply chain partners, commitment of supply chain partners, and shared vision between supply chain partners), that may impact information sharing and information quality in SCM. The rationale to select the above factors are illustrated as follows: past researchers consider environmental uncertainty an important driver for information sharing and information quality and organizations will build strategic partnerships with their trading partners to reduce the risk when the environmental uncertainty is high [2], [11] and [28]. Within an organization, on one hand, top management is needed in providing vision, guidance, and support for quality information sharing [30]. On the other hand, the implementation of information technology enables organizations to share information efficiently and securely [32] and [58]. Moreover, a good inter-organizational relationship based on trust, commitment and shared vision is necessary to encourage information sharing and to overcome the fear of information disclosure and the loss of power over competitor [7] and [46]. Based on the data collected from 196 organizations of various sizes and industries, multiple regression analyses are used to test the factors impacting information sharing and information quality in SCM, followed by a discriminant analysis testing the relative importance of each of eight factors in discriminating between organizations with high levels of information sharing and information quality and those with low levels of information sharing and information quality. It is found that supplier uncertainty and inter-organizational relationships (trust, commitment and shared vision) are most critical factors in determining the level of information sharing and information quality in SCM and in distinguishing organizations with high levels of information sharing and information quality and those with low levels of information sharing and information quality.

The goal of this paper was to assess the antecedents of information sharing and information quality in SCM. Toward that goal, multiple theories from diverse referent disciples were synthesized to propose a research framework and six hypotheses were suggested (Fig. 1). The results partially support the hypotheses. It is found that information sharing is impacted positively by top management support, trust in supply chain partners and shared vision between supply chain partners, and negatively by supplier uncertainty. Those findings partially support Hypothesis 2.a1, Hypothesis 2.a2 and Hypothesis 3a. Moreover, we initially hypothesized a positive relationship between environmental uncertainty and information sharing (Hypothesis 1a) but found a negative relationship between one of environmental uncertainty dimension (supplier uncertainty) and information sharing. The results also show that information quality is impacted by supplier uncertainty, trust in supply chain partners and shared vision between supply chain partners, which partially support Hypothesis 1b and Hypothesis 3b. Hypothesis 2.b1 and Hypothesis 2.b2 is disapproved since no significant relationship is found between intra-organizational facilitators and information quality. Moreover, a discriminant analysis reveals that supplier uncertainty, commitment of supply chain partners and shared vision between supply chain partners are the most important factors in discriminating between the organizations with high levels of information sharing and information quality and those with low levels of information sharing and information quality. Generally, organizations with high levels of information sharing and information quality are associated with low level of environmental uncertainty, high level of top management support and IT enablers, and high level of inter-organizational relationships. Furthermore, supplier uncertainty and inter-organizational relationships, instead of top management and IT enablers, are most critical factors in determining information sharing and information quality and in distinguishing organizations with high levels of information sharing and information quality and those with low levels of information sharing and information quality. The results of this study have the important implications for practitioners. First, both regression analysis and discriminant analysis highlight the importance of inter-organizational relationships (build on trust, commitment and shared vision) in facilitating information sharing and information quality. Frequently, organizations have tended to focus on the applications of IT on SCM, they have not given enough attention to the development of inter-organizational relationships. This phenomenon may reflect the nature of IT and inter-organizational relationships. Compared with inter-organizational relationships, IT can be more easily implemented, and its benefits are more tangible and meazsurable. While the establishment of good inter-organizational relationships (such as trust, commitment, and shared vision) is much more difficult and time-consuming than the installation of SCM software, its impact on overall performance is mostly invisible. The results of this study demonstrate to the practitioners that to achieve higher levels of information sharing and information quality, an effective inter-organizational relationship is a must. Therefore, it would be worthwhile for organizations that are contemplating sharing information to spend time and effort to build good relationships with their supply chain partners. Second, the findings indicate a low level of supplier uncertainty is associated with high level of information sharing and information quality. To ensure quality information sharing, an organization must select its suppliers with caution. It should be noted that information sharing and information quality may be influenced by contextual factors, such as the type of industry, firm size, a firm's position in the supply chain, supply chain length, and type of supply chain, which are ignored in this study. For example, the larger organizations may have higher levels of information sharing since they usually have more complex supply chain networks necessitating the need for more frequent and effective information exchange with its partners . The level of information quality may be influenced negatively by the length of a supply chain. Since information suffers from delay and distortion as it travels along the supply chain, the shorter the supply chain, the less chances it will get distorted. Future research can expand this research by adding the contextual factors as an additional independent variable. This study indicates that partner relationship plays an important role in implementing SCM practice and improving SCM performance. There are several issues regarding the establishment of good partner relationship (such as trust, commitment, and shared vision). For example, how does one get trading partners to trust each other? What tools and procedures can be used to establish a shared vision between trading partners? What skills are necessary to develop commitment and credibility in the relationship of trading partners? How should an organization identify channel partners who participate in trust-creating behaviors? What is the role of channel conflict in partner relationship? There are to be addressed in future research. The future study can also expand the model by considering the independence between information sharing and information quality. Moreover, the data for the study consisted of responses from single respondents in an organization which may be a cause for possible response bias. The results have to be interpreted taking this limitation into account. The use of single respondent may generate some measurement inaccuracy. Future research should seek to utilize multiple respondents from each participating organization to enhance the research findings. This study suffers from methodological limitations typical of most empirical surveys. First, this study employed only several possible theoretical lenses that can explain causal relationships among the antecedents of information sharing and information quality. Application of any theory to a research problem automatically places constraints on variables, relationships, assumptions, and boundary conditions that can be examined, which may lead to a biased interpretation of the problem in practice. Second, our survey constructs do not consider future potential value in information sharing and information quality. The incorporate future potential value of information sharing and information quality, panel information is needed which was not available. In future research, a longitudinal research can be developed.