Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
solutions and recommendations
tional interaction routines in place. Firms could
use digital and electronic linkages that they already
have in place in dealing with other supply chain
trading partners to support relational interaction
coordination mechanisms.
The firms in the sample intend to use the
RFID system primarily for exploitation (mean =
4.5160) rather than exploration (mean = 3.7423);
once again, t tests indicate a significant difference
between the two means (p<.000). This study's
major finding that highlights the significant re-
sults for exploitation rather than for exploration
reconfirm findings of current and past studies.
From the Sanders study (2008) involving 241
first-tier suppliers, it was found that majority of the
firms used IT mainly for exploitation rather than
exploration as IT activities are more conducive
for exploitation which mainly involves business
process automation to promote task efficiency. The
author also surmised that IT may not be as well
suited for exploration, which appears to require
more face-to-face interaction. In their longitudinal
dataset of firms involved in networked alliances
active during 1987-96, Gilsing, Beerkens, and Van-
harverbeke (forthcoming) found that the optimal
number of alliances is larger for those pursuing
exploitation as opposed to exploration. This may
very well encourage the participation of firms in
collaborative exploitation initiatives as well. Even
way back in the early nineties, March (1991),
one of the major proponents of the exploitation/
exploration concepts, observed the preponderance
of firms engaging in exploitation rather than ex-
ploration due to the fact that exploitation results
in immediate positive local feedback.
Discussion of Findings
Relational interaction turned up to be the mod-
erator variable of importance in this study that
affects the relationship between the independent
variables (i.e., IT infrastructure integration con-
sisting of data consistency and cross-functional
application integration and supply chain process
integration consisting of financial flow integra-
tion, information flow integration, and physical
flow integration) and the dependent variable,
exploitation.
The descriptive data shows that the reported
means for relational interaction items were greater
than the means for reciprocal investments: 1)
relational interaction (item 1 mean = 4.65; item 2
mean=4.61; item 3 mean=4.84; item 4 mean-4.61;
overall mean for relational interaction = 4.6775);
reciprocal investments (item 1 mean= 3.67; item 2
mean= 3.93; item 3 mean = 4.00; overall mean for
reciprocal investments = 3.8667). A one sample T
test indicates a significant difference between the
relational interaction and reciprocal investments
means (p<.000). It appears that the relationships
between the respondent firms and their trading
partners (TP) are in the early stages of develop-
ment as study respondents are not yet confident
that their TPs would make the reciprocal invest-
ments needed for education in the use of RFID,
initial support in developing RFID linkages, and
exchanging business documents using the RFID
linkages within a long-term partnership context.
Study participants expressed more self-assurance
that both their firm and their TPs would have rela-
tional interaction routines that would put in place
organizational mechanisms that would facilitate
information exchange, encourage quality and
improvement initiatives, sharing of best practices,
and learning about new technologies and markets.
It is important to note that it is not necessary to
make asset specific and trading partner-specific
reciprocal investments in order to put these rela-
future reseArch directions
There are a number of suggestions for the future
pursuit of this study. It would be more fruitful
to replicate the theoretical model in this study
but, this time, sampling firms that have actually
implemented supply chain systems using RFID.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search