Turning Isomorphic IT Innovations into Unique Capabilities

Firms often innovate with IT due to institutional pressures, which can lead into rash decisions and drive firms to innovate IT similarly, e.g. mimicking the industry leaders. This drives firms to look alike and turn homogeneous. However, recent observations show that firms can actually become heterogeneous while innovating with IT under institutional pressures. We argue that firms can learn from the IT innovation process and they can turn these learnings into better use of the technology, which can ultimately lead to heterogeneous capabilities. Thus in other words we argue that firms can revive disappointing IT innovations due to institutional pressure and turn them into competitive advantages. This study uses case studies to further explore this nascent phenomenon

Effects Of Supply Chain Strategies And Practices On Firm Performance

A number of studies have looked at the impacts of supply chain strategies on firm performance. Yet, how different supply chain practices translate to firm performance remains unclear. Drawing from the resource based view, this study investigates the role of supply chain capabilities in mediating the relationships between supply chain practices and firm performance. A survey was conducted with 171 manufacturing firms in five Chinese cities to empirically validate the research model. Our findings suggest that, supply chain practices, as driven by supply chain strategies, create different supply chain capabilities and lead to firm performance. The findings shed some lights on the mechanism in which supply chain strategies and practices translate into firm performance

A Design Theory for Supply Chain Visibility in the age of Big Data

Existing literature has extensively discussed that supply chain visibility (SCV) can help to improve supply chain performance. Yet there is no sound approach available to effectively operationalize SCV. We posit that information sharing alone is not decisive for SCV, as SCV is context sensitive. On one side, there is the generator role that shares information. However, we posit that there is also the utilizer role, which aims to solve specific management problems. This study documents three knowledge moments in the search for SCV in the age of big data. The first knowledge moment is of a nomothetic science, where we define SCV from a utilizer and generator perspective. The second knowledge moment is of a nomothetic design, where we developed an ISDT and proposed five design principles. Finally, the third knowledge moment is of an ideographic design, where we described an actual implementation in an actual garment supply chain

Dynamic Isomorphism: IT Adaptation of the Bandwagon Followers

Firms often mindlessly adopt IT due to institutional pressure, which often leads to hastened and irrational decisions. Institutional pressure is therefore often considered as a negative effect on IT adoption. That is because little literature investigates into the adaptation effect after IT adoption due to institutional pressure. We advocate that institutional pressure indeed has a catalyzing effect on IT adoption in general, but firms can still mindfully correct the hastened decisions into a competitive advantage over time. We call this phenomenon dynamic isomorphism, which describes the IT adaptation process after institutional pressure. We propose to investigate in dynamic isomorphism by the use of a cross-case analysis, as it can provide an in-depth explanation of the proposed phenomenon

Towards a Framework for Aligning RFID Applications With Supply Chain Strategies

Supply chain management has two streams of strategies, namely lean and agile. However, current RFID applications tend to overlook supply chain strategies and are designed for obvious RFID applications, like simply replacing barcodes. However, the full potential of RFID might not be achieved when RFID applications are not aligned with the supply chain strategies. Therefore, this study analyzes the current literature to investigate whether RFID applications are indeed misaligned with their strategies. Results shows that RFID is still at its infancy and most RFID applications focus on cost reduction, a lean practice, and less attention has been paid on how RFID can satisfy customer demands, an agile practice. It is therefore suggested that management should ensure that RFID applications are aligned with their supply chain strategy, in order to gain the most benefits out of RFID

On IoT Impact Of Supply Chain Visibility

Supply chain visibility (SCV) is much sought after in supply chain management, yet SCV remains an intangible topic with no tangible artifacts. The on-demand visibility view required of one decision maker, the seeing role, in a supply chain is quite different to any others – context specific, and managerial varied. Data available for the view must be collected and captured by the being seen role with on-target provenance. IoT technology becomes an integrative glue in supply chain integration fabrics, facilitating on-target design with manageable end-to-end visibility. In this paper, we propose a duality SCV framework to operationalize visibility. Contributions of the paper are firstly to bring current SCV discussions into focus to how IoT technology deployment can be formulated with on-target precision by the being seen, and secondly to extend to how on demand supply chain visibility to the seeing is enabled anywhere anytime

A Proposed Cross Platform Privacy and Security Framework for Supply Chain Information Sharing

Information sharing has become eminent to supply chain management, as it allows supply chain partners to collaborate more closely. However, currently supply chain partners are often on disjoint information platforms, which prevent them from effectively sharing critical supply chain information. One of the main barriers of information sharing is revealing confidential information to unintended parties and thus the disclosure of privacy. Therefore the information sharing needs and characteristics of a supply chain has been analyzed and subsequently a cross platform privacy and security framework to allow safe information sharing has been proposed

Visibility Cloud: A Supply Chain Perspective

Visibility in a supply chain brings benefits across all partners, leading to positive effect on overall supply chain performance. IoT-based approach has been shown to be effective in enhancing end-to-end visibility. An IT artifact can be designed to deliver supply chain visibility to individual users. Yet, factors like ownership, costs, and know-how often deter the adoption by supply chains. In this paper, we present the design of a cloud-based IT artifact for supply chain visibility services. With IT services and a service-oriented approach to visibility, a concept of visibility cloud (VC) is proposed. The design objectives of VC are articulated, leading to two key services formulated as Visibility-as-a-Service and App-as-a-Service. The two services are described and followed by an illustrative instantiation. VC servicetizes SCV with affordability and expandability according to the pace of each individual party. With metered SCV services via mobile devices, supply chain management is effective definite (definite effective?) anytime anywhere

Towards A Reference Framework For RFID-Enabled Garment SC Visibility

In the current environment organizations can no longer compete on price alone. Supply chains are becoming important, where efficiency and effectiveness play the pivotal role. RFID is a highly heralded technology in the supply chain field, which can synchronize the information flow with the material flow. However, organizations are still not widely adopting it, as the industry is missing compelling business cases to illustrate how to implement the technology and how it actually can bring benefits to the business. In this study we develop and demonstrate an innovative information infrastructure to facilitate a smooth supply chain operation. The infrastructure is designed based on an in-depth case study of a typical complete garment supply chain. SCOR model is used to ensure that the design is applicable in various supply chain set ups