Authors: Chris Nøkkentved
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark (Institute of Informatics and Institute of Management Politics & Philosophy) and IBM Global Business Services
Abstract
The objective of this Industrial PhD. dissertation was to study whether the concurrent transformation and IT-enablement of an organization’s business model leads to higher levels of performance. We focused our assessment on how companies are transforming their upstream collaborative supply networks or Supplier Relationship Management (SRM). Within that business domain we also evaluated how IT-enablement with enterprise applications (like SRM) is contributing in reaching such targets and improving the operational efficiency and effectiveness of the firm. The foundations of this study were hinged on the IMP-Group’s Industrial Networks approach on studying Supply Networks, and the latest IS Research theories on Information Infrastructures and Technology Adoption, hence moving beyond the firm-centric views on Enterprise Architecture. We also utilized an Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) approach to broaden our perspective and evaluate our findings.In the course of the initial chapters we elaborated on: a) which are the prevailing Collaborative Supply Network models; b) what are the most common Collaborative Processes and their Benefits, and c) what level of SRM Enablement is currently available through Information Infrastructures provided by major enterprise application vendors (i.e. SAP). During the course of this research we have investigated and defined Business Model Innovation Initiatives that drive Transformation and studied their effect on performance. Transformation leading to organizational and technological change is constrained by the resident capabilities or skills, focus and state of the current operations, which in turn influence firm performance . We incorporated additional environmental contingencies affecting those same domain-specific factors, such as industry membership, region, and company size. Finally, we investigated whether different actors or leaders in-charge of such technology-oriented and organizational transformations have differences of opinion on the priorities of the firm. A comprehensive analysis was undertaken following an “Iterative Grounded Theory” approach that commenced from 2 qualitative analyses, the final utilizing Social Network Analysis (SNA) to identify and define these Transformation Initiatives. Subsequently these results led into a survey-based quantitative analysis. The data were sampled from a global survey conducted by IBM on the procurement, sourcing and enablement state and best-practices among 344 companies around the word. A comprehensive multivariate analysis was then undertaken that led to the evaluation of a Structural Equation Model (conducted via Partial Least Squares or PLS) that helped us evaluate the constructs and causal path dependencies between them in order to create a Business Network Transformation and Performance framework. Our research into the best practices of Collaborative Supply Networks provided evidence on whether the use of IT can help a company reach higher levels of performance. IT enablement of the optimized procurement and sourcing operation enables the teams to reach higher operational efficiency and effectiveness. In summary, companies that aggressively pursue realization and adoption of renewed organizational practices and processes embolded by IT-enablement have a higher propensity to differentiate themselves and reach higher levels of performance. In order to adopt such practices merging business change and adoption of technology, we have empirically identified a set of proactive initiatives that will help and streamline the efforts of the team to reap the benefits of eProcurement and eSourcing applications. Our conclusive framework identified a number of organizational context and IT-enablement parameters as direct determinants of firm performance, while proved that capabilities and transformation initiatives in companies have an indirect effect on performance as they “act” via the contextual layer of technology and organization, thus corroborating previous research.
Publish Year: 2009