Information Technology and Supply Chain Collaboration: Examining the Contingent Role of Environmental Uncertainty

The utilization of advanced information technologies (IT) in interfirm collaboration has been thematic in current literature. Although conventional wisdom perceives that IT systems facilitate supply chain collaboration, this research provides an alternative perspective. Drawing on resource-based view and contingency ‘fit’ theory, the study investigates a model of relationships that specify how environmental uncertainty factors influence the nature of the association of two critical but distinctive IT capabilities with collaboration. Findings corroborate the positive association between collaboration and B2B e-commerce and IT analytic capability. However, demand unpredictability enhances the IT analytic capability-collaboration relationship while detracting from the B2B e-commerce-collaboration association. Notably, the study did not find any moderating influence of another critical uncertainty factor, technological turbulence. The findings reveal the complex nature of IT-collaboration relationships and provide managers a framework for understanding the uncertainty contexts under which specific information technologies with various functionalities may be more appropriately leveraged to derive benefits.