How Information Technology Capability Affects Supply Chain Innovation and Performance: A Cross-Boundary Ambidexterity Perspective

Although prior article has documented that information technology (IT) capability enables supply chain innovation, thereby enhancing supply chain performance, research on how a firm can improve performance further by appropriately managing IT capability and supply chain innovation is lacking. In addition to the enabling role of IT capability, we examine how IT capability (i.e., IT exploration and exploitation) facilitates (or inhibits) supply chain innovation (i.e., supply chain exploration and exploitation) to improve a firm's supply chain performance. Specifically, we draw upon the cross-boundary ambidexterity perspective and assert that maintaining ambidexterity across organizational boundaries enhances performance more than balancing exploration and exploitation within a particular boundary. We propose that IT exploration (exploitation) and supply chain exploitation (exploration) generate synergistic effects on supply chain performance, whereas IT exploration (exploitation) weakens the effects of supply chain exploration (exploitation). Data from 210 firms in China generally support the research model. The findings provide new insights into how firms can benefit further from supply chain innovation by deploying appropriate IT capability within their own organizational boundaries.