Supply chain information utilisation: conceptualisation and antecedents

Review article, 2016

This study aims to define supply chain information utilisation and explore how its antecedents impact shared information utilisation in an information receiver’s planning processes. The analysis is based on a literature review and exploratory case study of three supplier dyads of original equipment manufacturers. This study presents a four-phase model of supply chain information utilisation that identifies how information sharing, information quality, and intended information usage are antecedents of actual usage of information shared in supply chains. In the dyads, 35 potential information utilisation situations are analysed. Inter-organisational and intra-organisational factors are antecedents of information utilisation, by their effects on the four phases of utilisation. Composite information sharing, social network governance, human process involvement, and formal planning processes are important antecedents, which are not much emphasized in the literature. Our study focuses on routinised sharing of formal demand-related planning information in supply chain dyads. The analysis is based on three case dyads which are chosen to be complementary in several respects, and where there is access to rich data. Understanding phases and antecedents could support managers in developing information sharing strategies. The literature does not explicitly consider information utilisation, or related antecedents or effects. However, by defining information utilisation and proposing a multi-phase utilisation model, this study can explain the performance effect of information sharing. In addition, the composite information variable is defined. This is the first attempt to conceptualise and explore antecedents of information utilisation in supply chains.