Using the balanced scorecard in assessing the performance of e-SCM diffusion: A multi-stage perspective

a r t i c l e i n f o Electronic supply chain management (e-SCM), a specific form of inter-organizational systems, has generally regarded as one of the major strategies to create competitive advantage. The diffusion of e-SCM among trading partners is critical for its final successful use and accordingly, performance impact. However, the diffusion process is complex and dynamic in nature and involves an evolutionary property across time. Innovation diffusion theory (IDT) is defined for effectively exploring diffusion process with multiple stages. Moreover, prior studies have found inconclusive results of IT-enabled performance due to inadequate measures. The balanced scorecard (BSC) with the extension to SCM, incorporating four performance perspectives, is appropriate for overcoming this problem. Grounding on the IDT and BSC, this study proposes a novel framework for exploring the relationships between a stage-based structure and the BSC. Data are collected from a questionnaire survey. The results indicate that there are significant differences between external diffusion and the two earlier stages, adoption and internal diffusion, on the four BSC perspectives. Furthermore, all of the four perspectives are well realized at external diffusion stage. Implications for managers and scholars are discussed. Business organizations face a more complex and competitive environment than ever before in the Internet era. Many organizations are gradually considering the importance that they must compete, as part of a supply chain against other supply chains, to quickly reflect the customers' changing demands. Supply chain management (SCM) is an important discipline that enables business partners to integrate their products/services effectively and to build a long-term relationship eventually [24]. SCM can be extensively defined as effective coordinations on material, product, delivery, payment, and information flows between enterprises and trading partners [68,74]. Therefore, SCM discipline is complex and dynamic while involving various work flows across inter-organizational boundaries. The support of information technology (IT), in particular, the Internet and communication technologies, is therefore imperative for making SCM practice feasible [41,81,82]. Electronic SCM (e-SCM) is defined as the physical implementation of SCM process with a support of IT while also attempting to make a distinction from the concept of SCM. However, e-SCM, although still considered to be in its earlier stage and with a high reported failure rate, is nonetheless believed to be the key to the final success of SCM process [55]. The issue of e-SCM diffusion between partners is complex and dynamic in nature and involves an evolutionary property …