How IT-Enabled Supply Chain Integration Is Achieved For Supply Chain Agility: An Institutional-Political Perspective

Although interorganizational information system can facilitate supply chain integration and supply chain agility, unintended outcomes may occur if partners possess distinct knowledge about the use of IOS. Based on Foucault’s theory of power/knowledge, institutional theory and resource dependence theory, we analyze how various power relations work together to facilitate the institutionalization of IT-enabled supply chain integration. Institutional pressures are posited to increase legitimacy of IT-enabled supply chain integration, which can fix firms’ disposition to use IOS for supply chain process integration. Yet, local factors still may hinder firms from doing so. We thus suggest that IT infrastructure integration for SCM can serve as a disciplinary practice for achieving this end since adopting firms tend to be selfdisciplined and act according to the legitimized use of IOS. Based on a sample of 167 manufacturing firms, ten out of the eleven hypotheses receive empirical support using PLS analysis. This paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating empirically the importance of the legitimate discourse (i.e., legitimacy of IT-enabled supply chain integration) and the disciplinary practice (i.e., IT infrastructure integration for SCM) in institutionalizing an IOS-based organizing practice (i.e., supply chain process integration).