Charge the relationships and gain loyalty effects: Turning the supply link alert to IT opportunities

The main purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze interconnected effects related to the use of IT, and in so doing, provide an understanding of integrative logistics operations in a supply chain link. We take a theoretical point of departure in the three factors of relationship investments, formalization and trust. Thereafter we will expand and elaborate these factors by discussing embedded elements and mechanisms, related to relationships and loyalty, which result in an outlined model for empirical research focused on operational and strategic partnerships. Based on an empirical analysis we propose that the use of IT, expressed as digitization, can be seen as a driving force for bridging a gap between the actual and potential pattern of integrative logistics operations in a supply chain link. Digitization activates mechanisms in trust, commitment, and solidarity, which are related to loyalty and simultaneously enable heterogeneous influences in relationship characteristics. 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.