Assessing interfirm collaboration/technology investment tradeoffs

Abstract

PurposeThe current research considers the possibility that when firms are faced with a challenging supply chain task or opportunity for supply chain operational improvement, they choose varying degrees of technology and/or collaboration as the primary vehicle(s) with which to forge a solution. This choice is suggested herein to depend largely on technological readiness, i.e. the extent to which the firm embraces available technological solutions. Furthermore, the learning capability of the firm moderates the inverse relationship between interfirm collaboration and technological readiness, such that firms having strong organizational learning capabilities are less likely to choose a collaboration‐intensive solution than those with weak learning capabilities. This paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachA sample of retail supply chain managers drawn from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals membership database is surveyed related to their firms' levels of interfirm collaboration, organizational learning capabilities, and technological readiness. Two multiple moderated regression variants are used to test the hypotheses.FindingsResults of this research support the hypothesized logic, and implications for practice are presented in light of a revealed inverse relationship between technological readiness and interfirm collaboration that is exacerbated when the firm has a strong learning orientation.Originality/valueThis paper is among the first known to examine potential internal/external tradeoffs between collaboration and technology as problem‐solving vehicles. Both managers and researchers should find it interesting that collaboration is neither wholly desirable nor necessary (and therefore the associated risks mitigated) in technologically ready and/or high learning capability environments.