Information and Communication Technologies to Achieve an Optimal Relationship Between Supply Chain Management, Innovation, and Performance

Abstract

This chapter examines the links between information and communication technologies (ICT), supply chain management (SCM), innovation, and performance. Such relationships provide managerial implications for contemporary SMEs managers who adopt ICT tools, dynamic process, and organizational strategies to get better information to make decisions that enhance operational outcomes. The results obtained from structural equation modeling indicate that ICT are decisive for operational alignment of actors in the supply chain, also vital to support the innovation process as a key element in the construction of set capabilities to establish improvements at the products and services. Furthermore, SCM mediates the relationship between ICT and Innovation, substantially relevant to business performance. This study digs deeper into the importance of the machinery used in the SMEs as an operational capability.