Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the IT capabilities affecting supply chain performance, explore the relationship among those identified capabilities to supply chain performance and, explore the mediating factors to the relationship with special reference to large manufacturing organizations in Sri Lanka.
Systematic random sampling technique was applied as the sampling technique of the study. 200 questionnaires were distributed among executives in large manufacturing organizations to collect the primary data and 160 were used for the analysis. Gathered data were analyzed by SPSS software.
Findings: Under the IT Capabilities, Flexible IT Infrastructure and IT Assimilation have a weak positive relationship with supply chain performance while strong positive relationship with supply chain agility. Supply chain agility has a direct strong positive relationship with supply chain performance and it is mediating the relationship between IT capabilities and Supply Chain Performance.
The interest for using IT in the Supply Chains in large organizations is being increased. To face the contemporary changes in the market all the activities in different layers should be integrated. There is a high possibility to increase the performance by using advanced IT applications and providing reasonable IT infrastructure. This study explains the importance of considering supply chain agility as a mediator rather than using only IT applications or infrastructure. No research can be found in Sri Lankan context that explore the factors affecting IT capabilities and Supply chain performance relationship.
Practical Implications: Future studies are possible to conduct surveys in different angles using various control variables. Comparison of factors between different industries will provide more insights for the practitioners and as well as the researchers on the study variables.
