Adopting New Technologies for Supply Chain Management

Transportation Research Part E 39 (2003) 95–121 www.elsevier.com/locate/tre Adopting new technologies for supply chain management
Kirk A. Patterson a, Curtis M. Grimm b, Thomas M. Corsi a c,*

c

Department of Operational Sciences, Graduate School of Engineering and Management, Air Force Institute of Technology, USA b Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA Supply Chain Management Center, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA

Abstract Integration of supply chain activities and the technologies to accomplish it have become competitive necessities in most industries. Accordingly, the trend toward greater use of supply chain technologies is on a clear path forward. As one manager has noted: ‘‘With almost daily technology advancement globally in every facet of the business, organizations need to synchronize by adopting and implementing new electronic commerce and supply chain technology in order to protect market share, not to mention improve market penetration’’. This paper develops a model of the key factors influencing the adoption of supply chain technology. The following set of variables were hypothesized to have a significant impact upon the pace of technology adoption: firm size, organizational structure, integration of supply chain strategy with overall corporate strategy, past financial performance, supply chain partner pressure, transaction climate and environmental uncertainty. The model provides a better understanding of the supply chain technology diffusion process. The paper also includes a survey, which has been developed to test the model. Ó 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Supply chain management; Technologies

1. Introduction Business organizations today face a more complex and competitive environment than ever before (Ellram, 1991; Srinivasan et al., 1994; Porter and Stern, 2001). As trade barriers crumble and less

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