Towards a Theoretical Framework of Digital Supply Chain Integration

One of the most significant changes in organizational business models has been that it is not the individual organizations that compete with each other; rather they compete as a network of organizations forming the supply chain. To compete as supply chains in a digital economy organizations invest in digital applications, and IT infrastructure for supply chain integration. They also establish long-term partnerships with supply chain partners based on trust and information sharing. Implementing these structural and relational initiatives presents significant challenges in implementation, while at the same time enabling the integration of resource flows across the supply chain. The paper presents an initial exploration of relationships between critical dimensions of digitalization in supply chains, IT infrastructure, relational orientation of the firm with its partners, supply chain integration and performance. The presentation is non-traditional and attempts to provide insights at a lower level of granularity by combining descriptive analysis with more traditional statistical techniques. Exploratory analysis suggests that digitization of supply chains, when accompanied by an integrated IT infrastructure and partnerships with supply chain members can enable organizations to integrate physical, financial and informational resource flows for differential impact on different dimensions of organizational performance.