Title: Electronic supply chains: an empirical study of the Australian manufacturing industry

Authors: Hung M. Nguyen, Norma J. Harrison

Addresses: Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. ' Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

Abstract: There has been a rapidly growing interest in electronic business (e-bus), although most of the issues surrounding e-business have been descriptive. Within supply chains, the integration process has often been mentioned without clearly indicating how this process can be implemented gradually and what this integration really requires. This study empirically tested a taxonomy that illustrated a firm|s strategic positioning along two axes: Electronic Business and Integrated Supply Chain Management (ISCM). A firm|s position in this taxonomy represents its Electronic Supply Chain Orientation (ESCO). The results from the Australian manufacturing industry indicated that there appeared to be four general strategic options that firms adopted: laggers, e-bus players, ISCM players, and integrators. The ISCM players tended to have the networking and joint efficiency operation in place, which reflected the ISCM capability of the ESCO; the e-bus players demonstrated the integrated applications and business to business (B2B) applications dimensions that illustrated the e-business capability in the ESCO model. The integrators had the most significant e-business and ISCM capabilities, which were joint efforts in the ESCO model. The laggers were those stuck in the middle without significant or developing capabilities in any of these dimensions of the ESCO. Supply chain performance measures also indicated that the integrators gained most significant benefits while the laggers were well behind.

Keywords: electronic business; integrated supply chain management; electronic supply chain; e-business; supply chain performance; Australia; Australian manufacturing industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIEM.2004.005364

International Journal of Internet and Enterprise Management, 2004 Vol.2 No.3, pp.241 - 263

Published online: 29 Sep 2004 *

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