TY - JOUR
T1 - Digital supply chain management in the COVID-19 crisis
T2 - An asset orchestration perspective
AU - Ye, Fei
AU - Liu, Ke
AU - Li, Lixu
AU - Lai, Kee Hung
AU - Zhan, Yuanzhu
AU - Kumar, Ajay
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 72102178 ), the Key Soft Science Project of Guangdong Province, China ( 2020B1010010001 ), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province , China ( 2019A1515011768 , 2019A1515010763 ), the Social Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China ( 2020GZYB02 ), and the Xi'an University of Technology ( 105/256082102 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/3
Y1 - 2022/3
N2 - Although many firms are actively deploying various digital technology (DT) assets across their supply chains to mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on operations, whether these DT assets are truly helpful remains unclear. To disentangle this puzzle, we investigate whether firms that have higher levels of DT asset deployment achieve better supply chain performance in the COVID-19 crisis than firms with lower levels. From an asset orchestration perspective, we focus on two dimensions of DT asset deployment: breadth and depth, which reflect the scope and scale of DT assets, respectively. The empirical results from 175 Chinese firms that have deployed DT assets to varying degrees reveal that both the breadth and the depth of DT asset deployment show positive relationships with supply chain visibility. In contrast, the depth but not the breadth of DT asset deployment poses a positive relationship with supply chain agility. Most importantly, high levels of supply chain visibility and supply chain agility were prerequisites for excellent supply chain performance in the COVID-19 crisis. We contribute to the digital supply chain management literature by uncovering the mechanism through which DT asset deployment generates impacts on supply chain performance from an asset orchestration perspective. Our study also assists firms in improving their digital transformation strategies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
AB - Although many firms are actively deploying various digital technology (DT) assets across their supply chains to mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on operations, whether these DT assets are truly helpful remains unclear. To disentangle this puzzle, we investigate whether firms that have higher levels of DT asset deployment achieve better supply chain performance in the COVID-19 crisis than firms with lower levels. From an asset orchestration perspective, we focus on two dimensions of DT asset deployment: breadth and depth, which reflect the scope and scale of DT assets, respectively. The empirical results from 175 Chinese firms that have deployed DT assets to varying degrees reveal that both the breadth and the depth of DT asset deployment show positive relationships with supply chain visibility. In contrast, the depth but not the breadth of DT asset deployment poses a positive relationship with supply chain agility. Most importantly, high levels of supply chain visibility and supply chain agility were prerequisites for excellent supply chain performance in the COVID-19 crisis. We contribute to the digital supply chain management literature by uncovering the mechanism through which DT asset deployment generates impacts on supply chain performance from an asset orchestration perspective. Our study also assists firms in improving their digital transformation strategies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
KW - Asset orchestration
KW - COVID-19
KW - Digital technology assets
KW - Supply chain agility
KW - Supply chain performance
KW - Supply chain visibility
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85121278940&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijpe.2021.108396
DO - 10.1016/j.ijpe.2021.108396
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85121278940
SN - 0925-5273
VL - 245
JO - International Journal of Production Economics
JF - International Journal of Production Economics
M1 - 108396
ER -