The effect of IT and relationship commitment on supply chain coordination: A contingency and configuration approach

• Process coordination capability with both suppliers and customers improves supply chain performance.
• Existing an interactive relationship between the process coordination at supplier and customer sides.
• IT and inter-organizational relationship play significant but different enabling roles in leveraging firms’ supply chain coordination capability.

This study investigates how information technology and relationship commitment, mediated by supply chain coordination, influence supply chain performance from a resource synergy perspective. The proposed model is tested using data collected from 617 manufacturing firms. Supply chain coordination with both suppliers and customers is found to enhance supply chain performance, and the effect of coordination with customers is higher. There is an interactive relationship between the supply chain coordination on the supplier and customer sides, indicating that synergizing supply chain coordination with suppliers and with customers improves supply chain performance. Furthermore, information technology and relationship commitment influence supply chain coordination.