The role of emergent information technologies and systems in enabling supply chain agility

To date studies have suggested that high levels of coordination between organisations, necessary for improved supply chain performance, demand high levels of integration between partners' information systems. However, these high levels of integration reduce the ability to frequently and rapidly make changes to trading relationships, something that is a prerequisite of the agility paradigm. This paper seeks to explore how a number of emergent information systems offer the possibility of both deep integration and increased flexibility. This paper is exploratory in nature. A single case study of an organisation seeking to improve supply chain agility is reported. Existing literature and the insights provided by the case study are combined to identify a number of themes for further study.