The Determinants of Information Sharing and the Performance of Supply Chain: The Case of Beverage Manufacturing Companies

Abstract

Due to the increasing importance of information sharing in the supply chain towards performance improvement, while there is a lack of clear framework for information sharing and supply chain performance antecedents particularly in developing countries like Tanzania, led to the conduction of this study to fill the empirical gap. The purpose of this paper was to assess whether intra-organisational factors, inter-organisational factors, and environmental factors can influence information sharing in the supply chain and whether information sharing has an impact on the supply chain performance among beverage manufacturing companies in Tanzania. The study adopted a mixed research design where quantitative and qualitative findings were triangulated. The snowball sampling technique was used to collect data from 170 respondents using an online survey while purposive sampling was used to collect data from 10 respondents through interviews. The study used structural equation modelling and content analysis technique to perform data analyses. The study findings indicated that information technology, trust, competitive environment, and environmental uncertainty had positive influence on information sharing while top management support, commitment, common vision, and reciprocity had no impact on information sharing. Moreover, the study found that supply chain performance is determined by information sharing. The results suggest that the formulation of information sharing and supply chain performance framework cannot be made and fully explained by a single theory as the study integrated three supply chain theories RBV, SET, and NT. Hence supply chain participants and policy-makers should focus on all the intra-organisational factors, inter-organisational factors, and environmental factors for improving both the information sharing and supply chain performance.