Digitalization & Covid-19: An institutional-contingency theoretic analysis of supply chain digitalization

Sunil Tiwari, Pankaj Sharma and Ashish Kumar Jha

International Journal of Production Economics, 2024, vol. 267, issue C

Abstract: Black Swan external contingencies like the COVID-19 pandemic or Suez Canal blockage have a significant impact on the technology adoption decisions in firms. At a firm level, supply chains are the segments that are most prone to disruption due to these shocks. Hence the need to study the role of these contingencies in enabling digitalization in supply chains. Modern supply chains operate in a strong institutional environment that influences various aspects like technology adoption and digitalization. In this study, we bring these two aspects together by applying an institutional and contingency theory perspective. We investigate the institutional forces and the effect of environmental contingencies on the digitalization of supply chains. We propose a generalizable model to investigate digitalization readiness independent of the technological artefact being implemented. To achieve the same, we identify the forces of digitalization in the supply chains from the review of the extant literature. We then model the forces of digitalization into a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN). The study finds that organizational readiness and people readiness are critical elements of digitalization readiness. Our study reports the importance of top management's involvement and employees' training as the critical forces aiding digitalization.

Keywords: Digitalization; Institutional theory; Contingency theory; Bayesian belief networks; Supply chains (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:proeco:v:267:y:2024:i:c:s0925527323002955

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2023.109063

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