The Adoption of Information & Communication Technology in Managing Supply Chain Integration

Abstract

Due to rising demand and supply disruptions, supply chain operations have adopted information and communication technologies more frequently in recent years. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the degree of ICT adoption and the approaches taken in the processing business. The paper adopts a mixed approach including 259 respondents involved in a survey investigating the extent of ICT adoption in the processing industries and 8 top-level staff of the focal firm tangled in an individual interview to reveal the strategies used in ICT adoption.  Taken together, the results show an improvement in the processing industry in ICT adoption. The results indicate that most of the focal firms are in the second phase of ICT adoption called the implementation phase while the most dominant strategies used in adoption include capacity development, building strategic partnerships and firm restructuring. For the focal firm to fully benefit from ICT adoption in operations and organizational performance, the focal firm must make improvements, including involving all stakeholders in their effort to digitalize supply chain operations. Meanwhile, other participants in the production of dairy products in Tanzania and elsewhere need to understand the significance of ICT adoption and SCI as well as the advantages they can all derive from this engagement. The study shed new light on the effective strategies that can be employed to enable the effective adoption of ICT to improve the performance of the entire supply chain. These results add to the rapidly expanding ICT adoption in the processing industry and other related industries.