Investigating the Impact of Information Technology Integration on Competitive Advantage of Supply Chain (Case of Study: Food Industries)

In recent years, the focus of organizations is on achieving a higher level of performance as a competitive advantage. It is also important to maintain and develop agility and innovation as dynamic capabilities of supply chain partners in order to increase competitive advantage in the global economy. On the other hand, effective cooperation between supply chain partners and building trust among members can increase supply chain performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of information technology integration, trust, cooperation, innovation and agility on supply chain performance and finally create a competitive advantage. The method of this research is applied from the view of purpose and descriptive-correlational from the view of nature. The statistical population of this research is the managers and experts of food industries supply chain consisting of suppliers, producers and distributors. For this purpose, 180 questionnaires were distributed, of which 161 questionnaires were returned. Structural equation modeling approach and Smart PLS software were used to analyze the collected data. The results of this study showed that the integration of information technology has a significant positive effect on trust in the supply chain of the food industries. The results of this study also showed that supply chain trust can lead to effective supply chain collaboration, innovation and supply chain agility. Other results of this study include the effect of innovation, cooperation and supply chain agility on supply chain performance and also the effect of supply chain performance on competitive advantage in supply chain.