Strategic Alliance, Information and Communication Technology, and Customer-Related Performance: The Role of Industry Characteristics

Abstract

Purposes:

This study investigates whether the relationship between a firm’s engagement in strategic alliance and its customer-related performance (CRP) is direct or indirect through the managerial use of information and communication technology (ICT).

Methodology:

The results are based on the responses of 78 general managers from large manufacturing firms, and the data were analysed using structural equation modelling with partial least squares (PLS).

Findings:

The results reveal that a firm’s engagement in a strategic alliance is positively related with the firm’s CRP—not directly, but through the managerial use of the ICT. The results also reveal that the relationship is industry specific.

Limitations:

The results may be manufacturing industry specific, so caution is necessary in generalising the results to other industries. Furthermore, this study does not consider the different types of strategic alliances in which a firm can engage. The extant literature suggests that a strategic alliance may be vertical or horizontal, internal or external.

Practical implications:

The results indicate that an organisation which engages in a strategic alliance to improve its desired performance needs to have an appropriate ICT facility.

Originality: This study investigates the role of ICT on the strategic alliance and firm performance relationship in Indonesia.