Information sharing, operations capabilities, market intelligence responsiveness and firm performance: A moderated mediation model

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to offer an alternative explanation for inconclusive results in the existing literature on the information sharing-firm performance link by examining a moderated mediation model in which operations capabilities mediate the interactive effects of information sharing and market intelligence responsiveness on firm performance within a supply chain context. Drawing on the indirect view of dynamic capability theory, the authors propose that information sharing redeploys and reconfigures operations capabilities, thus leading to superior firm performance, even with a high level of market intelligence responsiveness.Design/methodology/approachThe hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression and bootstrapping methods with a sample of 154 Chinese manufacturing firms. A survey-based, two-informant design was used to collect data.FindingsThe results revealed that operations capabilities fully mediate the relationship between information sharing and firm performance. The information sharing-operations capabilities link is positively moderated by market intelligence responsiveness. Moreover, operations capabilities positively mediate the interactive effects of information sharing and responsiveness on performance.Originality/valueThe study shifts the research focus from the moderating effect of market intelligence responsiveness in the information sharing-performance link to the interactive effects between information sharing and responsiveness on performance via operations capabilities, thus offering a finer-grained picture of the essential information sharing-performance link. To the best of our knowledge, this study is among the first to advocate and substantiate the theoretical claim that even with a high level of responsiveness, a firm’s performance relies on its operations capabilities, which are renewed and enhanced by information sharing, rather than on information sharing itself.