An Empirical Investigation of EDI Usage and Performance Improvement in Food Supply Chains

The use of electronic data interchange (EDI) and related coordination activities among supply chain members can improve supply chain performance. This study examines the relationship between a number of variables relating to EDI usage and supply chain coordination activities and performance improvements in efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness. Our main research questions are: (1) how does a firm´s approach to its EDI implementation and supply chain coordination affect the type and amount of performance improvement? and (2) what factors are critical to the successful implementation of EDI? Using data from a survey of the food industry´s supply chain members, we build logistic regression models to identify the most important factors relating to a successful EDI implementation and performance improvement. We find that, while several different factors contribute to the various aspects of the performance improvement, developing EDI systems with a focus on a firm´s customers is critical to the improvement of all performance measures.