BUS606: Operations and Supply Chain Management

The purpose of this study was to investigate the fostering role of small and medium enterprise (SME) information technology use on collaborative communication, network governance and relationship longevity. In particular, five hypotheses were postulated. To test the proposed hypotheses, data were collected from SME employees in Zimbabwe. The empirical results supported all the posited research hypotheses in a significant way.

It is important to note about the study findings that the SME information technology has stronger effects on collaborative communication (0.729) than on network governance (0.324). However, network governance strongly influences relationship longevity (0.659) more than SME collaborative communication (0.226). Notably too, the relationship between collaborative communication and network governance is robust (0.611). By implication, this finding indicates that collaborative communication can have a strong influence on relationship longevity via network governance. Perhaps this could be due to the fact that collaborative communication is likely to be more effective between business partners when they are networked and that governance structures are pronounced.

Implications of the study

The ever-increasing importance of the SME sector in Zimbabwe cannot be over-emphasised. In particular, contribution to employment generation and economic growth among others has often been cited in the empirical literature. This article is an attempt to undertake research in an often-neglected context, but important sector of the Zimbabwean economy. Therefore, the findings of this empirical study are expected to provide fruitful implications to both practitioners and academics.

On the academic side, this article makes a significant contribution to literature by systematically exploring the impact of information technology resources on collaborative communication, network governance and business relationship longevity within the SME context. Overall, the current study findings provide tentative support to the proposition that information technology resources, collaborative communication and network governance should be recognised as significant antecedents for improved relationship longevity between suppliers and their buyers in the SME setting.

On the practitioners' side, the important influential role of information technology resources on relationship longevity in Zimbabwe's SME sector is highlighted. This article therefore submits that SME owners and their managers can benefit from the implications of these findings. For instance, given robust relationship between network governance and relationship longevity (0.659), collaborative communication and network governance (0.611), and IT resource and collaborative communication (0.729), managers in the SME sector and SME owners ought to pay attention to both collaborative communication and network governance. Such endeavours tend to optimise the IT resources impact on their relationship longevity with their business counterparts.

The general observation and conclusion drawn from these findings is that IT use has a positive and significant influence on collaborative communication, network governance and relationship longevity in the SME context – which by and large supports some of the previous research findings in the large business environment.

Limitations and future research

Despite the usefulness of this article, the research has its limitations. First and most significantly, the present research is conducted from the perspective of SME suppliers only. Perhaps if data is collected from both the SME suppliers and their buyers, and a comparative study is done, insightful findings about the impact of IT resources on collaborative communication, network governance and relationship longevity might be revealed. Second, the current study was limited to SMEs in Zimbabwe. Subsequent research should contemplate replicating this study in other developing countries for result comparisons. Finally, further research could also investigate the effects of IT resources on business performance, as the outcome is variable in the context of the SME sector. Such researches might potentially expand the understanding of the impact of IT resources on collaborative communication, network governance, relationship longevity and eventually business performance. These suggested future avenues of study stand to immensely contribute new knowledge to the existing body of SME-management literature, a context that is often neglected by researchers in developing countries.