Supply Chain Management in Information Technology
Quantitative Journal Article Review of Infer Stats in Decision-Making
You will review quantitative research. The topic is up to you as long as you choose a peer-reviewed, academic research piece. I suggest choosing a topic that is at least in the same family as your expected dissertation topic so that you can start viewing what is out there. There are no hard word counts or page requirements as long as you cover the basic guidelines. You must submit original work, however, and a paper that returns as a large percentage of copy/paste to other sources will not be accepted. (Safe Assign will be used to track/monitor your submission for plagiarism. Submissions with a Safe Assign match of more than 25% will not be accepted.)
Please use APA formatting and include the following information:
- Introduction/Background: Provide context for the research article. What led the author(s) to write the piece? What key concepts were explored? Were there weaknesses in prior research that led the author to the current hypothesis or research question?
- Methodology: Describe how the data was gathered and analyzed. What research questions or hypotheses were the researchers trying to explore? What statistical analysis was used?
- Study Findings and Results: What were the major findings from the study? Were there any limitations?
- Conclusions: Evaluate the article in terms of significance, research methods, readability and the implications of the results. Does the piece lead into further study? Are there different methods you would have chosen based on what you read? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the article in terms of statistical analysis and application? (This is where a large part of the rubric is covered.)
Sample Answer
Introduction/Background
Ahmad Hamed et al. (2017) investigated how supply chain management and information systems influence the operational performance of small medium enterprises. Evidence shows that small and medium-sized organizations are struggling to achieve sustainable competitive advantages (Prashar, 2019). Small and medium-sized organizations are facing various challenges, including stiff competition they face from well-developed businesses globally and contextual disadvantages from developed countries, which limit their ability to achieve sustainable competitive advantage (Singh & Kumar, 2020). Therefore, for SMEs to survive and succeed in business, they need to create and adopt innovative strategies. Evidence reveals that effective supply chain management and utilization of the latest Information Systems (IS) and technologies play a significant role in SMEs’ long-term success (Basheer, et al., 2019). However, the earlier studies have not investigated the impact of the utilization of information systems (IS) and effective supply chain management (SCM) on the performance of SMEs in emerging economies. As a result, the author was motivated to investigate the effect of supply chain management and information systems’ implementation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The study was involved the SME industry of Saudi Arabia. Thus, the key concepts explored include supply chain management (SCM) and information systems (IS) and how they contribute to long-term success in SMEs.
Methodology
The researcher utilized questionnaires to collect data from the study participants. They include the senior officers of SCM and IS activities. A total of 172 questionnaires were returned from a total of 500 questionnaires issued. The researcher explored the impact of supply chain management & information systems’ practices on Saudi Arabia SME’s operational performance. The researcher utilized hierarchical regression analysis to investigate how the variables, supply chain management, and information systems influenced the operational performance of SMEs in Saudi. Besides, the researcher developed both explanatory and confirmatory factor analysis for the empirical identification validation of dimension of the research’s construct.
Study findings and results
The regression analysis indicated significant positive results regarding the impact of the variables on OPER of sample small and medium enterprises in Saudi Arabia. Thus, this showed that effective utilization of information systems and supply chain management plays a significant role in improving operational performance in small and medium enterprises.
One of the limitations of this study includes the use of a small sample size. This limits the generalizability of the study results. Therefore, the study results cannot represent all SMEs in Saudi Arabia or other small economy countries. Secondly, the study utilized self-administered survey questionnaires to collect data. This data collection method has various limitations, which include respondent dishonesty. This is likely to occur since there is little done to ensure the respondents answer the questionnaires truthfully (Saunders & Kulchitsky, 2021).
Conclusion
The article is well-organized and easy to read. The study plays a significant role in promoting the operational and financial performance of small-scale businesses. The study findings support that effective supply chain management and the application of information systems in small and medium businesses can help promote their operational performance. However, the study findings are not generalizable. Therefore, this gives room for further studies that will utilize a large sample size. One of the weaknesses of this study is that it uses a small sample size. This limits the application of the study findings.
