DETERMINANTS OF ADOPTION OF NEW TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: A SURVEY OF PHARMACEUTICAL ORGANIZATIONS

Abstract

Purpose: The objective ofthis study is to analyze the relationship between technology adoption in Supply chain management and the factors affecting it. Methodology & Design: A number of statistical tests has been used under this research like regression, correlation, mean, standard deviation, etc. This research was conducted on the basis of survey with adopted questionnaire because it is believed that questionnaire is an efficient mechanism for collection of data. The total sample size taken for the study was 300 respondents but out ofthat we obtained 289 responses. However, convenience sampling is used because this technique is best way to reach to the respondents. Findings: According to the results it is found that all the independent variables such as cost reduction, response time and firm’s performance has a positive impact towards technology adoption except the one independent variable i.e relationship with other parties has a negative impact on technology adoption in SCM. Limitations: The conducted research is limited by time, budget and data availability. Some other limitations includes that the participants might not be the representative ofthe whole population of Pakistan and other is the size ofsample is too small so that it doesn’t reflect the view of entire population of Pharmaceutical Industry in Pakistan as in this research few Pharma companies are targeted. Recommendations: A similar study could be replicated to a larger sample including more people from different industries to enable comparisons of results and establish more variables that may affect the technology adoption in supply chain management. In addition to that this study recommendsto investigate the causes and other possibilities of relationship with other parties as it had a negative impact on adoption of new technology. Moreover, the study recommends that to enhance supply chain effectiveness, the management should organize for staff training both internal and external through seminars and workshop which will go a long way in enhancing ownership of the process by employees. The organizations should enhance these practices as maintenance has to provide the required reliability, availability, efficiency and capability of production system in accordance to the need ofthese characteristics. The study also recommends that employees should understand the supply chain technology adoption processes in detail so that they may be able to implement it in future work.