A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Masters of Science in Procurement and Supply Chain Management of
Mzumbe University
Due to the increasing importance of information sharing in the supply chains towards
better performances while there is lack of studies conducted in developing countries
like Tanzania, trying to investigate the determinants of information sharing among
trading partners and the impact of information sharing on the supply chain
performance led to the conduction of this study so as to fill the empirical gap. The
general objective of the study was to assess the determinants of information sharing
and the performance of supply chain, where the first three specific objectives focused
on ascertaining the influence of intra-organizational factors, inter-organizational
factors and environmental factors on information sharing while the fourth and last one
focused on ascertaining the influence of information sharing on the supply chain
performance. The study was conducted at Dar es Salaam taking beverage
manufacturing companies as a case. Resource based view (RBV), social exchange
theory (SET) and network theory (NT) together with other empirical studies conducted
in the developed countries were used as a basis for the development of the conceptual
framework. Both quantitative and qualitative research designs were employed for
findings triangulation purposes. The snowball sampling technique was used to collect
data from 170 respondents using online survey while purposive sampling was used to
collect data from 10 respondents through interviews. Confirmatory factor analysis and
structural equation modeling were used to analyze quantitative data while explanation
building process was used for qualitative data. The study findings indicated that for
intra-organizational factors only information technology had significant contribution
on information sharing while top management support had insignificant contribution;
for inter-organizational factors only trust was significant while commitment, common
vision and reciprocity were insignificant determiners; both of the environmental
factors the competitive environment and environmental uncertainty were found to have
significant positive influence on information sharing. Moreover, the study found that
supply chain performance is significantly determined by information sharing. The
study had several implications to various concerned stakeholders and suggested future
studies to take into account the indirect effects of determinants of information sharing
on the supply chain performance since they were ignored in this study