Research On The Antecedents And Performance Of Firm’s Cross-Channel Integration From The Perspective Of Capability

With the rising of omni-channel marketing,traditional physical channels increasingly reliant on the support of e-commerce channels to ensure business performance growth.Therefore,the integration of offline physical channels,online store channels,and online mobile channels has become a key strategy for firms to promote their omni-channel marketing strategy.However,the influencing of firms’ own capabilities can lead to significant differences in cross-channel integration and performance outcomes,thus becoming an important challenge for many firms in implementing omni-channel marketing strategies.Even several scholars have conducted relevant research on cross-channel integration,but the existing literature has not been able to provide systematic empirical evidence on the driving factors and performance impacts of cross-channel integration.Therefore,scholars are calling for more in-depth empirical research on the driving factors and performance impacts of cross-channel integration,so as to better promote cross-channel integration research from both theoretical and practical perspectives.Based on this,this study will explore the mechanisms of the driving factors and performance impacts of cross-channel integration based on dynamic capability theory.Dynamic capability theory proposes that the processes of capability building and capability utilization are two important interrelated processes for firms obtaining competitive advantages.In sum,focusing on omni-channel marketing,this study explore the process of capability building and capability utilization of corss-channel integration,and reveals the key capability factors that affect cross-channel integration and its performance outcomes.Aiming at cross-channel integration,this study investigates the driving effects of technical and relational capabilities from the perspective of capability building,and examines the performance impact mechanism from the perspective of capability utilization.Specifically,cross-channel integration relies heavily on IT technology support,but with the diversification of IT technology,a key challenge for firms is the inability to effectively judge the differences in supporting cross-channel integration between different types of IT capabilities.Although existing research considers the impact of IT support capabilities,little research has paid attention to the differentiated effects of different types of IT support capabilities on cross-channel integration.Therefore,based on dynamic capability theory and institutional theory,study 1 mainly explores the differences in the impact of different types of IT support capabilities on cross-channel integration and analyzes the moderating roles of dysfunctional competition and government support on such relation.Through the analysis of survey data from 308 firms,study 1 shows that compared with IT support for strategy,IT support for process can more positively influence cross-channel integration.At the same time,IT support for strategy and IT support for process have differentiated effects on cross-channel integration under different congruence combinations.In addition,the relationship between IT support for strategy,and cross-channel integration is weakened by dysfunctional competition and strengthened by government support,while the relationship between IT support for process and cross-channel integration is not affected by dysfunctional competition or government support.Cross-channel integration is a relationship reconstruction process,which rely on the firm’s relationship management capabilities.However,in a complex and diverse multi-channel relationship,the core challenge faced by firms is how to effectively manage their relationships with channel partners to ensure cross-channel integration.Existing research has explored the impact of inter-organizational relationship management on supply chain integration,but the complex channel ownership relationships in multi-channel structures result in significant differences in the effects of different types of relationship management capabilities,which has been overlooked in previous research on cross-channel integration.Based on dynamic capability theory and resource orchestration theory,study 2 explores the differences in the impact of multidimensional channel control capabilities on cross-channel integration and analyzes the moderating effects of marketing capabilities and product development capabilities.Based on questionnaire data collected from 315 firms,study 2 confirms that formalized control capability positively affects cross-channel integration,while centralized control capability does not have a direct significant effect.At the same time,cross-channel integration is higher when formalized control capability and centralized control capability are incongruent than when they are congruent;when the congruence of the two exceeds a threshold level,cross-channel integration will be significantly improved.In addition,the study also found that formalized control capability only has a positive effect on cross-channel integration when combined with marketing capability,while centralized control capability only has a positive effect on cross-channel integration when combined with product research and development capability.As the importance of channel management becomes more prominent,achieving operational performance improvement through cross-channel integration has become the focus of firm attention.However,because of the diversification of cross-channel integration,firms face the problem of how to effectively allocate different types of cross-channel integration to achieve operational performance improvement such as supply chain resilience.In existing research,scholars have mostly focused on the impact of cross-channel integration on financial and other economic performance,with few attention paied to operational performance.Therefore,ased on dynamic capability theory and information system success theory,study 3 investigated the differences in cross-channel information integration,process integration,and service integration in developing supply chain resilience,and analyzed the moderating effects of two environmental uncertainties(market turbulence and regulatory uncertainty)on the relationship between the three cross-channel integrations and supply chain resilience.Through the analysis of survey data from 273 firms,study 3 found that information integration and service integration positively influence supply chain resilience,while process integration cannot significantly affect supply chain resilience.At the same time,market turbulence negatively moderates the impact of process integration and positively regulates the impact of service integration.Regulatory uncertainty positively moderates the impact of process integration and negatively moderates the impact of service integration.Furthermore,market turbulence and regulatory uncertainty cannot moderate the impact of information integration.In addition,the three cross-channel integrations and two environmental uncertainties constitute the five possible antecedent factors of supply chain resilience,and the different combinations of these factors have different impacts on supply chain resilience.The main contributions of this study are as follows:Firstly,based on capability building and institutional theory,this study confirms the differential impact of IT support for strategy and IT support for process on crosschannel integration,and clarifies the dependence of the two IT support capabilities on the institutional environment.This study expands the understanding of the differential effects of multiple IT support capabilities on cross-channel integration,and enriches the understanding of the potential impact mechanism of the institutional environment on the process of capability building for cross-channel integration.Secondly,based on capability building and resource orchestration theory,this study clarifies the impact of channel control capability and resource orchestration capability on cross-channel integration.The study expands the understanding of the differential effects of multiple channel control capabilities on cross-channel integration,and through the clarification of the joint effect of firm channel control capability and resource orchestration capability,further addresses the deficiency in the understanding of capability combination situations,providing theoretical guidance for managers on how to deploy channel control capability and resource orchestration capability to improve channel integration.Thirdly,based on capability utilization and information system success theory,this study reveals the mechanism for improving operational performance through crosschannel integration,and clarifies the impact of three types of cross-channel integration on supply chain resilience.The study expands the theoretical understanding of the performance outcomes of multiple cross-channel integrations in the supply chain.In addition,by considering the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty,the study expands the understanding of the boundary conditions for the performance outcomes of cross-channel integration.