Role of big data analytics capability in developing integrated hospital supply chains and operational flexibility: An organizational information processing theory perspective

Despite increasing research interest in big data analytics, exploring its important role in implementing supply chain management practices in healthcare organisations is still one of the major challenges for both academics and practitioners. We propose a research model theoretically grounded on organizational information processing theory (OIPT) to investigate the roles of big data analytics capability (BDAC) in developing hospital supply chain integration (SCI) and operational flexibility. The results from our analysis of survey data from a sample of 105 senior executives from the Chinese hospitals reveal that BDAC has a significant impact on three dimensions of hospital SCI: inter-functional integration, hospital-patient integration, and hospital-supplier integration; and that hospital-patient integration and hospital-supplier integration fully mediate the relationship between inter-functional integration and operational flexibility. These findings extend and validate OIPT within the context of big data-driven hospital supply chains, while also providing useful and timely guidance to healthcare practitioners in developing data-driven SCI for better operational flexibility, especially to respond to the unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.