The impact of knowledge complementarities on supply chain performance through knowledge exchange

The extent of knowledge complementarities (KC) is an important theoretical and practical issue in inter-firm relationships. However, extant research on KC is not clear about what constitutes KC and how the benefits of KC are realized. Further, few empirical studies have examined the impact of KC on inter-firm performance. The purpose of this study is to identify the dimensions of KC and to empirically examine the relationships among KC, inter-firm knowledge exchange, and supply chain performance. We have used data collected from 70 matched pairs of buyer and supplier in a procurement dyad to test a proposed model. In both sample sets, the results show that the relationship between knowledge exchange and supply chain performance was positive and significant. We also found positive relationships between knowledge exchange and inter-organizational relationship characteristics such as inter-organizational trust and inter-organizational information systems integration. While the path from KC to knowledge exchange was positive and significant in the buyer sample, it was not significant in the supplier sample.