The impact of flexible work arrangements and knowledge management on supply chain performance: The mediating role of employee productivity and the moderating effect of digital transformation

Abstract

In the era of technological development and the new era of the future of work to solve the supply chain disruptions, promote individual and supply chain productivity. This study aims to explore the factors that influence Supply Chain Performance (SCP) through their effects on Employee Productivity (EP) including Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA); Knowledge Management (KM) and Digital Transformation (DT) in the food and pharmaceutical industry. Resource Based View (RBV) Theory and Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) Framework are two fundamental theories chosen to explain the relationship between the factors. This study mainly uses quantitative methods by analyzing online survey data from 489 samples with the support of IBM SPSS and SMART-PLS tools. The results show that Flexible Work Arrangement, Knowledge Management and Digital Transformation have a positive impact on increasing Employee Productivity, and Employee Productivity also has a positive impact on Supply Chain Performance. The mediating role of EP is also found in the relationship between FWA-SCP and KM-SCP. In addition, the moderating role of DT is also explored in the relationship between FWA and KM with EP. This study has provided important findings, helping managers build strategies to implement FWA and KM in combination with the support of DT to increase employee productivity, increase flexibility to deal with supply chain disruptions, thereby contributing to improving supply chain performance. However, this study still has unavoidable shortcomings that are the premise for future studies to exploit to continue developing in this field.