The impact of factors on information sharing: An application of meta-analysis

Background
Information sharing plays a key role in supply chain performance. According to previous individual studies, technology, trust, commitment, and uncertainty are four potential factors affecting information sharing. However, most studies focus on testing a positive relationship between each factor and information sharing. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the effect of each factor on information sharing.

Objective
To determine the accurate effect of factors on sharing information and propose key factors to support decision-makers in improving their information sharing.

Data
Correlation coefficients between factors are collected from 41 individual studies with a total of 8,983 samples on Google Scholar

Methods
Using the rank correlation test and Egger’s regression test to test publication bias. The meta-analysis method is used to perform analysis models, including fixed-effect, random-effect, and Hunter and Schmidt methods

Results
Commitment plays the most important role in information sharing when compared to technology, trust, and uncertainty. Commitment accounts for 19% in the Hunter and Schmidt method and 22% in both fixed-effect and random-effect models. In addition, the result indicates that there are around 50% of other factors that affect the efficiency of sharing information besides four factors in our studies.