The Influence Mechanism of Strategic Partnership on Enterprise Performance: Exploring the Chain Mediating Role of Information Sharing and Supply Chain Flexibility

In the context of the digital economy, establishing close strategic partnerships to cope with market uncertainties is an important strategic choice for firms seeking to achieve sustainable development in developing countries, particularly in Eastern culture. However, research on how strategic partnerships affect enterprise performance remains controversial. To address this issue, based on the supply chain management practices of Chinese enterprises in the era of the digital economy, and according to resource dependence theory, social network theory, and transaction cost theory, a chain multiple intermediary model was constructed and 243 Chinese enterprises information was collected for an empirical test. The results show that strategic partnership has a significant direct positive impact on information sharing, supply chain flexibility, and enterprise performance. Information sharing has a significant direct positive impact on enterprise performance and plays a partial mediating role between strategic partnership and enterprise performance. Supply chain flexibility was also found to positively impact enterprise performance and plays a partial mediating role between strategic partnership and enterprise performance. The findings also showed that information sharing and supply chain flexibility play a chain mediating role between strategic partnership and enterprise performance. This study explores the effects of strategic partnership on enterprise performance, which provides an important supplement to theoretical studies of supply chain management. The results help provide targeted solutions on how to effectively implement supply chain management for enterprises in emerging and developing nations.