Investigating flexibility and information technology as key elements for competitive advantage

Abstract

ABSTRACT"Time" has been appointed as a new source of Competitive Advantage (CA) and following this trend flexibility, that is deeply related to quick responses for changes in the environment, becomes a key element for CA Using survey data collected from 212 manufacturing companies in US, we investigate the importance of flexibility and Information Technology (IT) as major elements in achieving CA We identifY CA from performance measures related to market growth, market share and profitability. Flexibility is evaluated using manufacturing and product development perspectives, emphasizing changes in these two business functions. The study also looks at the relationship between the integration of Information Systems (IS) and introduction of Information Technology (IT), and key variables for CA The results support the hypothesis that flexibility is related to the measures of CA and show that ISIIT is primarily related to the service dimension.

Managing Interdisciplinary Human Intellectual Capital for Project and Organizational Development

“…One of the reasons could be the transition from self-conducted expert problem solving to team-based problem solvers, deriving from a new work life balance trend that strives for more flexibility [2]. These two workforce generations can be characterized as the static generation, which created a successful foundation through hierarchical leaded organizations in the past, and the fast-moving flexible agile generation of the future [3].…”

Um estudo empírico sobre a correlação entre automação flexível e flexibilidade de manufatura

“…achou que existia pouca correlação entre o grau de integração por computador e o grau de flexibilidade operacional de uma fábrica Xavier (1997). encontrou evidências que não confirmam a sua hipótese de que Tecnologia da Informação está correlacionada positivamente com flexibilidade.…”