The information system as a competitive weapon

Abstract

Long considered backoffice support tools, information systems have become strategic competitive weapons. In the airline, travel services financial services, and distribution industries, for example, information systems have become strategic competitive weapons. Information systems have been used to produce new productsorto substantiallymodifyold one. Frequently, these systems increase the customer's "switching costs," and thereby increase dependence on the supplier This phenomenon has been discussed by several researchers, and disparate descriptive models proposed. A new model the Customer

The Role of Information Technology in Customers’ Service Delivery and Firm Performance: Evidence from Nigeria’s Insurance Industry

“…They use a format of Leavitt's (1965) organizational representation to show that these systems through their effect on staff, structure of the organization, and process of management can affect competitive result. The studies of Parsons (1983b), and Ives and Learmonth (1984) suggest that information technology have created opportunities for firms to compete. They suggested four aspects of opportunities for IT competing and supportive oriented strategy and performance of a firm, viz: operational and functional efficiency improvement; usage of inter-organizational relatedness; IT product initiative; and acquiring bargaining benefit overriding one's customers and suppliers influence.…”

The role of IS capabilities in delivering sustainable improvements to competitive positioning

“…Within this broad domain, a significant number of researchers have been particularly interested in exploring the extent to which the innovative application of IT might have the potential to deliver an outright competitive advantage to their adopters [Mata et al, 1995; Powell & Dent-Micallef, 1997; Dehning & Stratopoulos, 2003]. Much of the early work in this field [Ives & Learmonth, 1984;Porter & Millar, 1986] adopted a 'competitive forces' perspective, in which competitive advantage is attained when IT is used innovatively to re-write the rules of competition by significantly lowering costs or facilitating differentiation. However, it wasn't long before serious questions were being asked about the sustainability of these strategic information systems [Clemons, 1986;Galliers, 1993].…”

Information Systems Outsourcing in Theory and Practice

“…These companies testified to the competitive advantage which can be achieved through the successful exploitation of IT. A host of competitive advantage frameworks sought to formalize and further legitimate the strategic potential of IT (Ives and Learmouth, 1984;McFarlan, 1984;Porter and Millar, 1985;Feeny and Ives, 1989). In 1989, Kodak outsourced its IT functions to IBM, Businessland and DEC (Brown and Eckerson, 1990;Applegate and Montealegre, 1991;Hovey, 1991).…”