Artigo Revisado por pares

IT strategies: beyond competitive advantage

1993; Elsevier BV; Volume: 2; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0963-8687(93)90007-w

ISSN

1873-1198

Autores

Robert D. Galliers,

Tópico(s)

Big Data and Business Intelligence

Resumo

During the 1980s, we saw considerable energy being expended in the search for the Holy Grail of competitive advantage from information technology (IT). There were many academic papers published on the topic and consultants grew rich from their efforts to persuade companies to invest in strategic information systems. The topic itself rose to become one of the top two information systems management issues identified by IT directors and senior IT executives in the USA, and many organizations sought to replicate the success stories of American and United Airlines, Thomson Holidays, Frito-Lay, Otis Elevators, Mrs Field's Cookies and all the other celebrated cases that have entered the information systems mythology. In the cold light of the 1990s, however, much of this mythology has begun to pale. Were the success stories as real as they were first reported? Where is the sustainable advantage from IT? And if the stories were indeed real, to what extent were they planned or merely serendipitous? This editorial reflects on some of the more recent evidence available and raises some key points for debate in this important aspect of information systems management. It attempts to answer the question: What comes after competitive advantage? in terms of the on-going development of the topic 'IT strategy'.

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