Реферат: Strategic Information Systems Essay Research Paper The

Investment Business criteria NOT Cost-benefit

criteria criteria alone

Scope of impact Business domain NOT IT or IS domains

Executive Strategic (line) NOT IT manager

responsibility manager

Guiding principle Strategic – IT NOT IT for

alignment implementation

A further common feature of most papers to date is the implicit assumption that business needs drive IT and information strategy. There is evidence, however, that, in some organisations, IT strategic planning is driving corporate planning, and that IT can actively assist in the creation of business opportunities, rather than just support them (Oesterle 1991).

Finally, the literature to date generally adopts the attitude that executives do, can or should uncover systems by at least semi-plannable processes. It is apparent that an alternative view may be beginning to emerge. Although it is too early to do more than speculate upon its final shape, it is possible to draw attention to some key works. This section draws heavily on the work of Claudio Ciborra of the Theseus Institute and the University of Bologna, and especially on Ciborra (1991).

In tracing the emergence of the alternative view, Ciborra draws on the economic concepts of Chamberlin (1933), who defined ‘monopolistic competition’ as heterogeneous corporations “cultivating unique strengths and capabilities, and defending them against imitations by other firms”; and of Schumpeter (1950), who saw competition “as a process linked to innovation in product, market or technology”. He then notes the compatibility of these ideas with Mintzberg’s (1990) arguments about organisational culture, which question the ability of managers to discover advantage, but rather see advantage emerging from organisational processes.

Innovation “is more the outcome of the capitalist process of creative destruction than the result of a strategic planning process” (Barney 1985). Ability at guessing, learning, and sheer luck appear in such a perspective to be key competitive factors.

Ciborra enlarges on these beginnings, by arguing that innovation with strategic potential can be encouraged in two ways. One is to “rely on local information and routine behaviour, … allowing and even encouraging tinkering [bricolage] by people close to the operational level”. The other is to use ‘radical learning’ to “intentionally challenge and smash established routines” and “forge new competencies”.

In many ways, this argument appears revolutionary, but in other ways it does not. Some of the themes are detectable in the IS and adjacent management literature, particularly in those areas deriving from the Japanese tradition (Nonaka and Yamanouchi 1989), but also in such papers as McGinnis (1984), Henderson & Treacy (1986), Copeland & McKenney (1988) and Earl (1988), and in the notions of ‘organisational transformation’, IT-induced business re-configuration (Scott Morton 1991), business process re-design (Davenport & Short 1990), and ‘renovating the corporation’ (Brown 1991).

Research in Strategic Information Systems

It is increasingly clear that separating out the effects of IT on such abstract and complex variables as corporate processes and corporate performance, is fraught with difficulties. Conventional empirical research methods (in the sense of the collection of large amounts of data about large populations, followed by statistical analysis in order to test specific hypotheses) is not easy to apply to the topic of strategic information systems. Strategic studies are essentially about the long term, and hence longitudinal studies are highly desirable. Moreover, because of the extent to which multiple perspectives and interpretations are involved, triangulation is important, and data may in many cases have to be drawn from less formal sources not commonly used in formal research. Other problems arise because many of the organisations of interest to researchers are not only large and complex, but also comprise multiple business units. Care must therefore be taken that the appropriate level of aggregation is selected.

With the gradual maturation of the topic of strategic information systems, increased attention is being paid to research methods, and several important papers now take a more carefully considered approach than was possible during the early, anecdote-based phase (Bakos & Treacy 1986, Sager 1988, Sethi 1988, Venkatraman 1989, Clemons & Weber 1990a, Reich & Benbasat 1990, Broadbent & Weill 1991, Chan & Huff 1992, Ang?le et al 1993). It is to be expected that further developments and refinements in research methods will emerge during the next few years.

Conclusions

Strategic information systems is a topic which is very important, and highly dynamic. This paper has presented an interpretation of the emergence and development of theory in the area, and of current and emerging themes. Particularly significant tensions exist between the relevance of research outcomes and the rigour of research processes, and the literature must be used with an especially critical eye.

Organisations seek to gain significant advantages by employing SIS to alter the internal structure or the entire industry structure. Several frameworks exist which are intended to assist understanding of the use of SIS based on the industry organisation, value chain, and strategic thrusts. Organisations seek competitive advantages over other rivals along the whole industry value chain. Generic strategies have been proposed.

Despite the usefulness of these frameworks applied to the search for competitive advantages, these frameworks are market-oriented, and are not suitable to explain SIS developed in other non-market-oriented industries, such as government. Another deficiency of these frameworks is the concentration on competitive advantage to the exclusion of other perspectives. As a result of industry-wide adoption of SIS, the questions of sustainability of competitive advantage and of competitive necessity arise. This in turn leads to cooperative arrangements, including alliances, and at a more abstract level, collaboration.

IT has become a significant factor in the operation and planning of information-based enterprises. Strategic information systems theory has done much to enable the description, explanation and prediction of behaviour. There remain significant weaknesses which need to be addressed.