Performance Impacts of Strategy,Information Technology Applications,and Business Process Outsourcing in U.S. Manufacturing Plants

This paper develops a conceptual model to study the role of outsourcing strategies and plant‐level information technology (IT) application infrastructure in the outsourcing of production and support business processes, as well as their subsequent impact on overall plant performance. We validate this model empirically using cross‐sectional survey data from U.S. manufacturing plants. We find that some IT applications are more effective at enabling the outsourcing of business processes than others. For example, the implementation of enterprise management systems is associated with the outsourcing of both production and support processes, whereas operations management systems are not associated with the outsourcing of plant processes. Plants with a low‐cost outsourcing strategy are more likely to outsource support processes than plants with a competency‐focused outsourcing strategy. However, both cost‐ and competency‐based strategies have a positive and similar impact on the outsourcing of production processes. In terms of implications for plant performance, our findings indicate that the outsourcing of production and support processes is associated with higher gross margins. Although plant IT infrastructure is positively associated with favorable on‐time delivery rates, there is no positive association between the incidence of plant outsourcing and on‐time delivery rates. These results have implications for crafting plant‐level outsourcing strategies and for investments in IT systems to facilitate the outsourcing of business processes for enhanced plant performance.     

企业战略信息管理的理论模型

企业战略信息管理是随着信息技术在企业应用的深入与发展、信息资源战略地位的凸显、电子商务的出现以及知识经济的兴起而出现的一个新的信息实践和研究领域,占据这个制高点有利于整合信息资源和信息力量,有利于制定和落实“以信息化带动工业化”的战略,有利于企业的转型和跨越式发展,从而也有利于放大信息技术、信息资源和信息人员的作用并提高其在企业中的地位。企业战略信息管理是企业信息资源管理发展的高级阶段,是制定、实施和评估企业信息战略的过程,是由相互关联的信息技术管理、信息资源管理和电子商务管理三部分组成的,关注的重点在于确立企业信息战略构架、整合企业内外部的信息资源、促进企业的转型和可持续发展、塑造学习型组织。企业战略信息管理理论也是培养高级信息管理人才特别是信息主管(CIO)不可或缺的理论支撑。     

Using IT for competitive advantage at Thomson holidays

This article describes how information technology was used to improve productivity and customer services in the travel and package holidays business. Information plays a vital role in services businesses such as this one and its introduction and development had a dramatic impact on turnover. The author emphasises that IT strategy and investment cannot stand still, no matter how successful—and it must constantly be developing and extending to assimilate new technologies.     

Integrating information systems into business strategies

The role of information systems (IS) in business is changing rapidly. The information revolution, driven by dramatic improvements in cost and performance of the technology is radically altering the business environment of many firms— restructuring whole industries, re-aligning the balance of power and leverage of industry component firms and enabling competitive strategies to be implemented or sustained more effectively. This transformation of role requires strategies for information systems to become an integral part of business strategy formulation. Traditional approaches to the management of IS activities are inappropriate for the determination of business strategies for systems. However, the techniques of corporate strategic analysis and formulation can be used to determine how IS should be managed to gain maximum business benefit.     

建立与企业战略相适应的IT战略的路径和方法研究——对UPS和FedEx的战略匹配案例研究

IT技术的广泛应用引起了众多行业戏剧性的变化,企业管理人员越来越发现IT已成为组织的一个战略性要素,如何建立与企业战略相适应的IT战略也成为实业界和学术界讨论的热点问题。本文结合Henderson与Venkatraman提出的战略匹配模型,通过研究UPS与FedEx公司在不同竞争阶段应用相应的IT战略来支持竞争的整个发展过程,指出了UPS和FedEx在不同的环境下运用不同的战略匹配模型来选择与企业战略相匹配的IT战略的途径,从而提出了在不同的竞争环境下,根据企业关注的焦点不同,选择不同的IT战略与企业战略相适应的方法,这一方法将有助于指导企业管理人员制定与企业战略相匹配的IT战略。     

Competitive and Cooperative Positioning in Supply Chain Logistics Relationships*

Cooperative logistics relationships require the sharing of information, which must be enabled by the integration of disparate information systems across partners. In this article, we theorize business‐to‐business logistics relationships should be managed using cooperative and competitive postures. Based on data from 91 dyadic relationships using interorganizational information technology (IT), we find that performance gains accrue when parties share strategic information and customize IT; mutual trust enables IT customization and strategic‐information flows and equitable relationship‐specific investments positively impact IT customization, mutual trust, and performance. Among other scholarly and practical implications discussed, partners should compete on resources for IT customization and cooperate to share strategic information. Managers tend to think of relationships with firms as polar opposites and view them as entirely cooperative or entirely competitive. Our results support active balancing and understanding of both competitive and cooperative stances. Such an approach enables conditions for participation symmetry that yields greater performance gains.     

Managing strategy through business processes

The work presented in this paper, following an in depth review of literature, developed a set of requirements for a Dynamic Strategy Management Process. Having evaluated the existing strategy management frameworks, models, methodologies, tools and techniques, the research concluded that although all approaches reviewed collectively met all the requirements, individually none of the approaches fulfilled all of these requirements. To fulfil these dynamic strategy management process requirements, PROPHESY ( P rocess O riented P erformance H eaded S trategy) was developed. The paper describes in some detail, the evaluation of the PROPHESY process and demonstrates its application through a case study. The paper concludes that strategy should focus on creating value that is independent for each business unit. This means developing horizontal strategies that have objectives of co-ordinating business processes and developing objectives that encourage the sharing of resources and skills.     

The development of global IT infrastructure

A research model of the impact of a multinational corporations’ (MNC) global strategic orientation on global IT infrastructure was developed using global integration, or the degree to which a global strategy is actually implemented, as a mediator. A “matched pair” survey of 94 MNCs was conducted (two respondents per firm) in order to guard against common source bias. The results showed that the firms that pursue a globally oriented strategy actually enacted these strategies as indicated by a wide-variety of resource flows across national units. The role of the level of global integration as a mediator between global strategic orientation and global IT capabilities was empirically demonstrated. This confirms that a global strategy is not sufficient to ensure that an enabling IT infrastructure will be developed; rather it is the actual level of integration and interdependence that is achieved as a result of the strategy that drives IT infrastructure. The primary areas in which global integration was found to be closely linked to the global IT infrastructure were human resources, which significantly influenced the reach, range, support services and planning of the global IT infrastructure, and information resources which significantly influenced the planning dimension of the infrastructure. These results strongly suggest that the transfer of people among national units creates an information needs “pull” which leads to the development of better IT infrastructure and that the “push” of standardized information also contributes positively.     

A process-oriented perspective on differential business value creation by information technology: An empirical investigation

The relationship between information technology investments and firm value as an area of inquiry has sustained interest among IS researchers over the past decade. More recently, some have challenged the notion differential value among firms through Information Technology (IT) as it evolves into a ubiquitous utility-like set of technologies. This study examines the relationship between IT and business value from a process-oriented perspective, and also helps to identify the underlying links between IT and its differential business value to firms. By drawing upon economic and organizational theories, this paper develops a process framework to assess the intermediate organizational process capabilities and overall performance of firms that effectively deploy and use IT. Using data from over 80 firms, the study finds empirical support for the differential business value created by IT along a number of process oriented dimensions. These findings are discussed as these results set an optimistic tone for IT as a major causal driver of differentiation.     

企业IT项目风险评估与规避策略研究

结合企业竞争性战略思想构建了一个企业IT项目风险评估与规避模型,建立了企业IT项目风险评估的指标体系,在对湖北省128家企业信息化项目与风险现状调查研究的基础上对风险因素进行了分类、测度和评估,得出了战略与风险的内在关系,并根据风险评估结果分析了企业战略执行的效果。最后,对高风险的企业IT项目提出了一套风险规避策略并进行应用。结果表明,计划与控制风险对各种企业IT项目执行的竞争性战略均有显著影响,采取不同战略的企业,影响其IT项目开发的风险各不相同,选择风险规避的策略与时机也存在差异。     

Design of a strategic planning management information system

Information systems that are to support strategic planning must be developed on bases that reflect the unique nature of strategic organizational decisions. This paper presents a systems design methodology which implements five basic criteria for the design of a strategic planning Management Information System (MIS). The methodology uses discriminant analyses of the perceived importance to managers of various categories of strategic information to delineate the most significant information requirements of various managerial groups. These results are augmented with similar analyses based on the personal characteristics of the potential system users in order to implement a design criterion related to the integrated nature of a planning MIS and a ‘teaching’ objective which is posited to be valid and feasible for such a system.     

信息技术资源和信息技术能力的互补性及其绩效影响

信息技术资源和信息技术能力之间的关系是明确信息技术价值实现机理的基础。本文基于资源基础理论、竞争战略理论和核心能力理论,构建了信息技术资源、信息技术能力、信息系统支持企业竞争战略、信息系统支持企业核心能力和企业绩效之间关系的理论模型,研究信息技术资源和信息技术能力在信息技术价值实现过程中的互补性以及其对企业绩效的影响机理。利用层次回归分析方法对296份中国企业的实际调查数据进行了数据分析和模型拟合。研究结果表明信息技术资源和信息技术能力在信息技术价值实现过程中具有互补性,而且两者之间的互补性通过信息系统支持企业竞争战略和信息系统支持企业核心能力等中介变量间接影响企业绩效。     

The Strategic Management of IT Investment Decisions: A Research Note

The concept that Information Technology can be used as part of an organization's strategy changes its role in the organization. Whilst investments associated with current or ‘more of the same’ computer systems are proposed by the DP manager, requests for investments associated with the use of IT as a competitive weapon come from a much wider audience. Since the size of the investment may be large and its potential impact on the organization profound there is a need to objectively analyze and manage such investments at the strategic level. Sophisticated models exist in the literature (Butler, 1988; Porter, 1988; Marsden, 1988; Synott, 1987) and there is much research to support the view that IT and corporate strategic models need to be aligned (Feeney & Brownlee, 1986; Haffenden, 1988 and Brewer, 1987). However the results from in-depth interviews with highly placed managers suggest that the decisions are based on more informal processes and that there exists differing views on the relationship between IT and corporate strategies.     

An Examination of IT Planning in a Large,Diversified Public Organization*

The conduct of information technology (IT) planning processes has been of dominant managerial concern in public and private organizations. Yet, current IT planning research offers little guidance on the types of planning actions and behaviors that are appropriate to organizational contexts. We focus on the conduct of the IT planning process by describing an exploratory research project. The project empirically examined a number of issues associated with managing IT planning within a single large public enterprise, particularly identifying actions and behaviors related to producing quality IT plans. The results of the study yield some useful set of guidelines; most interesting is the importance of building IT infrastructure based on IT sophistication and innovativeness for large agencies to improve plan quality. Other recommendations include having a focused, balanced technology and business planning orientation that incorporates a strategic outlook, support of top management, attention to business planning, and early consensus among planning members.     

The digital transformation of health care

The arrival of the Internet offers the opportunity to fundamentally reinvent medicine and health care delivery. The "e-health" era is nothing less than the digital transformation of the practice of medicine, as well as the business side of the health industry. Health care is only now arriving in the "Information Economy." The Internet is the next frontier of health care. Health care consumers are flooding into cyberspace, and an Internet-based industry of health information providers is springing up to serve them. Internet technology may rank with antibiotics, genetics, and computers as among the most important changes for medical care delivery. Utilizing e-health strategies will expand exponentially in the next five years, as America's health care executives shift to applying IS/IT (information systems/information technology) to the fundamental business and clinical processes of the health care enterprise. Internet-savvy physician executives will provide a bridge between medicine and management in the adoption of e-health technology.     

Strategies for planning

In recent years there has been a good deal of discussion amongst planning specialists and academics about the gap which exists between the theory of planning as set out in journals and textbooks, and the practice of planning in private and public organizations. Planners are continually complaining about the resistance to planning by top management and operating managers in divisions and departments.In this article the author aims to produce a reconciliation between theory and practice and to discuss what alternative strategies are open to planners in devising planning systems for their organizations.He suggests that the problem has its origin in the fact that corporate planning theory was first developed by management scientists as a total systems approach. Corporate planners have failed to sell an integrated planning system either as programme budgeting or as corporate planning. Research suggests that a management team can only adopt and implement a comprehensive planning system in very special circumstances, e.g. when the organization's survival is threatened, a new management team has been appointed and the staff of the organization are ready to accept radical change.In normal circumstances the planner is wrong to advocate a ‘root and branch’ solution. He must diagnose the planning needs of the organization and his objective must be not merely to establish a particular planning procedure but rather to discover how he can best improve the quality of management decisions.Recent studies on strategy formation indicate that the introduction of a formal planning procedure is only a partial answer to the problem of improving the quality of management decisions.The paper reviews various approaches to planning and considers how they relate to organizations with different strategic problems, with differing organization structures and various management styles.     

Environmental Factors,Managerial Processes,and Information Technology Investment Strategies

Although significant research attention has been directed at understanding the value of information technology (IT) investments for firms, very little attention has been paid to understand the IT investment behavior of firms. This article seeks to fill this void. We introduce the concept of IT investment strategy, defined by dimensions of intensity and proactiveness, to characterize the IT investment behavior of firms. Synthesizing the environmental deterministic and strategic choice perspectives of a firm's strategic decision making, we examine the effects of environmental factors, managerial processes, and the interplay between them on IT investment strategy. Specifically, we examine the impact of environmental factors such as industry clockspeed and information intensity on IT investment strategy. We also incorporate the strategic choice perspective to argue that managerial processes such as frequent chief executive officer—chief information officer communications and collective information systems planning play a critical role in shaping the firm's IT investment strategy. The empirical results show that the environmental variables are related to IT investment strategy. Besides, managerial processes serve as a means to understand the environment and thus moderate the relationships between the environmental variables and the various facets of IT investment strategy. The conceptualization of IT investment strategy and the focus on both environmental determinism and strategic choice should enrich our understanding of firms’ IT investing behavior.     

Fit in strategic information technology management research: an empirical comparison of perspectives

The impacts of information technology on business performance has been a focus of research in recent years. In this regard, contingency models based on the notion of “fit” between the organization's management of IT, its environment, strategy, and structure seem to show promise. Six perspectives are examined as they pertain to the relationships between the firm's environmental uncertainty, its strategic orientation, its structure, its strategic management of IT, and its performance, namely moderation, mediation and matching as bivariate approaches to fit, and covariation, profile deviation and gestalts as systems approaches. These relationships are analyzed by means of an empirical study of 110 small enterprises. Results obtained from applying and comparing the six perspectives illustrate their significant differences and confirm the need for conceptual and methodological rigor when applying contingency theory in strategic information technology management research.     

A control engineering framework for planning

Control Engineering provides a convenient framework for analyzing and understanding the essential features of business planning and control processes. This is because the basic idea of a control hierarchy is fundamental both to Control Engineering and to the control of a business. Control hierarchies in both business and in engineering are information-processing devices. As a business grows in size and complexity, its control hierarchies grow correspondingly more complex (‘The Principle of Hierarchization’); this is in order to manage the increased information-processing load.The authors describe how the basic control diagram can provide valuable insight into the planning and control hierarchies of business systems. The authors emphasize that the ‘Control Engineering’ method of analyzing the management process complements exisiting theories of management planning and control.     

A Resource‐Based View of Strategic IT Alignment: How Knowledge Sharing Creates Competitive Advantage

A critical decision problem for top management, and the focus of this study, is whether the CEO (chief executive officer) and CIO (chief information officer) should commit their time to formal planning with the expectation of producing an information technology (IT)‐based competitive advantage. Using the perspective of the resource‐based view, a model is presented that examines how strategic IT alignment can produce enhanced organizational strategies that yield competitive advantage. One hundred sixty‐one CIOs provided data using a postal survey. Results supported seven of the eight hypotheses. They showed that information intensity is an important antecedent to strategic IT alignment, that strategic IT alignment is best explained by multiple constructs which operationalize both process and content measures, and that alignment between the IT plan and the business plan is significantly related to the use of IT for competitive advantage. Study results raise questions about the effect of CEO participation, which appears to be the weak link in the process, and also about the perception of the CIO on the importance of CEO involvement. The paper contributes to our understanding of how knowledge sharing in the alignment process contributes to the creation of superior organizational strategies, provides a framework of the alignment‐performance relationship, and furnishes several new constructs.