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Águila, A.R.; Bruque, S.; Padilla, A. (2003): �Lines of Advance in Global Information Technology Management: American/West European Approach� in Tan, F.B. (ed.): Advanced Topics in Global Information Management. Idea Group Publishing. London.
LINES OF ADVANCE IN GLOBAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
MANAGEMENT. AMERICAN/WEST EUROPEAN APPROACH
Ana R. del Águila Obra University of Málaga, Spain Sebastián Bruque Cámara1 University of Jaén, Spain Antonio Padilla Meléndez
University of Málaga, Spain SUMMARY
During the last decades numerous theoretical frameworks have been developed in the
field of general management. Each theoretical framework has proved useful to explain
specific questions about the structure, processes or performance in the modern firm. In this
study we try to propose some connections between general management literature and IT
literature. Some of the most important management theories, such as the Transaction Costs
Economics, the Agency Theory, the Resource Based View and the Knowledge Based View
can be useful to explain specific IT issues. The final goal of this chapter is to propose several
lines of advance in global IT using different theories or frameworks as the basis for future
research.
1. Introduction
Information technology (IT) has proved to be an engine for social and economic
change in the last few decades (Castells, 1998). Organizations at the beginning of the 21st
Century have not only played a part in technological change but have constituted the principal
agent of modernization and progress in society in general. Various researchers in management
1 Correspondence to: Sebastián Bruque. E.U.P. Linares, University of Jaén, C/ Alfonso X el Sabio, 28, 23700 Linares (Jaén), Spain. Tfno: +34 953 026 571; Fax: +34 953 026 508; e-mail: [email protected]
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have studied the effects of IT on organizations, leading to a growing body of work in this
area.
Thus, among areas of research, the structural effects of IT have been studied
(Orlikowski and Robey, 1991), the links between investment in IT and performance
(Brynjolfsson et al., 1994), and the interrelations between the human element and IT (Ross,
Beath and Goodhue, 1996; among others). From a global perspective of business, the IT
implementation and diffusion (Palvia, 1997) with emphasis in different cultures and countries
(Enns and Huff, 1999; Davis, 1999; Palvia, Palvia and Whitworth, 2002) have been analyzed.
From the formal point of view, the new technologies have been analyzed from practically all
approaches and aspects of Economic and Organizational Theory. However, and despite the
variety of work done, there has been little effort of integration to put forward a complete and
global view of the knowledge accumulated during the past few decades.
In this study we attempt to make up for this lack of research, as well as giving a
synopsis of previous work and an attempt to advance our understanding. We propose a series
of future lines of research, the majority of them previously unexplored. To do this we have
structured the work into a first part in which we analyze the specialized literature, pointing out
the different theoretical perspectives from which the effects of IT on businesses have been
studied. Secondly we organize the proposed research according to various formal criteria, and
with regards to content. We end this study with an analysis and discussion of the proposed
areas of research, and we draw some final conclusions.
2. Approaches in the study of IT in management
IT has long ceased to be a specialist area restricted to qualified professionals of strictly
technical backgrounds. Even as early as the 1960�s a number of studies appeared that
attempted to analyze � although in a very speculative manner � the importance that IT might
have in the future in aspects such as inter-organizational communications (Kaufman, 1966) or
the generic impact in human communication and business (Licklider, 1960; Licklider and
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Taylor, 1968). Other authors were interested in problems concerning the management of
information administration systems or more generally in general information systems
(Dearden, 1966; Ackoff, 1967). Research began at that point which, from the point of view of
Management, tried to explain the behavior of the new technologies in the business system and
the effect it might have on the different characteristics of the company, such as size, structure,
processes and performance (Barney, 1986; Prahalad and Bettis, 1986).
Specifically the literature has been concerned with studying three questions related to
the presence of IT in the company (see Table 1). First, there was the need to resolve questions
arising from the introduction of the new technologies into the companies, from a purely
descriptive point of view, based on innovative companies and normally on the direct
experience of the author. The question being answered was what does this type of technology
do, or what can it do, in the company, paying attention to the different functions it carries out,
its features, and how it develops within the company. They are highly explorative studies,
whose principal objective is to instruct and inform the management about the business
possibilities of the new tools, and they rarely use elaborate theoretical models that allow
conclusive outcomes. We call this group of studies the Explorative Focus on IT in the
company. We can distinguish two areas of research: description of successful cases and the
use of the concept of the life-cycle to explain the evolution of IT in the company (see Table
1).
Second there is the research area concerned with the impact that IT has on business
structure. These are studies that analyze the forces, which upon application of technological
solutions, modify or alter the conditions in which companies organize internally. This
research draws on studies with a long tradition in fields related to the structure of
organizations, such as organizational design, the management of change, workgroups and
intra-organizational communication, analyzing the effect that IT has on the various structural
aspects. We shall call this area of research Structural Focus. This is one of the subjects most
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frequently related to IT, that is, the analysis of the relationship between this type of
technologies and the structure of the organization (Scott Morton, ed., 1991; Nault, 1998;
Robey and Boudreau, 1999; Malone, 1997; Hitt, 1999), how investment in IT is related to
variables measuring a company�s form, such as size, diversification, vertical integration and
options of growth (Dewan, Michael and Min; 1998) or the impact of IT on jobs (Martinko,
Henry and Zmud 1996; Barrett and Walsham, 1999). IT creates new options for
organizational design, and the new organizational forms in turn provide new opportunities for
the design of technology (Fulk and DeSanctis, 1995; 1999). Yates and Benjamin (1991) point
out that IT has repeatedly played a role in the evolution of organizational structures and assert
that innovations in IT have made new organizational forms possible, and vice versa. For their
part, Galbraith and Lawler III (1993) consider that IT can lead to the marketplace becoming
more efficient than the hierarchy in the market-hierarchy relation for the coordination and taking
of economic decisions.
Despite the limited level of consensus that exists in the field (Nault, 1998), it is
interesting to review the different structural aspects which could be modified by the
implantation and development of IT. Among these we could find the following effects, which
we set out as areas of research within this approach (see Table 1):
(1) The reduction in the number of hierarchical levels and flattening out of business
structures.
(2) The disappearance of routine jobs.
(3) The integration of departments.
(4) The formation of workgroups.
(5) The reduction of distance between executives and subordinates.
(6) The possible implantation of telecommuting.
(7) The relationship between IT architecture and organizational structure.
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Third, we will refer to work attempting to analyze the impact of IT on strategic.
management in the company, especially to the relation between the implantation of IT,
strategy and performance. There are distinct approaches which respond to the different
objectives of analysis of the strategic schools that have developed in the past decades:
Industrial Organization, Organizational Economics, Resource Based View, Population
Ecology, Institutional Theory, Strategic Networks Perspective, etc. We shall use the generic
term Strategic Focus to refer to the work done in this area.
The analysis of the relation between IT, organizational strategy and the gaining of
competitive advantage, began to reach maturity in the early 1980�s with the work of McLean
and Soden (1977); Parsons (1983); McFarlan, McKenney and Pyburn (1983); McFarlan
(1984); Benjamin et al. (1984); Rackoff, Wiseman and Ullrich, (1985); Cash and Konsynski
(1985); Bakos and Treacy (1986); Culnan and Markus (1987), and, especially, Porter and
Millar (1985). This work could all be considered under the technical framework of Industrial
Organization, after the fundamental work of Porter (1980, 1981, 1985), and of his theory of
competitive advantage. Subsequently, the different paradigms would have influence on the
researchers that were trying to explain the relation between IT and Strategic Management.
Thus we can consider the following research areas as coming within this strategic
approach: Industrial Organization and IT (at the industrial, company and strategic levels);
Organizational Economics and IT (efficient size of organization, influence of IT on structures;
IT and organizational size); Productivity Paradox; Strategic Necessity Hypothesis and the
Resource Based View and IT. In the last case we consider the joint behavior of resources and
IT; the analysis of strategic resources complementary to IT; the impact of IT on the diffusion
and management of organizational knowledge. As other perspectives, we highlight the Upper
Echelon Focus and IT; the Dynamic Capabilities Framework and IT; and the Perspective of
the Stakeholders and IT (see Table 1). Also, is highlighted the focus on Global Information
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Technology Management that analyzes the IT implementation and adoption differences
among different cultures and countries (Palvia, Palvia and Whitworth, 2002).
--------------------------------------- Insert Table 1 about here
--------------------------------------- The Internet as part of the new paradigm
In the past few years there has been a growing interest among researchers in Business
Management in the impact that the appearance of TCP/IP technologies are having on
companies at the beginning of the 21st Century, since the Internet has meant a fundamental
change in the way organizations are managed and structured (Rayport and Sviokla, 1995). For
companies, the Internet is an international network of computers providing the possibility of
interchanging information internally or communicating with other organizations (Águila and
Padilla, 2000). The technological revolution that the Internet has brought about has resulted in
the appearance of a high number of expressions that, more or less accurately, refer to the
impact of the Internet on the organization. Among them we could cite e-business, e-
commerce, e-tail, e-shift, e-procurement, e-government, e-recruiting, e-fulfilment, e-branding,
e-logistics, virtual organization, etc. (Águila and Padilla, 2001). With the aim of clarifying
the terminological question, we shall try to define and delimit the most important concept
mentioned: e-business. The term e-business can be defined as the way in which companies
and individuals gain value through the use of the Internet and related technologies. Therefore
e-business consists in redefining the processes of the company by interconnecting them with
their members, clients and suppliers (Hackbarth and Kettinger, 2000). That means
reorganizing the company so that it has the ability to interchange goods, services, money and
knowledge digitally, that is by using Internet-based IT. The use of the term e-business, as well
as the practical application of it, has grown considerably with the development of business
applications on the Internet, and especially on the World Wide Web. In this context, the
following might be considered to be covered by the term e-business (Riggins and Mitra,
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2001): Intranet applications (business-to-employed); business-to-business applications
(extranet); electronic mail for the interchange of information and knowledge between
companies; business-to-consumer (internet): on-line orders of products and services,
interchange of information about the product, joint development of products, customer
services etc. Other similar ideas refer to the specific use of the Internet (WWW), which
affects a specific field of business management. Electronic commerce or e-commerce is the
electronic interchange of data and information corresponding to an electronic transaction,
which fundamentally covers commercial activities realizable on the Internet:
(1) The establishment of contacts between clients and suppliers.
(2) The interchange of goods and services.
(3) The interchange of commercial information.
(4) The on-line provision of digital products, like music, or books.
(5) The electronic payment.
(6) The provision of services on-line.
Despite the huge number of studies carried out on the Internet and its role in the
company, few of them have dealt with the problem from a formal approach within
Management. One of the pioneering, and most relevant study among those carried out
recently has been due to Rayport and Sviokla (1995). These authors institutionalized the terms
virtual value chain, and marketspace, asserting that current businesses are competing in two
�different worlds or environments�, one being the physical world, of resources, which
executives can see and touch � the marketplace � and the other, a virtual world or
marketspace, arising from the almost exclusive use of IT and data transmission tools (Rayport
and Sviokla, 1995). It is also their view that the Internet will affect the elements of the virtual
value chain, and that it might make more flexible support and primary activity. By way of
example, the Internet may modify the organizational structure of the company, and eliminate
intermediate hierarchical levels. With respect to primary activity, e-logistics, e-fulfillment and
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e-procurement are terms denoting means by which the traditional value chain may be affected
by the Internet. Subsequent to the work of Rayport and Sviokla, numerous studies in this field
have appeared, which we summarize in Table 2.
----------------------------------- Insert Table 2 about here
--------------------------------------- By way of synthesis we might say that the area of research, theoretical as well as
practical, on the impact of the Internet on the company, is still in its infancy. Many of the
studies are of an extremely speculative nature, with confusing terminology; they are directed
at the professional public with the principal aim of expounding the potential advantages of
using TCP/IP technologies. Nevertheless there is an emerging area of research aiming to
identify the circumstances in which the new technologies exercise a positive impact on the
company, and that is connected to the school that explains the behavior of IT in function of its
combined action with a series of complementary resources, of a human or business nature
(Powell and Dent-Micallef, 1997; Bharadwaj, 2000).
3. Discussion and future areas of research
Bearing in mind the above considerations, we aim to identify in this section the new
theoretical and empirical research lines. For this, in Figure 1 we have brought together the
theoretical approaches that may prove significant in explaining the organizational impact of
IT. In the interest of providing a more orderly vision of the problem, we have placed the
problems of future research in each one of the approaches analyzed in this chapter. These
approaches have been classified according to two criteria. In the left part of the graph, we
point out the origin of each approach, whether it be Economic Theory or Organizational
Theory. In the right part of the graph each approach is analyzed in relation to its implications,
whether strategic, structural or of explorative character. Additionally we have differentiated
that research that has more to do with e-business than the rest. Finally, and as a result of the
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discussion of the theoretical schools that we have undertaken in this work, we propose 21
areas of research.
The Economic Theory is the origin of the approaches Population Ecology, Resource
Dependence Theory, Industrial Organization and Agency Theory. Most of these approaches,
except the Ecological, pose implications for strategic management of IT. Population Ecology
(Hannan and Freeman, 1977; Aldrich, 1979; Brittain and Freeman, 1980; Soo, Oliga and
Puxty, 1980; McKelvey and Aldrich, 1983; Freeman and Boeker, 1984; Baum, 1999) may
provide progress in explaining the impact of the processes of technological discontinuity on
organizational survival, or the substitution of some technologies for others over a period of
time. According to the precepts of Ecological Theory, the introduction of new IT may favor
the survival of some organizations in a sector as opposed to others, especially in cases where
the management of information has a significant effect on the value chain. These effects have
been analyzed in relation to other technologies related to the productive system, although we
cannot find any study that analyses the impact of IT.
From the perspective of the Resource Dependence Theory (Aldrich and Pfeffer, 1976;
Pfeffer and Salancick, 1978; Pfeffer, 1982) it is possible to analyze the function of IT as a
scarce resource of the environment and its influence on the strategic pre-eminence of some
organizations against others. This view claims that the possession or control of certain key
resources by an organization can result in the dependence of the rest of the organizations on
the first organization (Inkpen and Beamish, 1997). Additionally it asserts that there are three
critical factors in determining the dependence of one organization on another, and therefore
its relative power (Medcof, 2001):
(1) The importance of the resource, such that the more relevant the factor is, the
stronger will be the dependency relations of the organizations that lack it.
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(2) The existence of alternatives, such that the power of the company that possesses
the key resource decreases with an increase in the possibility of choice that
dependent organizations enjoy.
(3) The unlimited ability to take decisions that affect the resource, such that the
company with greater capability for decision will enjoy a privileged position. In a
broad sense the idea that underlies the Resource Dependence Theory is related to
the concept of scarcity and value in the Resource Based View, which explains
why they have recently been used jointly.
It is precisely from the relationship stated in point three that it becomes possible to
apply the Resource Dependence Theory to the field of strategic use of IT. Following the
framework of this theory, power relationships can be constructed between the organizations
that possess a key resource. If it is empirically demonstrated that this resource corresponds to
a specific IT resource, it follows that this technological tool is generating value for the
organization. If, additionally, it complies with the conditions of scarcity and inimitability, it
will lead to a sustainable competitive advantage.
Of the approaches we propose, Porter�s Competitive Strategy and Industrial
Organization (Porter, 1980; 1981; 1985; 1991) have been the ones that have left most
impression in the IT area (Ward, Griffiths and Whitmore, 1990), which is why the model has
been said to have lost relevance in recent times (Duhan, Levy and Powell, 2001; Amit and
Zott, 2001, p. 205). Nevertheless there is research open which is revising the theoretical
framework with the aim of explaining the effect of IT on the value chain in companies that are
IT intensive (Earl, 1989). We might suggest as unexplored areas of research to explain the
influence that variables of the industry external to the company might have, on the
implantation, development and competitive performance of IT (Bruque, 2001). In this sense,
it would be interesting to find out if factors like number of competitors, the intensity of
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competitive rivalry, the level of innovation or the fluidity in the circulation of information
within the industry, determine the real competitive capability of IT.
Agency Theory (Jensen and Meckling, 1976; Eisenhardt, 1989) has been very little
used up till now in research relating to IT, so that it is necessary to learn more about the
organizational behavior of IT that may be explained thanks to this theoretical paradigm. It
would be possible to analyze the relationships existing between the capital structure of the
company, the level of technology and the technological performance (Karake, 1995).
Research could be done on the link between the level of commitment of the executives
towards the company � shown in their investment of capital in the company stock � and the
use of IT, especially those tools that have most impact on performance. It would be likely in
this case that those executives most committed to the company would show more explicit
support for the introduction and development of IT and telecommunications tools, in an
attempt to achieve two aims: increase control over their management, on the one hand and
increase the profitability of the processes that involve intensive use of IT, on the other. Also,
from the perspective of Agency Theory it would be possible to study the influence of the
composition of the Board of Directors on the level of technology of the company and on its
technological performance. From the Agency perspective, the Boards can be used as tools of
control by the owners, which might affect the technology policy of the company, increasing,
for example, the computing systems of management control. An empirical justification for the
proposition requires, however, a deeper analysis, because the few research that have been
carried out have not found conclusive results.
As we pointed out before, work has been done that is concerned with the savings in
transactions resulting from the introduction of IT in the value chain in the company. The
theoretical framework of Transaction Cost Economics (Williamson, 1975, 1979, 1985) can be
especially efficient in predicting the success of IT systems aiming to reduce costs in the value
chain (Powell and Dent-Micallef, 1997) by creating economies of time or resources in the
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links that are intensive in information. The system of Computer-Aided Design and Computer-
Aided Manufacturing � CAD and CAM � are clear examples of the increase in efficiency in
production processes by using IT. But IT can also reduce transaction costs with clients
because it may reduce uncertainty in taking a commercial decision: the complexity of such a
decision, the asymmetry of information that the client sometimes faces, and the disadvantages
provoked by the loss of power of negotiation in a situation of �small numbers� (Williamson,
1975). IT may also reduce the indirect costs of transaction, such as the cost of adverse
selection or of moral risk (Amit and Zott, 2001).
In the field of relationships between companies, Clemons and Row (1991) undertook
an analysis of the circumstances in which IT could reduce transaction costs. Inter-company
collaboration (Dyer, 1997) may be one of the principal means by which IT reduces
transaction costs between companies, especially after the introduction of TCP/IP technology
(Amit and Zott, 2001). It would also be of interest to analyze how transaction costs behave in
the long term, bearing in mind that it has been shown that certain IT tools only lead to
benefits in the medium to long term (Brynjolfsson and Hitt, 2001). Although various authors
have suggested the importance of studying the creation of value by IT by means of a
reduction in transaction costs (Powell and Dent-Micallef, 1997), empirical evidence for this is
still scarce, and the area of research is still open.
We analyze, in the second group, the approaches originating in the Organizational
Theory, among which Institutional Theory, Resourced Based View and its most recent
derivations, and the Inter-Organizational Networks Framework. First, according to the
Institutional Approach (Selznick, 1957), companies act in a social environment that imposes
norms, values and behavior patterns which indicate what is acceptable and what is not from
the point of view of social behavior (Oliver, 1997). Thus the reasons for human behavior, and
therefore for that of organizations, go beyond the limits optimal from an economic point of
view, and can be explained in some cases in terms of social justification. The process by
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which companies adopt standard behaviors, ignoring the question of whether it is
economically optimal, is known as legitimation (Scott, 1987) and can give rise to decisions
that are ill thought out, the result of the determinism of the environment. This theoretical
framework may have strong research implications concerning IT, since in our opinion, it may
explain the phenomena of the automatic adoption by a company of certain new technologies
whose potential to create value is doubtful, to say the least. This approach would be useful to
throw light on some recent problems like the massive introduction, and lack of success, of a
large number of models of businesses based on the Internet. The Institutional Approach can
also provide a complementary explanation in the cases where, as we shall detail later, the
Resource Based View proves to be inadequate in explaining the success or relative failure of
the technological modernization of a company.
The Approach Based on Resources, or the Resource Based View (RBV) (Wernerfelt,
1984, 1995; Barney, 1986, 1991, 1995, 1996; Rumelt, 1987; Grant, 1991; Peteraf, 1993) has
been the dominant view in the development of the strategic approach in recent times
(Hoskisson et al. 1999), so that it has been used to explain various aspects regarding business
administration (Vicente-Lorente, 2001; Pettus, 2001). As we have already pointed out in this
chapter, a large number of analyses have related the creation of value by means of IT with the
gaining and maintaining of competitive advantage (Ross, Beath and Goddgue, 1996; Powell
and Dent-Micallef, 1997; Bharadwaj, 2000; Byrd and Douglas, 2001; Duhan, Levy and
Powell, 2001). The options for further research in this area consist in the identification of new
resources complementary to IT, and the description of the conditions under which IT behaves
as a valuable resource. We believe, with regards to this last point, that the Resource Based
View is insufficient, because it does not provide a definitive explanation for the effect by
which some companies introduce technology but then do not create value, or when they do
create value, they cannot take advantage of it. It would be useful to supplement the RBV with
other approaches, such as the above-mentioned Institutional Theory (Selznick, 1957), or that
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of the appropriation of value by stakeholders (Coff, 1999). Despite this weakness, the RBV
Theory, complemented with the Dynamic Capabilities Framework (Teece and Pisano, 1994;
Teece, Pisano and Shuen, 1997; Makadok, 2001), can serve as a basis from which to explain
the competitive impact of IT over a time period, an area with little empirical evidence so far.
The Resource Based View has a number of things in common with other theoretical
frameworks, like the Upper Echelon (Hambrick and Mason, 1984), Knowledge Management
(KBV) (Nonaka, 1991, 1994; Kogut and Zander, 1992, 1996; Hedlund, 1994; Bohn, 1994;
Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Grant, 1996; Spender, 1996; Hansen, Nohria and Tierney, 1999)
or the Organizational Stakeholders Approach (Coff, 1999).
According to the KBV (Eisenhardt and Santos, 2001) IT utilization may potentiate the
positive effects of internal and external knowledge transfer. Knowledge is considered socially
constructed and the creation of meaning occurs in ongoing social interactions grounded in
working practices and in collaborative mechanisms. Those social interactions can be
encouraged by IT utilization. Various studies have pointed out the relevance of IT utilization
as a key element in the diffusion of organizational knowledge (Carneiro, 2000; Swan et al.,
1999).
Apart from KBV, the Upper Echelon and the Stakeholders can be further developed in
the future. The first (Pinsonneault and Kraemer, 1997; Pinsonneault and Rivard, 1998) may
be able to explain the interrelation between the characteristics of management, age, previous
experience, technological knowledge, international experience and the effective introduction
of the new technologies. It should be noted that there is a strong complementarity between
this approach and the Resource Based View because the personal and career characteristics of
the executives can be resources that are valuable, scarce and difficult to imitate, and in
combination with IT they may have a positive and lasting effect on competitive position. The
second may be able to explain the situations in which IT generates value although the
organization cannot take advantage of it in the form of income, benefits, or in general,
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increase in competitive advantage. In these cases it is certain powerful groups in the
organization (stakeholders) that absorb the resource�s capacity for creation of value.
----------------------------------- Insert Figure 1 about here
--------------------------------------- Strategic Networks (Freeman, 1979) are stable inter-organizational links that are
strategically important for the participating companies. They can take the form of strategic
alliances, joint ventures, associations in the long term between suppliers and customers, etc.
(Gulati, Nohria and Zaheer, 2000). There are some analyses that discuss the impact of IT on
the structure and effectiveness of strategic networks (Sproull and Kiesler, 1986; Fulk and
Desanctis, 1995), regarding IT as a enabler element on the network and a promoter of the
reduction of transaction costs between elements in the network, which, in turn, lead to the
advantages attributed to this type of structure. Among these advantages are for example
gaining the effects of learning, economies of scale and scope, cost cutting via a distribution of
risks and subcontracting parts of the value chain and certain company functions (Gulati, 1999;
Anand and Khana, 2000).
Little empirical work has been done, however, that analyses the influence of IT on the
structural variables of the network, such as centrality, size and network density. If, as is likely,
IT has an effect on these variables (Gulati, Noria and Zaheer, 2000) it will affect the learning
capability of company members of the network, and also the blocking and unblocking of new
alliances, lock in and lock out. In this way the new technologies may provide new
opportunities for global alliances, for example with companies geographically far apart, and at
the same time they may create problems for existing alliances. Thus, for example, the
introduction of new telecommunications tools may leave outside of the network companies
that do not use the new technology. The same effect occurred after the decline in UNIX as a
standard operating system, leading to the dismemberment of various strategic networks
designed to lead the operating systems market (Gomes-Casseres, 1994).
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Finally there are various approaches within the field of Business Administration
which may add new ideas to the problem of the behavior of IT in organizations. We are
referring to the Human Relations Framework (Mayo, 1945) and the Social Systems Focus and
Socio-technical Systems Focus (Trist and Bamforth, 1951; Emery and Trist, 1965). These
approaches attempt to explain the combined effects of technologies and the human element
within organizations. In the case of IT itself, the Socio-technical Focus has been used to
underline the necessity to adequately fit together the company culture, employee training and
the motivation towards the adoption of the new technologies, for a satisfactory final
performance of the technological tools (Davenport, 1999). As can be seen, this idea has been
extended and structured in later approaches which adopt the complementarity between the
human and technological elements, especially the Resource Based View, which we have
already outlined.
4. Conclusion
As we have shown in this work, the analysis of IT as an active element within the
company constitutes an interesting and multifaceted area of research. We have structured
these areas of proposed research, leaving aside the work of an explorative nature, into two
parts: on the one hand those approaches that refer to the impact on the structure of the
company, and on the other hand, those that analyze the interactions of the technology on the
company�s strategy and performance. In the last group we have been especially interested in
those approaches which might throw some light onto the problem of the conversion of the
implantation and development of computing and telecommunications technologies into
performance or sustainable competitive advantage. This precisely has been the area that has
most been studied in recent years. In the strategic as well as the structural issues we have
reviewed the most significant approaches in the literature. In each of them, we have identified
the criteria for when they are useful for the problem of the company management of IT,
underlining the research which we consider to be still unexplored and which may provide
17
material of interest for future research. As a result of the process, and taking into account the
limitations in terms of theoretical work, we can conclude that each one of the approaches
studied can provide useful explanations, in academic research as much as in management. We
should also stress that the area of analysis is a complex field in which studies may be
especially useful that use in a combined form a number of the approaches that we have
proposed.
Finally the irruption of the Internet and the so-called Digital Economy has revived the
interest in the areas of research of this work in all its forms. The latest studies are particularly
trying to find causes that explain the conversion of Internet technologies into competitive
advantage, and at the same time, find the solution to the reverse problem: why do these
technologies not always lead to better performance. Empirical research, the integration of the
proposed approaches in this chapter, and new ideas from Social Psychology or Marketing
may provide solutions to this problem.
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29
TA
BL
E 1
: PE
RSP
EC
TIV
ES
IN T
HE
IT S
TU
DY
Fo
cus
Des
crip
tion
Lin
es
Aut
hors
, pub
licat
ions
Ex
plor
ativ
e
Ans
wer
of w
hat I
T ca
n or
cou
ld d
o in
th
e co
mpa
ny
- D
escr
iptio
n of
bes
t pra
ctic
es
- C
ycle
of l
ife
Lick
lider
(196
0); K
aufm
an (1
966)
; Lic
klid
er a
nd T
aylo
r (19
68);
Bel
l (19
81);
Sim
on a
nd D
aven
port
(198
9);
Boc
k an
d A
pple
gate
(199
5)
Gib
son
and
Nol
an (1
974)
; Nol
an (1
981)
St
ruct
ural
IT
�s im
pact
on
orga
niza
tiona
l str
uctu
re
- D
owns
izin
g an
d fla
tteni
ng o
f the
bus
ines
ses s
truct
ure
- Lo
ss o
f cle
rical
wor
k -
Inte
grat
ion
of d
epar
tmen
ts
o
IT b
ased
inte
grat
ion
of d
epar
tmen
ts
o
Trai
ning
and
man
agem
ent o
f wor
kgro
ups
- Le
ss d
ista
nce
betw
een
man
ager
s and
em
ploy
ees
- Im
plem
enta
tion
of te
leco
mm
utin
g -
Rel
atio
n be
twee
n IT
arc
hite
ctur
e an
d or
gani
zatio
nal s
truct
ure
Roc
kart
and
Shor
t (19
89);
B
rynj
olfs
son
et a
l. (1
994)
R
ocka
rt an
d Sh
ort (
1989
) W
alto
n an
d Su
sman
(198
7); R
ocka
rt an
d Sh
ort (
1989
); H
andy
(199
5); A
rmst
rong
and
Hag
el (1
996)
; Ja
rven
paa
and
Leid
ner (
1998
); C
othr
el a
nd W
illia
ms (
1999
); Sh
ani,
Sena
and
Ste
bbin
s (20
00)
Kie
lser
(198
7)
Prat
t (19
84);
Bla
nc (1
988)
; Kor
te, R
obin
son
and
Stei
nle
(198
8); J
anka
nish
(199
0); B
urch
(199
1); S
tanw
orth
an
d St
anw
orth
(199
1); H
addo
n (1
994)
; Om
mer
en (1
998)
; Kur
land
and
Ega
n (1
999)
M
arku
s and
Rob
ey (1
988)
; Alle
n an
d B
oynt
on (1
991)
; Mirv
is, S
ales
and
Hac
kett
(199
1); L
ucas
and
Bar
oudi
(1
994)
; Orli
kow
ski a
nd R
obey
(199
1); H
itt (1
999)
St
rate
gic
IT�s
impa
ct o
n St
rate
gic
Man
agem
ent
- In
dustr
ial O
rgan
izat
ion
and
IT
o
Indu
stry
Leve
l o
Com
pany
Lev
el
o
Stra
tegi
c Le
vel
- V
alue
Cha
in a
nd IT
- O
rgan
izat
iona
l Eco
nom
ics a
nd IT
o
Opt
imal
size
of o
rgan
izat
ion
o
Influ
ence
of I
T on
gov
ernm
ent s
truct
ures
-
Prod
uctiv
ity p
arad
ox
- St
rate
gic
Nec
essi
ty H
ypot
hesi
s -
Res
ourc
e ba
sed
view
of t
he fi
rm a
nd IT
o
Join
t beh
avio
ur o
f res
ourc
es a
nd IT
o
Stud
y of
stra
tegi
c re
sour
ces c
ompl
emen
tary
to IT
-
Oth
ers p
ersp
ectiv
es
o
The
impa
ct o
f IT
on th
e di
ffusio
n an
d m
anag
emen
t of
orga
niza
tiona
l kno
wle
dge
(KB
V)
o
Upp
er e
chel
ons a
nd IT
o
The
Dyn
amic
Cap
abili
ties F
ram
ewor
k an
d IT
o
Stak
ehol
ders
and
IT-v
alue
app
ropr
iatio
n o
Glo
bal I
nfor
mat
ion
Tech
nolo
gy M
anag
emen
t
Pars
ons (
1983
); Le
vitt
(198
3)
Pars
ons (
1983
); Po
rter (
1980
) Po
rter a
nd M
illar
(198
6); C
ash
and
Kon
syns
ki (1
986)
; McF
arla
n, M
cKen
ney
and
Pybu
rn (1
983)
Po
rter a
nd M
illar
(198
6); L
audo
n an
d La
udon
(199
6); L
evy,
Pow
ell a
nd G
allie
rs, (
1999
) B
rynj
olfs
son
et a
l. (1
994)
M
alon
e an
d Sm
ith (1
988)
; Kar
ake
(199
5); M
alon
e, Y
ates
and
Ben
jam
in (1
987,
198
9)
Mar
chew
ka a
nd T
owel
l (20
00);
Bry
njol
fsso
n an
d H
itt (2
001)
; Bry
njol
fsso
n et
al.
(199
4); M
alon
e, Y
ates
and
B
enja
min
(198
7); G
urba
xani
and
Wha
ng (1
991)
; Cle
mon
s and
Row
(199
1); K
raut
et a
l. (1
999)
So
low
(198
7); A
lpar
and
Kim
(199
1); H
arris
and
Kat
z (1
991)
; Wei
ll (1
992)
; Bry
njol
fsso
n (1
993)
; Kru
eger
(1
993)
; Bry
njol
fsso
n an
d H
itt (1
995)
; Hitt
and
Bry
njol
fsso
n (1
995,
199
6); S
trass
man
n (1
990,
199
7, 1
998)
; M
ukho
pada
hyay
, Raj
iv a
nd S
riniv
asan
(199
7); P
inso
nnea
ult a
nd R
ivar
d (1
998)
; Bry
njol
fsso
n, H
itt a
nd Y
ang
(200
0); B
rynj
olfs
son
and
Hitt
(200
1)
Cas
h an
d K
onsy
nsky
(198
5); C
lem
ons a
nd K
imbr
ough
(198
6); C
lem
ons a
nd R
ow (1
991)
Po
wel
l and
Den
t-Mic
alle
f (19
97);
Ros
s, B
eath
and
Goo
dhue
(199
6)
Kee
n (1
993)
; Ben
jam
in a
nd L
evin
son
(199
3); K
ettin
ger e
t al.
(199
4); M
ata,
Fue
rst a
nd B
arne
y (1
995)
; Ros
s, B
eath
and
Goo
dhue
(199
6); H
ende
rson
and
Ven
katra
man
(199
3); V
enka
tram
an (1
994)
; Pow
ell a
nd D
ent-
Mic
alef
f (19
97)
Junn
arka
r and
Bro
wn
(199
7); G
urte
en (1
998)
; Sw
an e
t al.
(199
9); C
arne
iro (2
000)
K
arak
e (1
995)
; Pin
sonn
eaul
t and
Riv
ard
(199
8); M
artin
s and
Kam
bil (
1999
) M
iller
and
Sha
msi
e (1
996)
; Mak
adok
(200
1)
Am
it an
d Zo
tt (2
001)
Pa
lvia
(199
7); E
nns a
nd H
uff (
1999
); D
avis
(199
9); P
alvi
a, P
alvi
a an
d W
hitw
orkt
h (2
002)
.
30
T
AB
LE
2: R
ESE
AR
CH
ON
INT
ER
NE
T A
ND
MA
NA
GE
ME
NT
Aut
hor
Res
earc
h Li
ne
Des
crip
tion
and
mos
t im
porta
nt c
ontri
butio
ns
Poon
and
Sw
atm
an (1
995)
; Poo
n an
d St
rom
(199
7); S
chw
arzk
opf
(199
7); B
a, W
hins
ton
and
Zhan
g (2
000)
; Ler
ner (
2000
); C
han
and
Chun
g (2
002)
Impa
ct o
f Int
erne
t on
smal
l and
m
ediu
m-s
ized
com
pani
es
Use
of I
nter
net a
s a
tool
of c
olla
bora
tion
with
oth
er c
ompa
nies
, with
less
cos
t of c
omm
unic
atio
n; a
s an
inst
rum
ent o
f dire
ct m
arke
ting,
with
bet
ter a
cces
s to
the
com
pany
for p
oten
tial c
lient
s, an
d im
prov
ing
imag
e of
the
com
pany
. B
enja
min
and
Wig
and
(199
5, 1
997)
; Ray
port
and
Svio
kla
(199
5);
Nou
wen
s an
d B
ohw
man
(199
7); S
tenf
ield
, Kra
ut a
nd P
lum
mer
(1
997)
, Gro
ver a
nd R
aman
lal (
1999
); A
dela
ar (2
000)
; Ste
nfie
ld,
Cha
ng a
nd K
raut
(200
0); A
mit
and
Zott
(200
1)
Impa
ct o
f Int
erne
t on
coor
dina
tion
mec
hani
sms,
orga
niza
tion
and
mar
ket,
el
ectro
nic
orga
niza
tions
and
m
arke
ts
Impa
ct
of
Inte
rnet
on
co
ordi
natio
n m
echa
nism
s, or
gani
zatio
n an
d m
arke
t, w
ith
elec
troni
c or
gani
zatio
ns a
nd m
arke
ts, w
ith in
ter-
orga
niza
tiona
l inf
orm
atio
n sy
stem
s th
at li
nk th
e co
mpa
nies
. In
th
e re
latio
n be
twee
n pr
ovid
ers
and
clie
nts:
redu
ctio
n of
dis
tanc
e be
twee
n bo
th a
nd o
f the
pro
fit m
argi
n of
the
prov
ider
; inc
reas
ing
of th
e ch
ange
cos
t as a
con
sequ
ence
of t
he a
ppro
achi
ng b
etw
een
clie
nt a
nd
prov
ider
by
elec
troni
c to
ols.
H
aley
, Car
te a
nd W
atso
n (1
996)
; Law
renc
e an
d H
udso
n (1
996)
; B
loch
, Pig
neur
and
Seg
ev (1
996)
; Ho
(199
7); W
atso
n, A
ksel
sen
and
Pitt
(199
8); D
utta
and
Seg
ev (1
999)
; Jar
venp
aa a
nd T
iller
(1
999)
; Ven
katra
man
(200
0); G
ual a
nd R
icar
t (20
01)
Inte
rnet
pre
senc
e an
d its
stra
tegi
c pl
anni
ng
Poin
t out
the
adva
ntag
es o
f org
aniz
atio
ns m
ovin
g in
to th
e vi
rtual
spa
ce a
nd s
trate
gies
for
deve
lopi
ng
stra
tegi
c pl
anni
ng.
Mal
hotra
(199
3); F
ulk
and
DeS
anct
is (1
995,
199
9); O
rliko
wsk
i (2
000)
. Im
pact
of I
nter
net o
n th
e st
ruct
ure
of o
rgan
izat
ions
A
naly
ses t
he im
pact
of I
nter
net o
n th
e or
gani
zatio
nal s
truct
ures
from
the
resu
lts o
f the
stud
ies a
bout
IT
and
orga
niza
tiona
l stra
tegy
fiel
d. A
ll th
e au
thor
s agr
ee a
bout
the
impa
ct b
ut n
ot a
bout
its r
esul
ts.
Bak
os (1
991)
; Klin
g (1
994)
; Led
erer
, Mirc
hand
ani a
nd S
ims
(199
7); P
eter
son,
Bal
asub
ram
ania
n an
d Br
onne
nber
g (1
997)
; M
cWill
iam
(200
0); B
akos
and
Bry
njol
fsso
n (1
999)
; Dew
an,
Frei
mer
and
Sei
dman
n (2
000)
Inte
rnet
Bas
ed M
arke
ting
Expl
ains
ho
w
Inte
rnet
im
prov
es
the
perf
orm
ance
of
m
arke
ting
stra
tegi
es
of
dist
ribut
ion
and
prom
otio
n.
Que
lch
and
Kle
in (1
996)
; Ben
to a
nd B
ento
(199
6); K
oh a
nd
Bal
thaz
ard
(199
7); H
offm
an, N
ovac
k an
d C
hatte
rjee
(199
7);
Sark
ar, B
utle
r and
Ste
infie
ld (1
997)
; Tim
mer
s (19
98);
Rayp
ort
(199
9); R
appa
(200
0); A
mit
and
Zott,
(200
1); D
ai a
nd K
auffm
an
(200
1); F
igue
iredo
(200
1); E
isen
man
n (2
002)
.
Bus
ines
s Mod
els
Dev
elop
cla
ssifi
catio
ns o
f bus
ines
s m
odel
s of
com
pani
es w
ith In
tern
et p
rese
nce.
The
re a
re tw
o ba
sic
appr
oach
es: t
rans
actio
nal o
r ope
ratio
nal f
ocus
and
info
rmat
iona
l foc
us.
Car
ley
(199
9); K
ling
and
Lam
b (1
999)
; Orli
kow
ski (
1999
); Zi
mm
erm
an a
nd K
oern
er (1
999)
; Bry
njol
fsso
n an
d K
ahin
(200
0);
Hal
tiwan
ger a
nd Ja
rmin
(200
0); D
avid
(200
0); S
mith
, Bai
ley
and
Bry
njol
fsso
n (2
000)
; Zim
mer
man
(200
0); O
rliko
wsk
i and
Iaco
no
(200
0).
Dig
ital E
cono
my
Des
crib
es th
e ch
arac
teris
tics
of th
e ne
w e
cono
my,
or
digi
tal e
cono
my,
with
tech
nolo
gica
l int
erac
tion
amon
g th
e ag
ents
.
31
FIG
UR
E 1
. IT
Man
agem
ent.
Pers
pect
ives
inte
grat
ion
and
new
res
earc
h lin
es
Reso
urc
e B
ase
d V
iew
of
the F
irm
We
rne
rfe
lt (1
98
4)
Agency
Theory
Jen
sen
an
d M
eck
ling
(1
97
6)
Reso
urc
e D
ependence
Theory
Pfe
ffe
r a
nd
Sa
lan
zick
(1
97
8)
Tra
nsa
ctio
n C
ost
Eco
nom
ics
Will
iam
son
(1
97
5)
Inst
itutio
nal T
heory
Se
lzn
ick
(19
57
)
Str
ate
gic
Focu
s
Desc
riptiv
e F
ocu
s
Str
uct
ura
l Focu
s
Pro
po
sed
researc
h lin
es:
1.
Te
ch
no
log
ica
l d
isc
on
tin
uit
y a
s a
n e
xp
lic
ati
ve
fa
cto
r o
fo
rga
niz
atio
na
l su
rviv
al (
Po
pu
latio
n E
colo
gy)
2.
IT
as
an
en
viro
nm
en
tal
reso
urc
e a
nd
its
in
flue
nce
on
in
ter-
org
an
iza
tion
al d
ep
en
de
nce
(R
eso
urc
e D
ep
en
de
nce
Th
eo
ry)
3.
IT a
s t
he
fo
un
da
tio
n o
f d
iffe
ren
tia
tio
n a
nd
fo
cu
s s
tra
teg
ies
(Co
mp
etit
ive
Th
eo
ry)
4.
IT i
nfl
ue
nc
e o
n t
he
in
du
str
y s
tru
ctu
re a
nd
on
th
e I
nte
r-o
rga
niz
atio
na
l pe
rfo
rma
nce
(In
du
stria
l Org
an
iza
tion
)5
. B
usi
ne
ss M
od
els
effic
ien
cy b
ase
d o
n I
T (T
ran
sact
ion
Co
stE
con
om
ics)
6.
Inst
itutio
na
l E
nvi
ron
me
nt
influ
en
ce o
n t
he
im
ple
me
nta
tion
an
dd
eve
lop
me
nt
of
ne
w I
T (
Inst
itutio
na
l Th
eo
ry)
7.
Str
ate
gic
Ne
two
rks
fea
ture
s a
nd
IT
va
lue
ge
ne
ratio
n (
Inte
r-o
rga
niz
atio
na
l Ne
two
rks)
8.
IT,
co
mp
lem
en
tary
re
so
urc
es a
nd
su
sta
ina
ble
co
mp
eti
tive
ad
vata
ng
e (
Re
sou
rce
Ba
sed
Vie
w o
f th
e F
irm
)9
. P
ers
on
al,
cu
ltu
ral
an
d p
rofe
ss
ion
al
fea
ture
s o
f to
pm
an
ag
em
en
t o
n t
he
imp
lem
en
tatio
n a
nd
de
velo
pm
en
t o
f n
ew
IT
(Up
pe
r E
che
lon
)1
0.
Lin
k b
etw
ee
n I
T a
nd
kn
ow
led
ge
ma
na
ge
me
nt
(Kn
ow
led
ge
Ma
na
ge
me
nt)
11
. IT
va
lue
a
pp
rop
ria
tio
n
by
org
an
iza
tio
na
l sta
ke
ho
lde
rs(O
rga
niz
atio
na
l Sta
keh
old
ers
)1
2.
IT a
s a
g
en
era
tin
g f
acto
r o
f n
ew
d
yna
mic
ca
pa
bili
tie
s(D
yna
mic
Ca
pa
bili
ties
Fra
me
wo
rk)
Pro
po
sed
researc
h lin
es:
15
. In
form
ati
on
S
ys
tem
s
str
uc
ture
a
nd
Inst
itutio
na
l le
giti
ma
tion
(In
stiti
on
al T
he
ory
)1
6.
IT a
s a
ge
ne
rati
ng
fa
cto
r o
f S
tra
teg
icN
etw
ork
s. IT
an
d s
tru
ctu
ral
fea
ture
s o
f th
en
etw
ork
(In
ter-
org
an
iza
tion
al N
etw
ork
s F
ocu
s)1
7.
So
cia
l S
yste
ms
an
d I
T in
tera
ctio
n (
So
cia
lS
yste
ms
an
d S
oci
o-t
ech
nic
al S
yste
ms)
Org
aniz
atio
nal N
etw
ork
sP
ers
pect
ive
Fre
em
an
(1
97
9)
Ec
on
om
ic T
he
ory
Co
ntr
ibu
tio
ns
Org
an
iza
tio
na
l a
nd
So
cia
lT
he
ori
es
Co
ntr
ibu
tio
ns
Indust
rial O
rganiz
atio
nR
ob
inso
n (
19
33
)
Popula
tion E
colo
gy
Ha
nn
an
an
d F
ree
ma
n (
19
77
)
e-business
18
. In
tern
et
imp
act
on
th
e o
rga
niz
atio
na
lst
ruct
ure
19
. In
tern
et
imp
at
on
co
-ord
ina
tion
, m
ark
et
an
do
rga
niz
atio
n m
ech
an
ism
s
e-b
usin
ess
21
. D
esc
rip
tion
of
ne
w I
nte
rne
t b
usi
ne
ssm
od
els
Pro
po
sed
researc
h lin
es:
20
. D
esc
rip
tion
of
the
im
pa
ct o
n t
he
fir
mo
f n
ew
IT
21
. In
tern
atio
na
l d
iffe
ren
ces
in a
do
ptio
na
dn
d
ev
elo
pm
en
t o
f In
form
ati
on
Te
ch
no
log
y.
Glo
ba
l In
form
ati
on
Te
chn
olo
gy
Ma
na
ge
me
nt
e-business
13
. S
tra
teg
ic b
usi
ne
ss m
od
els
ba
sed
on
TC
P/I
Pte
chn
olo
gie
s1
4.
De
sig
n o
f In
tern
et
stra
teg
ies
Kn
ow
led
ge
Ma
na
ge
me
nt
Dyn
am
ic C
ap
ab
ilitie
s F
ram
ew
ork
Up
pe
r E
che
lon
Org
an
iza
tion
al
Sta
keh
old
ers
Hu
ma
n R
ela
tion
s
So
cia
l Sys
tem
s F
ocu
sS
oci
o-t
ech
nic
al S
yste
ms
Fo
cus
32