article

Sustaining IT advantage: the role of structural differences

Authors:

Eric K. Clemons,

Michael C. RowAuthors Info & Claims

MIS Quarterly, Volume 15, Issue 3

Pages 275 - 292

https://doi.org/10.2307/249639

Published: 01 October 1991 Publication History

Abstract

Information systems are strategic business tools, frequently essential to a firm and central to its competitive strategy. Their importance is now acknowledged. But information technology-equipment and services-is available to all firms, and most applications can be duplicated. The copying firm often enjoys the advantages of newer and better technology, learns from the experience of the innovator, and thus can offer comparable services at lower costs. When can an information technology-based strategy confer sustainable competitive advantage? The answer may lie with the role of strategic resources in explaining the allocation of economic benefits from an IT innovation. Specifically, information technology can lead to sustainable competitive advantage when it is used to leverage differences in strategic resources. This may be true even in cases where duplication is relatively easy and there are few dynamic effects, like first-mover advantages, to protect the innovation. An important characteristic of IT is its ability to manage interactions among economic activities; the economic theory can be used to establish a link between this characteristic of IT and shifts in resource values. This allows us to identify and examine some opportunities for deploying IT to leverage structural resource differences among firms, including differences in vertical integration and diversification as well as differences in the quality and organization of key resources.

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Sustaining IT advantage: the role of structural differences

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Published In

cover image MIS Quarterly

MIS Quarterly Volume 15, Issue 3

Special issue on the strategic use of information systems

Sept. 1991

137 pages

ISSN:0276-7783

Editor:
James C. Emery
Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Issue’s Table of Contents

Publisher

Society for Information Management and The Management Information Systems Research Center

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 October 1991

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-61318-0_11
Romão MGomes J(2023)Gaining a Competitive Advantage Through Benefits ManagementInternational Journal of Strategic Decision Sciences10.4018/IJSDS.31834014:1(1-15)Online publication date: 16-Feb-2023
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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.4018/JGIM.2021010109
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