7: Leveraging Information Technology (IT) for Competitive Advantage
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Describe Porter’s competitive forces model and how information technology impacts competitive advantage.
- Describe Porter’s value chain model and its relationship to IT.
- Describe information systems that can provide businesses with a competitive advantage.
- Describe the collaborative systems that workers can use to contribute to their organization.
- Distinguish between a structured and an unstructured decision and its connection to IT.
- Discuss the challenges associated with a sustainable competitive advantage.
This chapter examines the impact that information systems have on organizations, how they can use IT to develop and sustain competitive advantages and improve operational effectiveness in their value chain and decision-making processes. We will discuss seminal works by Brynjolfsson, Carr, and Porter related to IT and competitive advantage.
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- 7.3: Competitive Advantage
- What does it mean when a company has a competitive advantage? What are the factors that play into it? According to Michael Porter in his book “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance,” a company is said to have a competitive advantage over its rivals when it can sustain profits that exceed the industry's average.