IT-Enabled Integration of Business Relationships in the Steel Industry Context

Companies engage in many business relationships; however, the number is decreasing constantly, so existing relationships are increasingly valuable. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight how inter-organizational relationships can be seen as a source of competitive advantage and how, in order to survive in a hyper-competitive landscape, key relationships are integrated with new information technology solutions, such as ERP. This chapter focuses on the changes brought about by technology integration in the context of the steel industry with the help of a longitudinal case study. The chapter sheds some light on factors affecting the changes occurring in business relationships and illustrates how those alterations can be managed. It seems that information technology integration within a business relationship is a complex process that depends on characteristics of the adopted technology as well as the relationship. Subsequently, implications are discussed together with suggestions for future research. Lastly, the limitations are briefly stated.

Relationship Between New Information Technologies and Flexible Organizational Forms

This chapter offers a theoretical investigation of the relationships between new IT and the implementation of emerging organizational designs. It argues that IT innovations can be regarded both as cause and consequence of the emergence of more flexible and virtual organizational forms. First, the authors offer a review of relevant previous literature, dealing with new IT, flexible organizational models and the relationships between IT and modular organizational structures. Next, a conceptual model is introduced that clarifies the relationships between IT development, the implementation of flexible organizational designs and environmental dynamism. Finally, conclusions and implications for researchers and practicing managers are presented.

Applying Directory Services to Enhance Identification, Authentication, and Authorization for B2B Applications

System-to-system integration is an essential aspect of Business-to-Business (B2B) organizations. This chapter proposes a common infrastructure model for B2B applications, referred to as the IAAIBB model. It aims to centralize the Identification, Authentication and Authorization (IAA) infrastructures and to provide easy interoperability among business partners. The key technique is to incorporate the directory service into business applications. The directory service acts as the core repository of the IAAIBB model to support all functions associated with identification,authentication and authorization. The chapter illustrates how IAAIBB enables a sound trust relationship for B2B applications, as well as the implementation of the IAAIBB model. Also reported is the evaluation of the IAAIBB model, which reveals a number of advantages. The IAAIBB model leverages on the strength of XML, the directory service, the PKI cryptography and role-based access control.

Becoming a Learning Organization in the Software Industry

This chapter examines to what extent the implementation of Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model (CMM) of software process improvement enables a firm to transform itself into an learning organization (LO). It argues that even though the CMM does lead the software firm forward on the route to learning, it does not go far enough. By recognizing organizational knowledge and organizational learning as the twin pillars of the LO, the author develops a conceptual framework against which the five maturity levels of CMM can be mapped and examined. This allows for an assessment of whether the CMM serves as a silver bullet in achieving the software firm’s goal of reaching the visionary state of the LO.

Information and Communication Technology-Enabled Economic Growth and Convergence

Globalization can be viewed as a process of increased freedom and capacity of individuals and firms to conduct economic activities with residents of other countries. The driving forces of globalization stem from the reduction in barriers for conducting business across political and geographic barriers, as well as the reduction and convergence of transaction costs via advances in “transport of information.” There is a consensus that innovation and the accompanying progress in information and communication technology (ICT) serve as a catalyst for economic growth. This chapterdiscusses the ICT environment within the Central and Southeastern European (CSEE) counties and the changes in this sector within the European Union (EU). Examination of strategies taken by these nations to improve their economic performance may offer decision makers in other regions some options to deal with impending changes. Particular emphasis is on the efforts of CSEE nations to build a creditable government, reliable political system, and competitive economy. These nations serve as a laboratory for implementing radical changes in their political economy from a centrally planned, one-party system to a democratic market-based system. Specific recommendations include emphasis on effectual dissemination of information between purchasers and suppliers. Information broadcasting is highly related to the creation of an efficient digital system. Specific needs include improved capacity to standardize reports, forms and information transmission functions. Furthermore, IT support and training programs are essential to reduce market distortions.

IT Outsourcing

This chapter provides both practitioner and academic insights into outsourcing. It begins with a review of the literature and practice of outsourcing, followed by a retrospect of its developments since the 1960s, up to present-day emergent trends such as best/smart-sourcing, rural-sourcing and business application grids. Recent legal developments are highlighted, along with their corresponding impacts. Outsourcing decisions tend to focus solely on the short-term benefits of cost reduction and service level improvement and, hence, often lack strategic direction, thus indicating the need for strategic management frameworks in the decision process. This chapter introduces a generic framework for such decision-making and highlights other strategic frameworks developed by researchers. The chapter then concludes by summarizing suggested action points that enable both clients and service providers to best exploit the recent developments in outsourcing, in order to maintain the strategic edge in an increasingly complex and competitive business environment.

Autonomous Environmental Scanning on the World Wide Web

Environmental scanning (ES) improves managerial decisions by linking the business environment with the organization’s internal capabilities. This chapter provides an overview of current developments in ES, underscoring the link between the managerial decision-making process and the different modes of scanning both internal and external information sources, particularly the World Wide Web (WWW). The psychological foundations of human ES activities are scrutinized, and cutting-edge technologies that support monitoring or even scanning of autonomous information sources are discussed to integrate both aspects in a holistic perspective on ES. We identify the most serious challenge in ES to be the detection of relevant sources in vast information environments. Based on the Information Foraging Theory (IFT), we propose an innovative approach to assessing the information gain offered by digitally available sources.

IT-Enabled Strategy

The rapid evolution of IT has enabled new organizational capabilities to manage knowledge and information. Given this evolution, IT systems for enabling the acquisition, processing and dissemination of knowledge may present unique opportunities, if effectively leveraged, for firm competitive capabilities. This chapter examines some of these uses of IT; offers a framework to view firm activities as knowledge Inflow, Intraflow and Outflow processes; and explores possible performance implications of some potential IT-enabled capabilities. Such IT enablement challenges some existing views of strategic management theory and suggests that theory may need to be reexamined and extended to handle some implications arising from advances in IT systems. We explore potential implications of IT-enabled capability and argue that through adopting, integrating and effectively leveraging these capabilities, firms may have the opportunity to enhance their competitive advantages and performance.

Linking Businesses for Competitive Advantage; A Mobile Agent-Based Approach

In a highly competitive business environment, every organization is trying to achieve more using fewer resources. This is particularly true in this Internet era, where many businesses are moving from “brick-and-mortar”-based operation towards having at least an Internet presence, where e-commerce is fast gaining acceptance. Recent advances in mobile agent technology promise yet another powerful tool to gain competitive advantage—to deliver cost-effective services through utilizing Internet infrastructure. Such a development helps both individuals and organizations achieve higher productivity at lower cost. In this chapter, the authors describe an intelligent mobile agent-based system that links hotels and restaurants to provide gourmet goers with a convenient way of searching for their choice restaurants. The system sends off intelligent mobile agents to automatically roam the Internet, gather the relevant information about food and services from participating restaurants, and provide the most optimized selection as suggestions to help the users make their meals decision. This greatly reduces information overload for the users. Participating business establishments also benefit, through increased business.

Marketing Strategy

Because of (1) the boundary-spanning nature of the marketing function, and (2) marketing’s evolution toward a dynamic, evolutionary process, and service-centered view, marketing strategy has come to be a core element of the firm’s business strategy. That is, in an information-intensive, competitive marketplace, marketing strategy is responsible for ensuring that all aspects of a firm’s marketing activities are focused on delivering superior value to customer. Further, recognizing information/knowledge and information technology (IT) as potential sources of competitive advantage, this chapter explores various IT-enabled capabilities that influence the firm’s marketing strategy. In doing so, specific IT-enabled capabilities that correspond to Market Orientation Strategy, Relationship Marketing Strategy, Market Segmentation Strategy, and Brand Equity Strategy are presented and discussed. Finally, this chapter concludes with a call for strategically oriented research for exploring, conceptualizing, developing, and measuring IT-enabled capabilities that influence marketing strategy.