Management Information Systems:

Managing the Digital Firm

Fifteenth edition

Chapter 3
Information Systems,
Organizations, and Strategy

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Learning Objectives
• 3-1 Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use
information systems successfully?

• 3-2 What is the impact of information systems on organizations?

• 3-3 How do Porter’s competitive forces model, the value chain model, synergies, core
competencies, and network economics help companies develop competitive strategies
using information systems?

• 3-4 What are the challenges posed by strategic information systems, and how should they
be addressed?

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Video Cases
• Case 1: GE Becomes a Digital Firm: The
Emerging Industrial Internet
• Case 2: National Basketball Association:
Competing on Global Delivery with Akamai OS
Streaming

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Verizon or AT&T: Which Company Has the
Best Digital Strategy? (1 of 2)
• Problem
– Opportunities from new technology
– Intense competition

• Solutions
– Determine new business strategy
– Design new products and services
– Implement strategy
– Partner with other vendors
– Mine customer data

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Verizon or AT&T: Which Company Has the
Best Digital Strategy? (2 of 2)
• Verizon and AT&T use technology to create new
digital products and services
• Demonstrates IT’s role in helping organizations
create new products and revenue streams, and
remain competitive

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The Relationship Between Organizations
and Information Technology
• Information technology and organizations
influence each other
– Relationship influenced by organization’s
 Structure
 Business processes
 Politics
 Culture
 Environment
 Management decisions

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Figure 3.1: The Two-Way Relationship
Between Organizations and Information
Technology

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What Is an Organization?
• Technical definition
– Formal social structure that processes resources from
environment to produce outputs
– A formal legal entity with internal rules and procedures, as well as
a social structure

• Behavioral definition
– A collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities
that is delicately balanced over a period of time through conflict
and conflict resolution

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Figure 3.2: The Technical Microeconomic
Definition of the Organization

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Figure 3.3: The Behavioral View of
Organizations

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Features of Organizations
• Use of hierarchical structure
• Accountability, authority in system of impartial
decision making
• Adherence to principle of efficiency
• Routines and business processes
• Organizational politics, culture, environments, and
structures

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Routines and Business Processes
• Routines (standard operating procedures)
– Precise rules, procedures, and practices developed to cope with
virtually all expected situations

• Business processes: Collections of routines

• Business firm: Collection of business processes

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Figure 3.4: Routines, Business Processes,
and Firms

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Organizational Politics
• Divergent viewpoints lead to political struggle,
competition, and conflict.
• Political resistance greatly hampers organizational
change.

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Organizational Culture
• Encompasses set of assumptions that define goal
and product
– What products the organization should produce
– How and where it should be produced
– For whom the products should be produced

• May be powerful unifying force as well as restraint

on change

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Organizational Environments
• Organizations and environments have a reciprocal
relationship
• Organizations are open to, and dependent on, the
social and physical environment
• Organizations can influence their environments
• Environments generally change faster than
organizations
• Information systems can be instrument of
environmental scanning, act as a lens
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Figure 3.5: Environments and
Organizations Have a Reciprocal
Relationship

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Disruptive Technologies
• Substitute products that perform as well as or
better than existing product
• Technology that brings sweeping change to
businesses, industries, markets
• Examples: personal computers, word processing
software, the Internet, the PageRank algorithm
• First movers and fast followers
– First movers—inventors of disruptive technologies
– Fast followers—firms with the size and resources to capitalize on
that technology
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Organizational Structure
• Five basic kinds of organizational structure
(Mintzberg)
– Entrepreneurial
– Machine bureaucracy
– Divisionalized bureaucracy
– Professional bureaucracy
– Adhocracy

• Information system often reflects organizational

structure

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Other Organizational Features
• Goals
– Coercive, utilitarian, normative, and so on

• Constituencies
• Leadership styles
• Types of tasks

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Economic Impacts
• IT changes relative costs of capital and the costs
of information
• Information systems technology is a factor of
production, like capital and labor
• IT affects the cost and quality of information and
changes economics of information
– Information technology helps firms contract in size because it can
reduce transaction costs (the cost of participating in markets)
 Outsourcing

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Transaction Cost Theory
• Firms seek to economize on transaction costs (the
costs of participating in markets)
– Vertical integration, hiring more employees, buying suppliers and
distributors

• IT lowers market transaction costs, making it

worthwhile for firms to transact with other firms
rather than grow the number of employees

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Agency Theory
• Firm is nexus of contracts among self-interested
parties requiring supervision
• Firms experience agency costs (the cost of
managing and supervising) which rise as firm
grows
• IT can reduce agency costs, making it possible for
firms to grow without adding to the costs of
supervising, and without adding employees

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Organizational and Behavioral Impacts
• IT flattens organizations
– Decision making is pushed to lower levels
– Fewer managers are needed (IT enables faster decision making
and increases span of control)

• Postindustrial organizations
– Organizations flatten because in postindustrial societies, authority
increasingly relies on knowledge and competence rather than
formal positions

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Figure 3.6: Flattening Organizations

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Interactive Session: Management: Can
Technology Replace Managers?
• Class discussion
– How do flat organizations differ from traditional bureaucratic
hierarchies?
– How has information technology made it possible to eliminate
middle manager positions?
– What management, organization, and technology issues would
you consider if you wanted to move from a traditional bureaucracy
to a flatter organization?
– Can technology replace managers? Explain your answer.

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Understanding Organizational Resistance to
Change
• Information systems become bound up in
organizational politics because they influence
access to a key resource—information
• Information systems potentially change an
organization’s structure, culture, politics, and work
• Four factors
– Nature of the innovation
– Structure of organization
– Culture of organization
– Tasks affected by innovation

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Figure 3.7: Organizational Resistance to
Information System Innovations

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The Internet and Organizations
• The Internet increases the accessibility, storage,
and distribution of information and knowledge for
organizations
• The Internet can greatly lower transaction and
agency costs
– Example: Large firm delivers internal manuals to employees via a
corporate website, saving millions of dollars in distribution costs

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Implications for the Design and
Understanding of Information Systems
• Organizational factors in planning a new system:
– Environment
– Structure
 Hierarchy, specialization, routines, business processes
– Culture and politics
– Type of organization and style of leadership
– Main interest groups affected by system; attitudes of end users
– Tasks, decisions, and business processes the system will assist

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Porter’s Competitive Forces Model (1 of 3)
• Why do some firms become leaders in their
industry?
• Michael Porter’s competitive forces model
– Provides general view of firm, its competitors, and environment

• Five competitive forces shape fate of firm:

– Traditional competitors
– New market entrants
– Substitute products and services
– Customers
– Suppliers

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Porter’s Competitive Forces Model (2 of 3)
• Traditional competitors
– All firms share market space with competitors who are
continuously devising new products, services, efficiencies, and
switching costs

• New market entrants

– Some industries have high barriers to entry, for example, computer
chip business
– New companies have new equipment, younger workers, but little
brand recognition

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Porter’s Competitive Forces Model (3 of 3)
• Substitute products and services
– Substitutes customers might use if your prices become too high,
for example, iTunes substitutes for CDs

• Customers
– Can customers easily switch to competitor's products? Can they
force businesses to compete on price alone in transparent
marketplace?

• Suppliers
– Market power of suppliers when firm cannot raise prices as fast as
suppliers

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Figure 3.8: Porter’s Competitive Forces
Model

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Information System Strategies for Dealing
with Competitive Forces (1 of 3)
• Four generic strategies for dealing with
competitive forces, enabled by using IT:
– Low-cost leadership
– Product differentiation
– Focus on market niche
– Strengthen customer and supplier intimacy

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Information System Strategies for Dealing
with Competitive Forces (2 of 3)
• Low-cost leadership
– Produce products and services at a lower price than competitors
– Example: Walmart’s efficient customer response system

• Product differentiation
– Enable new products or services, greatly change customer
convenience and experience
– Example: Google, Nike, Apple
– Mass customization

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Information System Strategies for Dealing
with Competitive Forces (3 of 3)
• Focus on market niche
– Use information systems to enable a focused strategy on a single
market niche; specialize
– Example: Hilton Hotels’ OnQ system

• Strengthen customer and supplier intimacy

– Use information systems to develop strong ties and loyalty with
customers and suppliers
– Increase switching costs
– Examples: Chrysler, Amazon, Starbucks

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The Internet’s Impact on Competitive
Advantage
• Transformation or threat to some industries
– Examples: travel agency, printed encyclopedia, media

• Competitive forces still at work, but rivalry more

intense
• Universal standards allow new rivals, entrants to
market
• New opportunities for building brands and loyal
customer bases

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Smart Products and the Internet of Things
• Internet of Things (IoT)
– Growing use of Internet-connected sensors in products

• Smart products
– Fitness equipment, health trackers

• Expand product differentiation opportunities

– Increasing rivalry between competitors

• Raise switching costs

• Inhibit new entrants
• May decrease power of suppliers

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Interactive Session: Technology: Smart
Products, Smart Companies
• Class discussion
– What competitive strategies are the companies discussed in this
case pursuing?
– How are information technology and smart products related to
these strategies? Describe the role of information technology in
these products.
– Are there any ethical issues raised by these smart products such
as their impact on consumer privacy? Explain your answer.

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The Business Value Chain Model
– Firm as series of activities that add value to
products or services
– Highlights activities where competitive strategies
can best be applied
• Primary activities vs. support activities

– At each stage, determine how information

systems can improve operational efficiency and
improve customer and supplier intimacy
– Utilize benchmarking, industry best practices
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Figure 3.9: The Value Chain Model

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Extending the Value Chain: The Value Web
• Firm’s value chain is linked to value chains of
suppliers, distributors, customers
• Industry value chain
• Value web
– Collection of independent firms using highly synchronized IT to
coordinate value chains to produce product or service collectively
– More customer driven, less linear operation than traditional value
chain

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Figure 3.10: The Value Web

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Synergies
• When output of some units are used as inputs to
others, or organizations pool markets and
expertise
• Example: merger of Bank of NY and JPMorgan
Chase
• Purchase of YouTube by Google

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Core Competencies
• Activity for which firm is world-class leader
• Relies on knowledge, experience, and sharing this
across business units
• Example: Procter & Gamble’s intranet and
directory of subject matter experts

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Network-Based Strategies (1 of 3)
• Take advantage of firm’s abilities to network with
one another
• Include use of:
– Network economics
– Virtual company model
– Business ecosystems

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Network Economics
• Marginal cost of adding new participant almost
zero, with much greater marginal gain
• Value of community grows with size
• Value of software grows as installed customer
base grows
• Compare to traditional economics and law of
diminishing returns

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Virtual Company Model
• Virtual company
– Uses networks to ally with other companies
– Creates and distributes products without being limited by
traditional organizational boundaries or physical locations

• Example: Li & Fung

– Manages production, shipment of garments for major fashion
companies
– Outsources all work to thousands of suppliers

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Business Ecosystems and Platforms
• Industry sets of firms providing related services
and products
• Platforms
– Microsoft, Facebook

• Keystone firms
• Niche firms
• Individual firms can consider how IT will help them
become profitable niche players in larger
ecosystems
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Figure 3.11: An Ecosystem Strategic Model

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Challenges Posed by Strategic Information
Systems
• Sustaining competitive advantage
– Competitors can retaliate and copy strategic systems
– Systems may become tools for survival

• Aligning IT with business objectives

– Performing strategic systems analysis
 Structure of industry
 Firm value chains

• Managing strategic transitions

– Adopting strategic systems requires changes in business goals,
relationships with customers and suppliers, and business
processes

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