An investigation into the process, context and organisational factors that lead to IS driven sustained competitive advantages in financial services, retailing and manufacturing

The study undertook an examination of the process, context and organisationalfactors that lead to an IS-driven sustainable competitive advantage.The research contributes theory-based conceptual synthesis and empiricalevidence to an area that has transformed radically over the last fifteen years. Themethodology adopted a pluralistic approach drawing upon both positivism andinterpretist evidence. Care was taken to ensure that the primary researchundertaken in Financial Services, Retailing and Manufacturing was subject to avariety of validating procedures and controls.The study identifled a role for the IS derived sustainability model and found thattechnology alone did not sustain a performance edge but that it needs to becombined with complementary resources to create an isolating mechanism. Thework demonstrated that trade secrets, communication links to externalorganisations, innovative developments and accessing unique resources were thesource of sustained competitive advantages. The findings also provided evidencethat open culture and communications, workgroup consensus, top managementsupport and possessing a highly flexible organisation were also importantattributes of non ephemeral IS based advantages. A practical framework wasproposed which allows an organisation to assess the potential of deriving ISbased sustainable competitive advantage from analysing its resources andcapabilities and discusses ways in which those resources and capabilities can beaugmented.