through Information Technology Assets Claims that information technology can be a source of competitive advantage, which populated business literature in the late 1980s, have been largely discredited. Nonetheless, business executives continue to look for ways to apply information technology strategically to their businesses. Reporting on a two-year study of IT management practices, the authors note that some firms do appear to generate competitive advantage from their IT, but the advantage results from their IT capabilities, not from their IT applications. Specifically, a firm delivers value from IT by building and leveraging three assets: highly competent IT human resources, a reusable technology infrastructure, and a strong IT-business partner relationship. These three assets are interrelated in the sense that they tend to strengthen- or weaken- one another. Together, they allow a firm to apply information technology to strategic business needs faster and more cost effectively than the competition. This paper describes the characteristics of strong IT assets and offers strategies for developing them. Developing Long-term Competitiveness through Information Technology Assets

third career, following an IS management career and positions in university administration before that. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1989. He is an internationally recognized speaker on electronic commerce. He has delivered professional development courses for the Institute of

This study examines the risk consequences of participation in inter-organisational information systems (IOS). The research aims to identify the risk mitigation and risk absorption impacts of IOS participation and evaluate the extent to which these impacts affect participation decisions. Prior research has called for a greater understanding of risks associated with IS. This paper presents a synthesis of the research on IS risk and illustrates that, to date, this call has been addressed primarily by one-dimensional studies. The paper highlights the changing context of inter-firm trade illustrating its increased reliance on networked collaboration. What remains uncertain is the nature and consequences of risk within this context. The paper presents a framework that will form the basis of the proposed research into the risk mitigation and risk absorption consequences of IOS participation.

This article presents a methodology to justifying the strategic use of information technology, called value-advantage-risk (VAR) analysis. The basic premise of this methodology is that there is no long-term sustainable competitive advantage. In other words, every competitive weapon has a life cycle, called the "competitive edge life cycle (CELC) ". The analysis recommends that the manager first identify the value of a system and then determine to what extent the value can be converted into a competitive advantage. In addition, since strategic information systems are future-oriented, competitiondriven, and strategy-dependent, the competitor's strategy and the risks associated with these spplications must be taken into consideration in justifying the systems. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from University of Illinois