The strategic role of information technology in traditional B2B organizations

• Autor(a) principal: Pitassi, Claudio
• Data de Publicação: 2002
• Outros Autores: Macedo-Soares, T. Diana L. v. A. de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Administração Pública
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/6426
• topic: information technologies; business-to-business; management of changes; strategic management; strategic networks; virtual networks.; tecnologia da informação; business-to-business; gestão da mudança; gestão estratégica; redes estratégicas; networks virtuais.

This paper presents the results of a bibliographical research on critical factors for the successful management of traditional B2B firms, which are increasingly affected by the potential of information technology to change the rules of their competitive game. Its objective is to provide some new insights for the these firms' decision makers on how to deal with this sort of challenge. The research results suggest that, in the B2B market, IT assumes such a strategic role of creative destruction inasmuch as it enables virtual networks. They also suggest that: the high rate of failures in the implementation of strategic information systems stems, in great part, from a technical, reductionist view of IT, a condition that could be improved by adopting a more human approach to the management of the changes involved in the implementation process; IT constitutes a source of sustainable competitive advantage when it is properly integrated with the other organizational resources/competencies, in an ambiguous causal relationship that creates value for all stakeholders; the dominant frameworks for strategic analyses are hardly adequate for explaining the performance of B2B firms that operate in networks. The paper concludes that new integrative frameworks that take into account the impact of strategic networks upon the firms' conduct and performance, in a context of increasing change, are urgently needed.