Information System for Competitive Advantage

20 October 2011
Thursday 4.15 p.m.

The second topic that I have learnt is about the Information Systems for Competitive advantages. What is a competitive advantage?. 

According to the Porter, he said that “competitive advantage is at the heart of a firm’s performance in competitive markets”. As I have learnt before, the Information Technology (IT) or the Information System (IS) is very important in order to helps the organization implement the competitive strategies to against the competitive forces and gaining the competitive advantage in the marketplace. Porter (1985) defines the competitive strategy as the positioning of a company in its competitive environment.

                       Porter’s five generic competitive strategies 

There are five generic competitive strategies which are cost leadership, differentiation, innovation, growth, and alliance strategy. Besides that, there are many ways of using IT to implement of each five generic strategy. The organization also can use others relevance competitive strategies in order to confront the competitive forces. 

As I know, there are also have five competitive forces that shape industry competition which are rivalry among existing competitors, threat of new entrants, threat of substitute products or services, bargaining powers of suppliers, and bargaining powers of buyers. The utilization of IT in strategic business also can help organization gain the competitive differentiation. In my own understanding, I come out with my own model of competitive advantages as an insight and a guideline for me ^_^.

         Implementation for    Competitive Strategies:           Confront         Competitive Forces:                                                                                                                                                                       

IT or IS                         cost leadership, differentiation,                      rivalry among existing competitors

                                     innovation, growth, and alliance                    ,threat of new entrants, threat of

                                     strategy.                                                       Substitute products or services,

strategic                                                                                             bargaining powers of suppliers,

business                                                                                             bargaining powers of buyers.

                                                                                                                                   gaining

           COMPETITIVE

           DIFFERENTIATION                                                           COMPETITIVE

                                                                                                          ADVANTAGE

* (Kindly refer to the hardcopy ya Dr.NurNaha because my models can't read here.. thank you Dr. NurNaha ^_^)

References:

1. Aerlines Magazine e-zine edition, issue 28
2. ECONOMIC AND MANAGEMENT OF COMPATITIVE STRATEGY. c World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd . (http://www.worldscibooks.com/business/7171.html)
3. Dess, Gregory G., G.T. Lumpkin and Marilyn L. Taylor. Strategic Management. 2ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2005.
4. Michael E. Porter. (2007). The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy. Copyright c 2007 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION .