CHAPTER 3

“INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR COMPETITIVE

ADVANTAGE”

How Does Organizational Strategy Determine Information Systems Structure?

Organizational Strategy model that summarizes the situation. Organization examines the Structure
of Industry and determines a Competitive Strategy. That strategy determines Value Chains, which in turn
determine Business Processes. The nature of business processes determines the Structure of an Information
Systems.

Michael Porter’s Five Forces Determine Industry Structure:

1. Bargaining Power of Customers

-There are few dominant buyers and many sellers in the industry

- Products are standardized

- Buyers threaten to integrate backward into the industry

- Suppliers do not threaten to integrate forward into the buyer's industry

- The industry is not a key supplying group for buyers

2. Threat of Substitution

- Buyers' willingness to substitute

- The relative price and performance of substitutes

- The costs of switching to substitutes

3. Bargaining Power of Suppliers

-There are many buyers and few dominant suppliers

- There are undifferentiated, highly valued products

- Suppliers threaten to integrate forward into the industry
- Buyers do not threaten to integrate backwards into supply
- The industry is not a key customer group to the suppliers
 4. Threat of New Entrants

- Economies of scale
- Capital / investment requirements
- Customer switching costs
- Access to industry distribution channels
- The likelihood of retaliation from existing industry players.

5. Rivalry among Existing Firms

- The structure of competition

- The structure of industry costs

- Degree of differentiation

- Switching costs

- Strategic objectives

- Exit barriers