An investigation into IS-enabled sustained improved competitive positioning

It has long been argued that organisations have struggled to achieve business benefits, and in particular sustained competitive advantage, from their information system (IS) investments. Recently, calls have been made to apply resource based theory to the field of IS research, to better understand how improved competitive positioning can be derived from information systems in general, and through the application of information systems capabilities in particular. However, such research is predicated upon finding effective ways to actually measure improved competitive positioning, an issue that has caused a significant amount of debate within the literature. This study attempts to fill these gaps by constructing an IS-enabled sustainability framework. The framework is used to explore the relationship between the application of IS capabilities, during the introduction of an IS-enhancement, and the extent to which an improvement in competitive positioning is attained and sustained, as measured at the process level. Moreover, the framework is used to investigate how the resultant levels of improved competitive positioning might be influenced by the extent to which the improved competitive positioning is directly or indirectly derived from an IS enhancement's introduction. [Continues.]