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Organizing for Global Competition
Author(s) -
Jarvenpaa Sirkka L.,
Ives Blake
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
decision sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.238
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1540-5915
pISSN - 0011-7315
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5915.1993.tb01293.x
Subject(s) - multinational corporation , contingency theory , information technology , competition (biology) , knowledge management , business , contingency , service (business) , global information system , industrial organization , information system , marketing , survey data collection , computer science , engineering , ecology , biology , linguistics , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , finance , electrical engineering , operating system
Global information technology (i.e., computer hardware, software, and data communications shared across country boundaries) can support the multinational firm as it seeks to coordinate global operations, diffuse innovations worldwide, or provide integrated service to a global corporate customer. The current study uses information processing theory as the basis for examining alternative organizational designs for information technology in a globally competing firm. Mail survey data gathered from information technology managers in 109 multinationals provide evidence that multinational firms use different and distinct ways of organizing their global information technology activities. The survey data also reveal that in nearly half of the organizations, the way information technology activities are organized is inconsistent with the way the organization is reportedly structured. A follow‐up interview‐based study sought explanations for these misfits. Several contingency variables were identified that may shed some light to the misfits. These included factors from both the firm's internal and external environments.