Term
Competitive Forces
(Porter's Five Forces) |
|
Definition
| A firm must confront (1) rivalry of competitors within its industry, (2) threats of new entrants, (3) threats of substitutes, (4) the bargaining power of customers, and (5) the bargaining power of suppliers. |
|
|
Term
| Strategic Information Systems |
|
Definition
| Information systems that provide a firm with competitive products and services that give it a strategic advantage over its competitors in the marketplace. Also, information systems that promote business innovation, improve business processes, and build strategic information resources for a firm. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A firm can develop cost leadership, product differentiation, and business innovation strategies to confront its competitive forces. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The costs in time, money, effort, and inconvenience that it would take a customer or supplier to switch its business to a firm's competitors. |
|
|
Term
| Locking in Customers and Suppliers |
|
Definition
| Building valuable relationships with customers and suppliers that deter them from abandoning a firm for its competitors or intimidating it into accepting less profitable relationships. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Developing products, services, processes, or capabilities that give a company a superior business position relative to its competitors and other competitive forces. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Viewing a firm as a series, chain, or network of basic activities that adds value to its products and services and thus adds a margin of value to the firm. |
|
|
Term
Business Process Reengineering
(BPR) |
|
Definition
| Restructuring and transforming a business process by a fundamental rethinking and redesign to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, speed, and so on. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A form of organization that uses telecommunications networks and other information technologies to link the people, assets, and ideas of a variety of business partners, no matter where they may be, to exploit a business opportunity. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Organizing and sharing the diverse forms of business information created within an organization. Includes managing project and enterprise document libraries, discussion databases, intranet Web site databases, and other types of knowledge bases. |
|
|
Term
| Leverage Investment in IT |
|
Definition
| Investing in information technology enables a firm to build strategic IT capabilities so they can take advantage of opportunities when they arise (developing products and services that would not be possible without a strong IT capability). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| By making investments in information technology to improve its operations and promote innovation, which would discourage or delay other companies from entering a market. |
|
|
Term
| Customer Focused Business |
|
Definition
| For many companies, the chief business value of becoming a customer-focused business lies in its ability to help them keep customers loyal, anticipate their future needs, respond to customer concerns, and provide top-quality customer service. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Quality, rather than price, has become the primary determinant in a customer's perception of value. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Companies that consistently offer the best value from the customer's perspective are those that keep track of their customers' individual preferences; keep up with market trends; supply products, services, and information anytime and anywhere and provide customer service tailored to individual needs. |
|
|
Term
| Interenterprise Information Systems |
|
Definition
| A virtual company uses the Internet, intranets, and extranets to form virtual workgroups and support alliances with business partners (suppliers, customers, subcontractors, and competitors). |
|
|
Term
| Knowledge-Creating Company |
|
Definition
| Exploit two kinds of knowledge. One is explicit knowledge, which is the data, documents, and things written down or stored on computers. The other kind is tacit knowledge, or the "how-tos" of knowledge, which resides in workers. |
|
|
