I nf or mat ion technol ogy i s a “hot ” topic. Consult ant , sof twar e and hardwar e compani es, the speciali
zed press and even som e academi cs pr esent IT as the cor ner st one to fir m’ s per for mance.
T hi s cl aim is even str onger in the logi st ics sect or wher e the devel opm ent of the Int ernet and rel
at ed technol ogies has opened some unexpect ed possi bi li t ies. However , despi te this enthusiasm,
som e ear li er work in IT research has call ed for a mor e prudent vi ew on IT , st at i ng that IT does
not aut omati cal ly pr ovides the fir m wit h a com pet it ive advantage.
I n this paper , using bot h the posi ti on- based and resour ce- based views, we devel op a framewor k
f or anal yzing the cont ri but ion of IT in the logi sti cs sect or . We concl ude that IT wi l l cont r ibut e
t o competi ti ve advantage in lim i ted cases and that most of ten the “str at egi c necessi t y” hypothesis
wil l appl y. We suggest a dual approach to inf or mati on technol ogy str ategi c management : on
one hand, the fir m should devel op the capabi li ty to impl em ent eff ici entl y som e “st andar d” sol
ut ions on an oppor t unit y-based appr oach; on the ot her hand, it should em bed it s IT system in
t he organi zat ion wi t h a str ong top m anagement com mi tm ent and a cl ear str ategi c ali gnm ent.
Keywords
L ogisti cs – Str at egy – Compet it i ve advant age – Inform at i on Technology - Assessm ent -
2n d Swiss Transpor t Research Confer ence – STRC 2002 – Monte Ver it à
Swiss Tra nsport Resea rch Co nferen ce