competititve advantage perspective—Porter's
vaiue chain and Wiseman's strategic thrusts
methodoiogy. An instrument was prepared to
operationaiize each methodoiogy, which was
then appiied in two matched sets of 10 mediumsized
enterprises. Both methodologies were
found to be effective in generating a significant
number of ideas for information systems worthy
of impiementation. Simiiarities and differences
are anaiyzed and disussed in terms of the
number, estimated implementaton costs and
duration, manageriai ievei, and decision to
impiement the appiications identified by the two
methodoiogies. These appiications are aiso
ciassified from the perspective of both Porter's
and Wiseman's framewori(. The resuits seem to
indicate that whiie there is an overaii simiiarity
t}etween the two methodoiogies, there are certain
differences that show the more outward orientation
of the strategic thrusts framework and its
greater attractiveness for organizations in
unstabie environments.
Keywords: Planning methodologies, strategic information
systems, competitive advantage,
interorganizational systems,
electronic data interchange
ACM Categories: H.4.O., J.I