Managers and business firms invest in information technology and systems
because they provide real economic value to the business. The decision to build
or maintain an information system assumes that the returns on this investment
will be superior to other investments in buildings, machines, or other assets.
These superior returns will be expressed as increases in productivity, as
increases in revenues (which will increase the firm’s stock market value), or
perhaps as superior long-term strategic positioning of the firm in certain
markets (which produce superior revenues in the future)