necessarily to deliver competitive advantage.
Even in the McKesson Economost case, Clemons
and Row (1988) found information technology to
have become a strategic necessity rather than
a source of competitive advantage.
On the other hand, Benjamin, et al. (1988) take
a less restrictive view when they state that the
innovator can conserve his or her advantage by
continually adding valuable new capabilities to
the system. Furthermore. Wiseman (f988) advocates
pursuing opportunities that have a wide
range (short, medium, or long term), are sustainable
or contestable, and provide price,
feature, or other advantages. These advantages
can be measured not only by return on investment
but also by other measures such as market
share and number of new customers. In conclusion,
the pursuit of strategic opportunities for
information systems is worthwhile even though
one cannot be certain beforehand that a competitive
advantage will in fact be attained,
whatever the interpretation of what constitutes
such an advantage. This is confirmed by
Clemons and Kimbrough (1986), who conclude
that the recent attention given to the strategic use
of information systems or the priority placed on
finding opportunities is not overstressed.