Title: IT implementation and customer results: the mediating role of the competitive priorities achieved by the firm

Authors: Manuel Rios De Haro; Marco Opazo-Basáez; Daniel Arias Aranda

Addresses: Business School, University of Granada, Campus Cartuja s/n, Granada, 18011, Spain ' Deusto Business School, University of Deusto, Hermanos Aguirre 2, 48014, Bilbao, Spain ' Business School, University of Granada, Campus Cartuja s/n, Granada, 18011, Spain

Abstract: Studies in information technology (IT) increasingly focus on key variables that might explain the effect of the implementation of IT strategic tools on business performance. In the search to uncover how to achieve greater performance, this study examines how IT implementation, measured through IT use and IT integration, affects the competitive priorities achieved by the firm and customers' results. To do so, an analysis of these interactions is carried out applying the structural equation modelling (SEM) methodology to a survey on Spanish manufacturing firms. The results show a significant and positive relationship between IT implementation and competitive priorities related to the flexibility observed, innovation developed, and delivery time needed. The study also notes that IT integration is positively and directly related to customer results, whereas the relationship between IT use and customer results is positively but indirectly related to those customer results, with the competitive priorities achieved by the firm acting as mediators in this relationship. The main conclusions deriving from the present study clarify the role of IT implementation in organisations, highlighting the role of previous competitive priorities as being responsible for the success of IT implementation.

Keywords: information systems; competitive strategy; customer results; structural equation modelling; SEM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBE.2019.101644

International Journal of Business Environment, 2019 Vol.10 No.4, pp.329 - 345

Received: 17 Dec 2018
Accepted: 18 Jan 2019
Published online: 19 Aug 2019 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article