Term Paper

MASTER IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 2014

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS (MIS 750)

TERM PAPER 1

JOURNAL ARTICLE CRITIQUE

Prepared by:

FARAH NADIAH IBRAHIM

2013812912

Prepared for:

DR ZUHAL HUSSIN

TERM PAPER 1

Scope: Strategic system analysis and its relation to competitive advantage sustainability.

Title: IT can matter : co-evolution fostering IT competitive advantage.

Author:

i. Andy Luse

Department of Management Science and Information Systems, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA.

ii. Brian Mennecke

Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA.

Journal: Management Research Review

Volume number: 37

Number: 6

Pages: 574-588

Year: 2014

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Critical review:

This paper shows that there is a problem occurs regarding to how value is derived from the usage of IT. A discussion of the role of IT in the organizations is needed in order to know how important and valuable the adoption of IT itself. The purpose of this study is to analyze Carr’s argument by analyzing the development of the argument itself as opposed to finding exceptions to the argument which has been done in the past. For me, the problem statements agreed with the title and seemed to be of educational significance.

For the methodology, the author used co-evolutionary theory as a case against Carr’s perspective towards IT. The argument rose when Carr just only looked at the growth of IT from a population ecology perspective and do not realize the success that IT will bring to the organization. Co-evolutionary theory provides a mechanism for explaining the survival of organizations through the combined impact of environmental selection and firm adaptive capacity (Volberda and Lewin, 2003).

From the population ecology perspective, it constitutes two different opinions. The first opinion emphasized that an organization is able to survive because their environment selects them. The...