Laudon - Management Strategy, Investment In It And Productivity.pdf

MANAGEMENT STRATEGY, INVESTMENT IN IT, AND PRODUCTIVITY
by
h C. Laudon
h L. Marr
David Sessions
Stern #IS-95-7
Center for Digital Economy Research
Stern School of Business
Working Paper IS-95-07
MANAGEMENT STRATEGY, INVESTMENT IN IT, AND PRODUCTIVITY
h C. Laudon
New York University
h E. Marr
Hofstra University
David Sessions
Hofstra University
June 1995
Submitted to the
Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences (HICSS)
January 1996
The research reported here was supported by grant from the National Science Foundation, Division of Information,
Robotics, and Intelligent Systems (NSF IR18619301), 1986-1990. We are grateful for support from the Center for
Research on Information Systems (New York University, Stern School of Business) in assistance obtaining additional
data sets for this study. We would also like to thank TRAC, Syracuse University, and Sue Long (Director) for
support in obtaining additional data.
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Working Paper Series
STERN IS-95-7
Center for Digital Economy Research
Stern School of Business
Working Paper IS-95-07
Management Strategy, Investment in IT, and Productivity
h C. Laudon (New York University)
h Man (Hofstra University)
David Sessions (Hofstra University)
Abstract
Previous literature on IT and productivity does not take into account different
organizational goals and different management strategies for achieving these goals. But
productivity and ROI relationships can easily differ anizational goals and
management strategies differ. Therefore, we argue, it is no longer appropriate to ask,
"Does IT lead to productivity enhancement." or "Is the ROI on IT investments large or
small or nonexistent?'The better question is under what conditions anizational
climate and management choice does IT enhanced productivity result.
To illustrate the powefil effect anizational goals and