Ch. 3

Question 1

How does organizational strategy determine information systems structure?

Answer 1

information systems structure exist to help organizations achieve their strategies.

• goals and objectives determined by its competitive strategy
• thus the competitive strategy determines the structure, features, and functions of every information system.

Question 2

What five forces determine industry structure?

Answer 2

porter’s 5 forces model. five competitive forces determine industry profitability: bargaining power of customers, threat of substitutions, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, and rivalry among existing firms.

Question 3

How does analysis of industry structure determined competitive strategy?

Answer 3

an organization responds to the structure of its industry by choosing a competitive strategy

• org, can focus on being the cost leader, or it can focus on differentiating its products or services from those of the competition. further organization can employ the cost or differentiation strategy across an industry, or it can focus its strategy on a particular industry segment.
• In MIS this means that all information systems in the organization must reflect and facilitate the organizations competitive strategy

Question 4

How does competitive strategy determine value chain structure?

Answer 4

organizations analyze the structure of their industry amd using that analysis they formulate to a competitive strategy. They then need to organize and structure the organizations to implement that strategy.

Question 5

How do business processes a generate value?

Answer 5

business process is a network of activities that generate value by transforming inputs into outputs. business processes generate value through the streamlining of processes, the reduction of labor expenses, also using linkage across business processes improves the process margin.

Question 6

How does competitive strategy determine business processes and the structure of information systems.

Answer 6

organizations analyze their industry and choose competitive strategy. Given that strategy, they design business processes that span value-generating activities. Those processes determine the scope and requirements of each organization’s information systems.

Question 7

How do information systems provide competitive advantages?

Answer 7

the five competitive forces:
1. competitive advantage via products…organizations gain a competitive adv. by creating new products or services, by enhancing existing products or services, and by differentiating their products and services. The information systems create competitive advantages either as part of a product or by providing support to a product
2. competitive advantage via business processes… organizations can lock in customers by making it difficult or expensive for customers to switch to another product. this strategy is sometimes called establishing high switching costs. (Lock in suppliers)
(creating entry barriers)
(establish alliances with other organizations,)
Reduce costs gives competitive advantage