Chapter 3 - Achieving Competitive Advantage w/ IS

Business process management

(BPM) Tools and methodologies for continuously improving and managing business processes.

3-D printing

Uses machines to make solid objects, layer by layer, from specifications in a digital file. Also known as additive manufacturing.

Domestic exporter

Form of business organization characterized by heavy centralization of corporate activities in the home country of origin.

Support activities

Activities that make the delivery of a firm’s primary activities possible; consist of the organization’s infrastructure, human resources, technology, and procurement.

Multinational

Form of business organization that concentrates financial management and control out of a central home base while decentralizing production, sales, and marketing.

Primary activities

Activities most directly related to the production and distribution of a firm’s products or services.

Best practices

The most successful solutions or problem-solving methods for achieving a business objective that have been developed by a specific organization or industry.

Core competency

Activity at which a firm is an industry leader.

Business process reengineering

(BPR) The radical redesign of business processes to maximize the benefits of information technology.

Benchmarking

Involves comparing efficiency and effectiveness of business processes and measuring organizational performance against strict standards.

Total quality management

(TQM) A concept that makes quality control a responsibility to be shared by all people in an organization.

Computer-aided design system

(CAD system) Information system that automates the creation and revision of designs by using sophisticated graphics software.

Platforms

Businesses providing information systems, technologies, and services that thousands of other firms in different industries use to enhance their own capabilities.

Competitive forces model

Model used to describe the interaction of external influences—specifically, threats and opportunities—that affect an organization’s strategy and ability to compete.

Core competency

Activity at which a firm is an industry leader.

Business process reengineering

(BPR) The radical redesign of business processes to maximize the benefits of information technology.

Business ecosystem

Term used to describe loosely coupled interdependent networks of suppliers, distributors, outsourcing firms, transportation services firms, and technology manufacturers that provide related services and products that deliver value to the customer. Also referred to as industry sets.

Transnational

Truly global form of business organization where value-added activities are managed from a global perspective without reference to national borders, thus optimizing sources of supply and demand and local competitive advantage.

Six Sigma

A specific measure of quality, representing 3.4 defects per million opportunities; used to designate a set of methodologies and techniques for improving quality and reducing costs.

Quality

From standpoint of a product, signifies a product’s or service’s conformance to specifications and standards.

Product differentiation

Creating new products and services or enhancing customer convenience in using existing products and services.

Network economics

Model of strategic systems at the industry level that is based on the concept of a network when adding another participant entails zero marginal costs but can create much larger marginal gains.

Switching costs

The expense a customer or company incurs in lost time and expenditure of resources when changing from one supplier or system to a competing supplier or system.

Franchisers

Form of business organization in which a product is created, designed, financed, and initially produced in the home country but, for product-specific reasons, relies heavily on foreign personnel for further production, marketing, and human resources.

Disruptive technologies

Technologies with disruptive impact on industries and businesses, rendering existing products, services, and business models obsolete.

Mass customization

The capacity to offer individually tailored products or services on a large scale.