In
the 21st century, with rapid growth of technology, economic
society and life have changed significantly. Promoting competitive
advantages has become the most important issue for firms in
this rapidly changing and uncertain business environment.
Many researches have pointed out that the adoption of technology
is the most important tool for firms to maintain their competitive
advantages. The survival of a firm in the knowledge-based
economy depends on how they improve their technological capability.
In this sense, firms should develop adequate methodologies,
in order to adopt, in a successful way, new technologies in
the logistics field, and also to integrate logistics into
the corporate strategy for becoming even more competitive.
A growing number of firms are under pressure from their partners
to change their traditional management style, both operationally
and organizationally, replacing them with integrated systems
that help to increase the speed and fluidity of physical and
information flows. In order to reach this kind of integration
they are investing on new Information and Communication Technologies
(ICT).
This paper considers ICT as devices or infrastructures
that make communication of business information among organizations
more efficient. The present paper aims to highlight the importance
of ICT on logistics and to understand the impact of ICT on
the competitiveness of firms. In this paper, a conceptual
model for the adoption of logistics ICT is presented, by taking
into consideration four determinant factorsindividual, organizational, technological/innovation, and environmental. The interaction established among the referred determinant factors may be identified through the computation of the predominant factor, by using a selected set of adequate indicators and a simple geometry methodology. These procedures may provide the identification of the sources of competitive advantages of firms that adopt logistics ICT. The logistics ICT analyzed in this paper are grouped into three typesthe identification, the data communications, and the data acquisition technologies.
Since the beginning of computerization, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have assumed a supporting role for the organizational functions. During the 1980s, ICT have been studied more as instruments for implementing strategic initiatives (Gratzer and Winiwarter, 2003). Several authors show that with the success of ICT, organizational transformations are taking place in industries and firms (Timmers, 1998; Porter, 2001; Torbay et al., 2001; and Gratzer and Winiwarter, 2003). ICT have created some new industries, such as, online auctions and marketplaces. This way, a reconfiguration of existing industries has been enabled. Being so, the referred industries are constrained by high cost for communicating, gathering information, or accomplishing transactions (Malhotra, 2000; and Porter, 2001). |
