Abstract

There is an on-going debate over the long-term value propositions of enterprise systems (ES) for competitive advantage, with many arguing that ES have lost their potential to contribute to competitive advantage in the contemporary hyper-competitive markets. While acknowledging that an ES is a valuable, rare and non-substitutable resource that is common to all competitors, it is further questionable how ES contribute to competitive advantage. Using the fourth characteristic of the resource-based view, we investigate how inimitability of ES can contribute to competitiveness. Using qualitative evidence from nine case studies this study derives three conditions that facilitate ES to be inimitable.

Share

COinS