Abstract:

 Information technology and information systems have been generally recognized as one of the greatest human inventions of modern times. Information systems or IS is an organized combination of people, hardware, software, communication networks and data resources that collects, transforms, and disseminates information in an organization (O’Brien, 1999). As IS are being developed and deployed, research on their strategic utilization have been continuously studied by researchers and scholars. Accordingly, various models and frameworks have been proposed to evaluate the strategic utilization of IS. However, past researchers have paid little attention on factors that contribute towards strategic utilization of IS. Against this concern, this paper attempts to provide a conceptual understanding of the contribution of organizational, technological and environmental factors on the strategic utilization of information systems measured in terms of product differentiation, cost leadership and growth advantage. Based on the proposed model, several propositions are formulated as a basis for the study that will follow.