Mostpre-1990 literature on businesses’ use of information technology(IT)—defined asany form of computer-based information system—focused on spectacular IT successesand reflected a general optimism concerning IT’s potential as a resource for creating competitive advantage. But toward the end of the 1980’s, some economists spoke of a “productivityparadox”: despite huge IT investments, most notably in the servicesectors, productivity stagnated. In the retailindustry, for example, in which IT had been widely adopted during the 1980’s,productivity (average output per hour) rose at an average annual rate of 1.1percent between 1973 and 1989, compared with 2.4 percent in the preceding 25-yearperiod. Proponents of IT argued that it takes both time and acritical mass of investment for IT to yield benefits, and some suggested thatgrowth figures for the 1990’s proved these benefits were finally beingrealized. They also argued that measuresof productivity ignore what would have happened without investments inIT—productivity gains might have been even lower. There were even claims that IT had improvedthe performance of the service sector significantly, although macroeconomicmeasures of productivity did not reflect the improvement.
But some observersquestioned why, if IT had conferredeconomic value, it did not produce direct competitive advantages for individualfirms. Resource-based theory offers an answer, assertingthat, in general, firms gain competitive advantages by accumulating resourcesthat are economically valuable, relatively scarce, and not easilyreplicated. According to a recent studyof retail firms, which confirmed that IT has become pervasive and relatively easy to acquire,IT by itself appeared to have conferred little advantage. In fact, though little evidence of any directeffect was found, the frequent negative correlations between IT and performancesuggested that IT had probably weakened some firms’ competitive positions. However, firms’ human resources, in and of themselves, did explainimproved performance, and some firms gained IT-related advantages by merging ITwith complementary resources, particularly human resources. The findingssupport the notion, founded in resource-based theory, that competitiveadvantages do not arise from easily replicated resources, no matter how impressiveor economically valuable they may be, but from complex, intangible resources.
GWD5-Q22:
Thepassage is primarily concerned with
A. describinga resource and indicating various methods used to study it
B. presentinga theory and offering an opposing point of view
C. providingan explanation for unexpected findings
D. demonstratingwhy a particular theory is unfounded
E. resolving a disagreement regarding the uses of atechnology
passage directly talks about the content of 90's literature..and it contains optimism about the positive effect of IT on the competition.. In the first passage, some argued that the performance of IT is not as per stated in the literature, so proponents provided an explanation for the unexpected finding.. in the second para as well, some people pointed that IT has not very successful effects on the competitiveness , so again IT supporters explained why it is so and explained it..
So, the primary purpose will be C..
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