Research Summary
Research Summary
Is there a Relationship Between IT Investment and Industry Structure?
Description
A provocative current argument is that 'IT doesn't matter' in a competitive sense -- that it benefits all companies equally, and so provides advantage and differentiation to none and leaves industry structures unchanged.
As we accumulate a longer history of IT investment, this becomes a testable proposition. Erik Brynjolfsson, Feng Zhu, Michael Sorell, and I are conducting analyses that examine how industry structures have changed as companies within them have increased their IT spending. This research covers all industries in the US private sector, and indicates that IT-intensive industries have in recent years been experiencing higher levels of turbulence and rates of concentration growth than non IT-intensive ones.