Investigating the intangible: lessons learnt from research into automotive inter-organisational IT systems

Mickey Howard and Matthias Holweg

International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, 2004, vol. 4, issue 4, 354-373

Abstract: The role of Information Technology (IT) as a source of competitive advantage and enabler of advanced supply chain management in inter-organisational systems is hardly in question. E-commerce, trade-exchanges and online transactions are just a few of these enabling features. The thrust and volume of studies reflect this critical role, yet recent research reflects more qualitative and case-based research designs. This is in part due to the intangible nature of IT systems, and the resulting difficulties of visualisation and quantification. This paper reviews the main research methods in IT, based on the lessons learnt from a three-year research programme in the automotive industry, and concludes with a generic framework on how both qualitative and quantitative methods can be integrated to provide a more holistic understanding of IT in inter-organisational systems.

Keywords: automobile industry; information technology; research methods; supply chain management; automotive supply chain; 3DayCar programme; inter-organisational systems; build-to-order. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=6288 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijatma:v:4:y:2004:i:4:p:354-373

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().