Business Strategy and Information Systems Strategy of Japanese Companies

Abstract

This paper is concerned with an empirical study on business strategy and information systems strategy of Japanese companies. Based on a systematic survey of the companies via questionnaires, we empirically examine the state-of-the-art of these strategies and proposes a conceptual model to explain them. We expand the conceptual model of Yolande[Yolande 1992], which intended to uncover the relations between business and information strategies in companies. The model is expanded by including both the concepts of the commitments of executives to information systems and the ones of the conditions of information systems. The questionnaires study and the corresponding statistical data analysis are conducted to find the characteristics of the model. The main results of this study are as follows: of the business strategic orientations, "long-term innovativeness" is a key factor which directly affects the business performance, the business performance is proportional with the effective use of information systems when not only executives but middle class managers utilize available information systems.