Background
The present era introduced several aspects that showed a rapid growth at the same time. Two aspects that can be specifically mentioned in the context of business are globalization, namely, the expansion and the integration of economic activities into world market, and the rapid technological changes. The relationship between those two aspects might require further investigation. On the one hand, information technology is altering the way people live and work in general (Adekola and Sergi, 2007). On the other hand, the impact of integrating a specific technology in a specific sector might not be so apparent. In an article by Nicholas Carr (2003), title “IT Doesn’t Matter”, the author argues that information technology (IT) no longer provides a strategic advantage over competitors. As stated in the article, technologies became commodity inputs, which did not matter anymore. On the contrary, when a resource becomes essential to competition but inconsequential to strategy, the risks it creates become more important than the advantages it provides” (Carr, 2003). One technology that is considered important, for business in general and international business in particular, is corporate information portals. Corporate portals can be categorized into several types, where in general they can be defined as “gateways to streamline information access in firms” (Elangovan, 2009). It is argued that companies obtain competitive advantage through creating, storing and applying knowledge, which can be seen as functions that can be attributed to corporate portals. Thus, it can be stated that assessing the role technology plays in international business management is an important issue.
Purpose
The purpose of the research is to investigate the role of technology represented by corporate portal on the performance of companies operating globally. The significance of the study can be seen through the fact that corporate portals and their implementation are costly solution (Al-Mudimigh, 2010), and thus, the study will investigate whether such technology is justified. Thus, identifying the role such technology plays, whether a source of competitive advantage or a commodity, will allow organizations plan their global expansion.
Research Questions
The questions that the study will answer to reach the identified purpose are as follows:
- How the technology lying in corporate portal provides competitive strategic advantage for international business?
- How the technology attributed to the costs of leading business.
- How the technology serves the business goals of organizations in general? How the technology serves the international business goals of organizations?
Answering such question will allow assessing such information technology within the context of leading global business.
Literature Support
The basis of the analysis can be seen through analyzing literature on corporate portals in terms of benefits, drawback, and the way they serve the business goals of the company in general, particularly in a business context. One of the argument that will be used to formulate the basis of the study is the article by Nicholas Carr (2003), “IT Doesn’t Matter”, in which the author’s main focus is proving that IT is a commodity, for which the main goal of the manager sis to keep their costs down. Another theoretical framework can be seen through the concept of the Intelligent Exploiter framework, a framework introduced by Clive Holtham, a professor of Information Management at Cass Business School. One of the main points of the framework can be utilized in the research which is the statement that “[b]usinesses do not benefit from technology, unless they are aware of how to deploy and exploit information and knowledge” (Rich, 2010). This framework puts an emphasis on the way information technology will be exploited in a company, rather on the status of the information.
Literature emphasizing the benefits of corporate portal can be used as well, providing support for the benefits that corporate portals should provide to corporations. In Muntean (2009), the author provided an overview of corporate portals as means to work in global team-based environments. Such overview is supported by recommendations on the approaches to knowledge management in portal-based collaborative environments (Muntean, 2009). Accordingly, literature in global business management can be used as a foundation for the global business context, in terms of goals, objectives, common issues and others.
Methodology
Qualitative research methods will be used in the proposed study. The use of such methods is driven by the intention to understand the context for which corporate portals where used as a technology in leading international business. A quantitative study could be a useful approach too, specifically to indicate the benefits in performance. However, it will be difficult to find a control group, or similar companies differing in the implementation of the technology. Thus, the perception will be the main focus of the study, i.e., understanding the context within which decisions and actions took place (Myers, 2009). The decisions and the actions, in that regard, are those related to designing and implementing corporate portals in companies. The data will be collected through series of semi-structured interview with business managers in companies using corporate portals in doing international business. Interviews will be semi-structured, where the interviewer will have a list of themes and questions to be covered, as it is expected that additional questions might arise during the interviews. Thus, standardized questions might not suit the purpose of the research (Saunders et al., 2009). The interview will be on one-on-one basis. In that regard, purposeful sampling will be used. The data will be analyzed through outlining common themes the will emerge from interviews and interpreting them to answer the main research question.
Discussion
The main difficulties that might arise during the research are related to the amount of information managers will be willing to share in the interviews. Another aspect, which might be implied from the context of the research, is the lack of generalisability. Although, the lack of generalisability might be seen as a limitation due to the use of such approach in the context of business, rather than a limitation of this study in particular. The use of several companies, rather than a case study on one company only can be seen as a way to provider a wider context for the purpose of the proposed research. At the same time, the form of modifiable semi-structured interviews can be one of the solutions to gather information from respondents. Accordingly, if information on these companies is available on the internet, such data can be triangulated to obtain a different perspective on the data gathered, and provide a context for interpretation.
References
Adekola, A. & Sergi, B. S. 2007. Global business management : a cross-cultural perspective, Aldershot, England ; Burlington, VT, Ashgate.
Al-Mudimigh, A. S. U., Z. 2010 Portal Implementation Issues: A Case Study. 12th International Conference on Computer Modelling and Simulation (UKSim) Cambridge.
Carr, N. G. 2003. IT Doesn’t Matter. Harvard Business Review. Web.
Collins, H. 2001. Corporate portals: revolutionizing information access to increase productivity and drive the bottom line, New York, Amacom.
Czinkota, M. R., Ronkainen, I. A. & Moffett, M. H. 2004. Fundamentals of international business, Mason, Ohio, Thomson/South-Western.
Elangovan, N. 2009. Intention to Share Knowledge in Corporate Portal. Web.
Muntean, M. I. 2009. Knowledge Management Approaches in Portal-Based Collaborative Enterprises. Informatica Economica. Web.
Myers, M. D. 2009. Qualitative research in business and management, Los Angeles, Sage.
Rich, M. 2010. The Intelligent Exploiter: An Interview with Professor Clive Holtham. Web.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. 2009. Research methods for business students, New York, Prentice Hall.