Bilişim teknolojilerinin rekabet üstünlüğüne yönelik etkileri ve Türk işletmelerinde bir araştırma

Abstract

Bilgi ve iletişimin çok önemli boyutlara ulaştığı, toplumların gerek ekonomik gerekse sosyal yaşamları üzerinde derin etkiler ve değişimler yarattığı günümüz dünyasında bu kavramları mükemmel bir biçimde bir araya getiren bilişim teknolojilerinin örgütler için taşıdığı önem de giderek artan boyutlara ulaşmaktadır. Öyle ki bilişim teknolojileri örgütlerin uzun dönemde varlıklarını sürdürebilmeleri için yararlanabilecekleri yegane teknolojiler haline gelmektedir. Bilişim teknolojilerinin üstlendikleri bu görev, örgütlerin sadece işlemsel faaliyetlerini desteklemek değil içinde bulunulan pazarlarda rekabet gücünü geliştirmek ve rakiplerine kıyasla daha üstün performans göstermek üzere kullanılmaları ile ilgilidir. Bunun için de bilişim teknolojilerinin yarattığı potansiyel stratejik fırsatların bilinmesi ve öğrenilmesi gerekmektedir. Bu algılama özellikle, Avrupa'yla bütünleşmeyi amaçladığımız bugünlerin uluslararası alanlarda faaliyet gösteren işletmelerle mücadele edilmesi gereken yoğun rekabet koşullarını hazırladığı göz önüne alındığında, ülkemizdeki örgütler için daha da büyük bir önem kazanmaktadır. Belirtilen gelişmelerden yola çıkılarak hazırlanan bu çalışma, bilgi ve bilişim teknolojileri alanında gerekli altyapıyı tamamlamış gelişmiş ülkelerdeki örgütlerde 1986'lı yılların sonrasında büyük bir ivme kazanmış olan bilişim teknolojilerinin stratejik kullanımı konusunda izlenen yaklaşımları aktarmakta ve ülkemizdeki işletmelerde kullanımını ortaya koymaktadır. Hizmet ve imalat sektörünün çeşitli kriterlere göre belirlenmiş büyük kuruluşları arasından tesadüfi olarak seçilen firmalara soru formlarının posta yoluyla ulaştırıldığı ve 133 soru formunun değerlendirildiği araştırmadan elde edilen sonuçlara göre, Türk işletmelerinde bilişim teknolojilerinin rekabet üzerindeki etkileri hissedilmekte ancak teknolojilerin yarattığı fırsat ve olanaklarla etkin kullanımı arasında bir boşluk olduğu da görülmektedir.

Following the industrial revolution initiated by invention of steam engine in the first footsteps of the 19th century, today's world is in the mid of a new revolution information. This new revolution leads to substantial changes on both humans and communities where information and communication have acquired gigantic dimensions. Tastes, habits, ways of living, consumer demands, market structures, products, processes, technologies and shortly almost every thing are included in this trend of change. How we can adapt and harmonize ourselves to such consecutive changes has come out to be an important question always keeping popping up into the minds of today's managers. This is why the managers are looking for the ways of effecting not only the present position, but also the future success of their firms in the globing world and rapidly changing competition of our day. In this trend, being conscious of the deficiencies of old methods, today's modern managers are trying hard to make use of the communication technologies that are characteristic to the information revolution. However, if one wants to harmonize himself to the rapidly changing competition, he must see and consider the communication technologies not only as the computers used for some purposes, but more than that, as valuable resources of competitiveness. In fact, communication technologies have great potential effects in enabling the firms to acquire and maintain competitiveness in order to be at the winning side at all times. It is defended by many researchers and authors that only those organizations which know and make use of such effects of technologies will be able to survive in the future. Firms of the developed countries, being cognizant of the significance of this trend, spend most of their time and a big part of their capital investments for information technologies and their effects. Also in our developing country, number of the firms using these technologies is increasing day by day. However, as we are only an importer of such technologies, if the firms want to be competitive in both domestic and international markets, they must not be passive users, but learn and make use of potential and strategic effects and benefits of these technologies. Conclusively, in this paper we shall try to outline how information technologies effect competitiveness and are used in the Turkish firms. xu In the light of the above summary, basic and secondary objectives of this study are: A) To brief the benefits and contributions of the information system used by the firms to the competitiveness of them : 1. To measure the efficiency of this system on the activities of the firms; 2. To outline the potential benefits of an information system to the activities of the firms; B) To describe how a firm may make use of an information system in order to maintain its competitiveness : 1. How does an information system effect relations with the customers and suppliers ? 2. Which priorities, rights or privileges are provided by an information system to the advantage of competitiveness in the market ? 3. To define the structural differences to be overcome for a strategic integration between the system and the firm; C) To study the functional integration between information technologies and the firm aimed at supporting strategic activities of the firm : 1. To analyze the human factor for best adaptation of an information technology to the firm; 2. Characteristics of technologic structure needed for integration of an information technology to the firm; D) What are the risks which may be encountered during development or use of an information system and may hinder the survival of the firm's performance ? E) In the frame of the above listed objectives, to develop a model indicating the competitiveness of information technologies, and the factors effecting the final performance, and the relations between the factors; and F) Finally, to deduce general ideas about adaptation of information technologies to a firm. Departing from these objectives, this paper consists of six parts, the first five being a literature scanning, and the sixth part being a study conducted in the Turkish firms with the information collected in the literature scanning. The first "introduction" part of the paper emphasizes the meaning and significance of the subject, reviews the use of information technologies in the world and in Turkey, defines the basic concepts and studies the evolution of information technologies in the firms. X1U The second part Technology Transfer" shortly defends that technology transfer has become a must for the countries unable to produce their own technology and a method applied even by the developed countries for acquisition of technology and therefore, it must be taken and treated as a means of technologic capacity creation and technology production if it is desired to play an important role in economic development of both firms and nations. Close relations between technology transfer and competitiveness and the fact that Turkish firms may own information technologies only through import channels have necessitated us to study this subject at least in a general framework. The third part "Use of Information Technologies in Industries and Firms" stresses out the significance of information and knowledge and gives brief information about use of information technologies for processes and strategic purposes. One must know and understand the effects of information technologies on industries if he wants to make use of its strategic advantages, and therefore, this is also dealt with. The fourth part aims to study how information technologies effect competitiveness of firms, and outlines first the relations between information technologies and "value chain" of firms in order to put a light on the following parts. Again for the same purpose, the effects of information technologies on the competitiveness of firms in the industries are reviewed. After these general explanations, we will try to outline the contributions of information technologies to two basic competitive advantages: "cost advantage" and "differentiation". Last part of the literature scanning aims to study how firms may use information technologies for maintenance of the acquired competitiveness. After reminding the barriers that may be encountered by firms in surviving and maintaining their competitiveness, we will point out the advantages offered by information technologies especially to the first user in the industry, and conclude that competitors are not able to get similar results even if they use the same technology, and also deal with the integration between technology and the firm. Furthermore, this part mentions about the technologic structure and labor features needed for the firms to use their technologies with success or to adapt themselves to the changing environment and conditions. Being related to the practices, the sixth part aims to show on the basis of the earlier parts to which extent the Turkish firms make use of potential strategic benefits and advantages of information technologies, and also to outline the general requirements of adaptation of information technologies to firms. The plan drawn out for the said objectives may be summarized as follows : - The main study group is composed of 300 companies randomly selected from among the biggest 500 industries of Turkey, and 300 companies again randomly selected from the service sector of Turkey, and the subjects are active in various different regions of Turkey. - Representatives of the study subjects are mostly managerial staff members of the companies. XIV - The study covers the advantages of use of an information technology that may lead to changes in the firm's competitive position in its industry. To this end, the study aims to review specific technologies of the firm which make the greatest contribution to its competitiveness or have been developed for such purpose, rather than all information technologies used by the firm. - Effects of technologies are inspected both in terms of the firm and its competition strategy level. - The study data have been collected through questionnaires mailed to the firms, and 133 firms responded to the study. Then, these data are examined for the defined objectives by means of SPSS for WINDOWS package program. Study findings may be briefly summarized as follows : Findings on the use of technologies : - Sources used by most of the firms in transfer of information technologies are "scientific and technical networks and publications", also covering the conferences, fairs and exhibitions, and mainly technical information, and scientific and technical publications obtained from the suppliers. - Information technologies transferred through various different channels are used mostly for financial affairs and budgets, and secondly for sales and purchasing, and personnel processes. - Objectives of the firms in transfer of information technologies are to improve communication, increase organizational efficiency, solve the problems related business and so on, which are directly related and contributing to the production. Findings on the use of technologies for competitiveness : -A great majority of the firms has developed information technologies for competitiveness. In almost half of the firms, these technologies are suggested by the top management. - Systems are mostly developed for use by the firm's own personnel. - Firms generally transfer these systems in order to preserve their competitiveness against the systems developed by their competitors. - Information technologies making strategic effects on firms are mostly used since 3 years or a shorter time. The study reveals that the Turkish firms mostly make use of "functionality" among the potential strategic opportunities offered by information technologies. - "Efficiency" defining the cost effects of information technologies varies according to the activities of the firms. However, the results are not at the expected level. XV - It is also shown by the study that strategic integration between technology and the firm aimed at maintenance of competitiveness in the long run generally makes positive effects. -The Turkish firms cannot sufficiently use information technologies in their relations with customers and suppliers although it plays an important role in maintenance of competitiveness. - In general, during the process of introduction of a new technology application to the industry, being the first user offers the opportunity to determine the rules of competition in many areas, but it is one of the potential opportunities of technology which the firms generally do not make use of. - Factors needed for success of information technologies either in strategic use or in functional applications are fulfilled in a great majority of the firms. These factors are related with adaptation of both technologic structure and labor to the changing environment and needs. -Although the competitive advantages related dimensions of information technologies influence each other directly and positively, due to optimization and coordination among this dimensions, such implications have not been observed in the Turkish organizations. Therefore, when the results are reviewed as a whole, though some effects of information technologies on market competition are felt, the results are observed to be at a gap between effective utulization of this technologies and strategic opportunities offered by this technologies.