An Exploratory Study on IS Capabilities and Assets in a Small-to-Medium Software Enterprise Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

There's a dearth of research on the capabilities of innovative small-to-medium software enterprises (SMSEs). Understanding how SMSEs build and apply business and information systems (IS) capabilities is important, as such firms account for over 90% of software businesses operating in Europe and the US. This paper applies and elaborates dynamic ability theory to research and help understand the net of factors and states that shaped and affected business and IS ability development and application in one European SMSE. Drawing on the overarching theory of dynamic capabilities, a theoretical model is presented that posits relationships among (1) a business's previous actions; (2) its integration, learning and reconfiguration, and transformation capacities; (3) its financial, complemental, locational, and technological asset positions; and (4) the services and products that result, and which are of value to an SMSE's customers. The paper elaborates the model by enumerating and describing the company and refines and IS assets, abilities, and products and services of the SMSE under study. The study so informs both professionals' and researchers' understandings of this complex and under-researched phenomenon: for practitioners, it emphasizes the characteristics demanded to construct advanced software alternatives; for researchers, it illustrates the patterns and regularities associated with the development and application of company and IS abilities.

PUBLICATION DATE: February 01, 2008 PRODUCT #: JIT021-PDF-ENG

This is just an excerpt. This case is about TECHNOLOGY & OPERATIONS