DOES IO ECONOMICS REALLY MAKE THE CASE FOR INVESTMENTS IN IT - COMMENT ON WEST AND COURTNEY

West and Courtney [18] rely on industrial organization economics in ge neral, and the economics of uncertainty in particular, for insights in to the benefits of overcoming information constraints through informat ion systems (IS) and improved information technologies (IT). This Comm ent argues that the IS researcher who looks to the economics of uncert ainty to make a case for improved IT will only find support from a sel ective reading of a constantly expanding literature whose aims and inf erences ate easily misunderstood.