Jw. Palmer et Ml. Markus, The performance impacts of quick response and strategic alignment in specialty retailing, INF SYST R, 11(3), 2000, pp. 241-259
The Quick Response (QR) program is a hierarchical suite of information tech
nologies (IT) and applications designed to improve the performance of retai
lers. Consultants advise retailers to adopt the program wholesale, implying
that more and higher levels of technology are better than less technology
and lower levels. Academicians, on the other hand, argue that good technolo
gy is "appropriate" technology. That is, firms should adopt only those tech
nologies that suit the specific strategic directions pursued by the firm. W
ho is right? Which approach to investing in IT yields better performance re
sults? Surprisingly, this cross-sectional survey of 80 specialty retailers
found more support for the practitioners' claims than for the academicians'
. Adoption of the QR program at a minimal level was associated with higher
performance, although there was no performance impact due to higher levels
of QR use. Firms did appear to match their IT usage to their business strat
egies, but there was no Linkage between strategic alignment and firm perfor
mance, and there was surprisingly little variation in business or IT strate
gy. In short, the findings of our study suggest that both practitioners and
academicians need to refine their theories and advice about what makes IT
investments pay off.