ICT industry in change: New focus areas for future ICT resources - Case Metsä Group ICT

Abstract

Objectives of the Study:

The purpose of this study is to investigate how contemporary firms can succeed in the changing information and communication technology (ICT) environment, by adjusting their ICT resources so that they can take advantage of the opportunities and challenges present in the current and future ICT industry dynamics. The main goal is to identify the key future ICT resources for the case company Metsä Group's ICT department.

Academic background and methodology:

The literature part consists of two parts. In the first part strategic management process is studied, focusing specifically on the analysis of external and internal factors. In the external analysis part the industry structures and environmental opportunities model is used to identify the underlying themes from the industry dynamics, focusing on analyzing the ICT industry based on the attributes of mature and emerging industry structures. In the internal analysis part the employed academic theories are Resource-based view (RBV) and Dynamic capabilities view (DVC). These theories provide a foundation for the analysis of how firms' resource base can be managed in order to gain competitive advantage.

The second part of the literature review is focusing on resources. In this part the main literature is related to information systems (IS) resource categorization models. The study on resources focuses on finding relative emphases in between different identified resource categories.

This study is executed as a single-case study for the commissioning firm Metsä Group's ICT department. The empirical evidence is collected by interviewing internal representatives as well representatives from external ICT consulting firms. The interviews were executed in an un-structured way in the first round, and via questionnaire during the second round.

Findings and Conclusions:

The findings of this thesis suggest that the role of ICT is changing and overall the industry can be seen consisting of two different industry dynamics. In the mature part of the ICT industry process innovations are the means for success, whereas in the emerging part exploiting new technological possibilities for the use of businesses is the key. From the ICT resource point of view this means that in the future, more pressure will be aimed at the operations near the business encounter and that resources related to it will be in a large role for gaining competitive advantage.