Abstract
In this document we are trying to figure out how companies can use information technology to create and sustain competitive advantages, both from an academic and a "real-life" point of view. The use of Information Technology to gain competitive advantage is not new but the way it has been used for that purpose has been changing over time.
The use of Information Technology (IT) to gain competitive advantage is not new but the way it has been used for that purpose has been changing over time. In the past, the usage of IT on its own could provide a competitive advantage. With the development of IT, this is rarely the case anymore. To gain competitive advantage, businesses now have to use IT in a strategic manner. In our literature review we will analyse how a comparative advantage arise and how it is sustained.
Strategically using IT to gain competitive advantage is to use IT to support the competitive strategy of the company (Rackoff et al. 1985). Dehning & Stratopoulos (2003, p.9) define an IT-enabled strategy as "a corporate strategy that uses IT at its core to support and enable major economic activities performed by the firm". In that context, IT is combined with other resources of the company to leverage them in order to create competitive advantage (Powell & Dent-Micallef 1997). "
