Impacts of information systems and technology on productivity and competitiveness of the Portuguese banking sector: an empirical study

This paper presents a study of the Portuguese financial sector during the period 1994–1999. The research, based on previous studies about the productivity paradox of information systems and technology (IST) investments, examines the ‘services sector’ and includes the ‘human subsystem’ of an organisation, clients and employees, as variables of analysis. The conclusion from this research indicates a complementary effect (not substitution effect) between IST and labour, the strategic impact of IST in several organisation areas, and the need to design new functions, other than the traditional Cobb–Douglas function, to evaluate the impact of IST on organisations.