IT: Running fast and standing still?

A currently held view is that Information Technology (IT) has high potential for providing competitive advantage. This paper critically examines this view, particularly how IT can confer sustainable, strategic advantage. The areas in which IT can confer advantage are reviewed, both within the Competitive Arena and in the associated Industry. The analysis then shifts to cover the wider, technological environment within which the Industry operates. The consequences of the technological environment to the types of task undertaken by an organisation are then analysed to determine where sustainable strategic advantage might lie. The present conclusion is that areas of sustainable strategic advantage through IT are not numerous and lie predominantly within the corporate culture.