One Size Does Not Fit All: Potential Diseconomics in Global Information Systems

Abstract

Managers, IT practitioners, and IS researchers are easily seduced by the latest information technology wave. Consequently, we tend not to question conventional assumptions about the implementation of IT systems in organizations. Instead of providing managers with directions, IS researchers can sometimes turn into prognosticators of the latest information technology fad. We call on researchers to delve below the surface of new IT trends to expose inconsistencies between technological promises and the reality of deploying information systems in global organizations. Many IS researchers are turning their attention to the area of global information management (Gallupe and Tan, 1999). This journal is a vehicle for publishing such research work. Interest in integrated global information systems is fueled both by the developments in information and communications technologies and the trends in business towards globalization of products and markets. Conventional wisdom suggests that businesses operating in global markets would benefit from implementing global information systems and achieve economies of scale and scope. This may be true in some cases, but does it hold for all cases? I suggest it may not. In certain cases deploying global IT systems could lead to diseconomies of scale.