Manufacturing strategy, broad scope MAS information and information and communication technology

Abstract

In today's global business environment, firms are under pressure to create competitive advantages. Among the ways to do so are offering a wide range of quality products at competitive price and being customer responsive. The pressure also acts as an impetus for firms to employ strategies suitable for creating competitive advantages. Just-in time manufacturing (JIT) is one such strategy. This study tested the proposition that the relationship between a firm's successful JIT application and its managers’ use of information and communication technology (ICT) is (a) partly indirect via the managers’ use of broad scope MAS information, and (b) partly direct. The participants were 76 general managers, each in charge of one business unit (BU) within their firms. The results support part (a), but not part (b) of the proposition. Specifically, the results reveal that JIT application is positively associated with managers’ use of broad scope information provided by the management accounting system (henceforth, MAS information), which in turn, is positively associated with the use of ICT.