Information Technology, Competitiveness And Coordination...

This paper focuses on studying and researching on how information technology, competitiveness and coordination effect the agribusiness sector. It specifically explained how Information Technology has improved and accelerated the coordination strategies among different stages of the sector. This paper also discusses about how the coordination strategies might not have evolved basing on the existing market structures or price signals. This paper deals with 3 main definition related issues that this paper discusses are †¢ Clarification on what Information Systems exactly is? †¢ What Agri-Business sector is all about? †¢ What is Competitiveness? According to Davis and Olson, an Information System is an integrated, user-machine system†¦show more content†¦This paper explains the importance of having a new approach towards competitive strategies due to the changes in the elements that determine the industry competition in agribusiness sector. Most of the research on the usage of Information Systems in Agribusiness doesn t focus on the coordination issues. Take Porter s Value Chain concept as an example for this. It doesn t focus on the role that technology plays in improving coordination among market players. Rather, it focuses on how information technologies can be made use of to lower the costs, differentiating the products and/or increasing the barriers for entering. Konsynski and McFarlan are researching on competitiveness to link coordination and Information Technology issues. The explored different information partnerships among market players, by focusing on the non-food sector, which allows efficient and productive coordination. In this paper, Streeter and Hudson applied this Konsynski-McFarlan framework to the agribusiness and food sector to identify various partnerships. As noted by Ed McMillan, CEO of Purina Mills, for the first time in the history of American agriculture, the end consumer is driving the entire food chain. Not the packers or producers. In other words, today s Agribusiness sector is considered as a Consumer Oriented sector. Not a Commodity