Continuing Information Systems Issues: A Comparison Of The Manufacturing And Non-Manufacturing Sectors

Abstract

The CIOs of a sample of publicly-traded U.S. corporations were surveyed about the relative importance of information systems issues.  The issues were selected from a series of MIS Quarterly studies of information systems issues.  An analysis of the differences in the responses from manufacturing firms versus non-manufacturing firms discovered that non-manufacturing firms view these issues as more important than manufacturing firms do. There is also a difference in the underlying factor structure for manufacturing as opposed to non-manufacturing firms.  The differences suggest that manufacturing firms are not as focused upon strategic uses of information systems as non-manufacturing firms.