Journal Articles

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Author: search.filters.author.Mataruka, Leo T.End date: 2025

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    Nexus among ICT support for core competencies, competitive advantage and firm performance
    (Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Studies, 2023-02-02) Mataruka, Leo T.; Mkumbuzi Walter P.; Muzurura Joe; Zishiri Christopher
    This study analysed the nexus among ICT support for core competencies, competitive advantage and firm performance using data obtained from managers of firms in Harare, Zimbabwe. The qualitative phenomenological approach focused on the manufacturing and service sub-sectors that informed the analysis. The study used purposive sampling to select a sample of 10 participants, five business managers and five ICT experts. In-depth interviews with chosen ICT experts from business organisations in Harare, Zimbabwe, were conducted to gather qualitative data. The study's findings were from using within-case and cross-case qualitative data analysis. Key results from the study indicate that ICT support for management talent is perceived to impact business performance and competitive advantage positively. ICT support for core competencies gives businesses a competitive advantage that positively impacts operational performance. When ICT investments combine with ICT management skills, a company's value maximises. For ICT-enabled core competencies to influence firm performance, firms need complementary managerial and strategic capabilities. This study is distinctive because it addresses the dynamic organisational capabilities and resource-based perspective as the base theories. The methodology goes against the innovation adoption theories of comparable earlier studies on ICT acceptability. Thus, this study contributes to the growing body of ICT literature by demonstrating that ICT-enabled core competencies are insufficient to establish and maintain a competitive advantage and singularly influence firm performance. It made it even more essential for a firm to consider how to meet better customer needs and capture value by having a well-thought-out ICT-embedded business model, business strategy, and innovation alignment.
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    Information systems resources, competitive advantage and Zimbabwe's firm performance
    (International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, 2022-11-11) Mataruka, Leo T.
    In many developing countries, information commutation technologies (ICT) resources and capabilities are no longer perceived as business assets but as means for achieving sustainable competitive advantage and superior firm performance. In particular, ICTs support a firm's core competencies and enable firms to exploit market opportunities, neutralise competitive threats, reduce costs and increase performance. The study uses the dynamic capabilities theory and the resource-based view to illustrate how a firm's ICT resources may support and develop its core competencies. The study employed a cross-sectional case study design where data was collected using a structured questionnaire administered to a stratified sample of 983 respondents. Structured equation models (SEM) were used to analyse quantitative data for the disaggregated test model. Our findings reveal that ICT resources are required, but not sufficient, to achieve competitive advantage and increase a firm's performance. ICT-enabled core competencies and tacit, path-dependent, firm-specific ICT management capacities explain variation in business performance. ICT can improve company performance if capabilities focus on creating distinctive core competencies. The study recommends strategies that enable firms to build human capital to develop innovative processes. Such strategies might help minimise switching costs, boost complementarities between business practices and ICT usage, streamline business processes, and improve managerial decisions and dynamic organisational structure. This study found that educating ICT managers maximises ICT investment. The study's contribution is using SEM to explain factors that determine competitive advantage and firm performance. Management must capitalise on aggregate demand-generating operations, including ICT infrastructure development, proprietary value-adding core activities, and networking with various vital alliances. The study adds resource-based ideas to Zimbabwe's empirical literature, unlike previous studies that only used innovation adoption theories. This study's test model could examine industry levels in dynamic, competitive markets.