The IT effects on competitiveness for interaction between manufacturing and marketing: six Taiwan cases
| Pages | 147-156 |
| Date | 01 June 1999 |
| Published date | 01 June 1999 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635579910274451 |
| Author | Li‐Ling Hsu |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
The IT effects on competitiveness for interaction
between manufacturing and marketing: six Taiwan
cases
Li-Ling Hsu
National Central University, Taiwan, Republic of China
Introduction
Manufacturing and marketing are the two
most interactive departments within a cor-
poration. Many studies have pointed out that
the quality of their interaction is closely
related to corporate performance (Lawrence
and Lorsch, 1967; Hayes and Wheelwright,
1984; Powers et al., 1988; Crittenden, 1992;
Crittenden et al., 1993; Miller and Roth, 1994;
Prabhaker et al., 1995; Karmarkar, 1996).
Given the different functions manufacturing
and marketing serve in an organization,
their goals vary considerably which often
leads to conflict in carrying out activities.
Nonetheless, despite the goal divergence, a
certain degree of interdependency exists in
decision resolution. Such interdependency
belongs to one of the types put forth by
Thompson (1967), a reciprocal interdepen-
dence. Since interdependent relationship
subsists, this study seeks to investigate using
IT to enable their coordination in resolving
the problems ensuing from interfunctional
interaction. Furthermore, past studies on the
interfunctional interaction between manu-
facturing and marketing are notably of
normative orientation, and few studies point
out that IT can be used as a facilitative tool to
solve the problems of interfunctional inter-
action. This study thus attempts interdisci-
plinary integration research on the issue.
Both manufacturing and marketing strate-
gies are functional strategies which also
constitute part of corporate strategy. Once
the overall strategy is established, these
functional strategies are imperative for ef-
fective resource application in producing
exceptional capability to achieve corporate
goals. Crittenden (1992) believed that the
pursuit of ultimate departmental perfor-
mance often results in an interfunctional
goal gap and activity conflict which even-
tually impede overall corporate performance
or that of other departments. Many studies in
the past deemed that in order to solve the
problems of these two departments' goal gap
and activity conflict, the nature and source of
conflict must be sought out before a coordi-
nation tool can be used for solving problems
(Powers et al., 1988; Crittenden, 1992; Crit-
tenden et al., 1993). Crittenden et al. (1993)
discovered that other than the four conven-
tional coordination functions, which are
organizational design, evaluation systems,
communication and simulation models, a
fifth approach exists in using advanced IT
such as computer networks or group decision
support systems in improving or solving
most of the conflict range of the two depart-
ments. St John and Hall (1991) also offered
three coordinating mechanisms, which are
committees and tasks forces, planning pro-
cesses and rule-based control procedures. In
fact, the two authors' framework of coordi-
nating mechanisms is similar, but they did
not further specify the enabling role of IT.
The cause of which is that the nature and
source of the conflict between the two
departments originate in the organizational
structure of information flow. Rarely have
past studies introduced IT into interfunc-
tional interaction; however, considerable
literature concerning information manage-
ment proposed the role of IT in communica-
tion, coordination and decision resolution.
This study is directed at the interaction
between manufacturing and marketing de-
partments as an example, and further evalu-
ates the goal and activity in examining
whether the functional role of IT is able to
reduce their goal and activity conflict. These
six case studies are then applied to analyze
its effect on corporate competitiveness.
Literature review
Interaction of manufacturing and
marketing goals
The five aspects of cost, quality, delivery,
flexibility and innovation are used as bases
in investigating their interaction with the
five marketing goals of product, price, chan-
nel, promotion, after-sales service. Hayes and
[ 147 ]
Industrial Management &
Data Systems
99/4 [1999] 147±155
#MCB University Press
[ISSN 0263-5577]
Keywords
Information technology,
Manufacturing, Marketing,
Organizational conflict,
Problem solving, Taiwan
Abstract
This study is to explore the impact
of information technology (IT) on
the interaction between manufac-
turing and marketing. Literature
reviews are initially conducted to
understand the interfunctional
goal gap and activity conflict that
exist between the two depart-
ments which invariably constitute
achievement on corporate compe-
titiveness. The application dimen-
sion of IT function is introduced as
a useful tool in reducing the
degree of interfunctional gap
through advanced IT which in turn
will reduce the conflict on the
activity level. Thus, the ultimate
end might lead to positive effects
on corporate competitiveness. In
this paper, we discuss the inter-
action of manufacturing and mar-
keting departments and the
resulting capacity of IT in six
firms, located in the HsinChu
Science-Based Industrial Park
(HSIP) in Taiwan. HSIP is referred
to as Taiwan's Silicon Valley. This
study's methodology is based on a
case study. Deep analysis of the
six cases leads to ten hypotheses.
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