ABSTRACT: This paper explores the relationship between IOS-enabled business process change and business outcomes. A generic framework for analyzing IT-enabled business process change is applied to a case study analysis of Japan Airlines (JAL). Drawing on a resource-based view of the firm, we investigate the ways in which lOS not only contributed to JAL's improved competitiveness but also enabled it more fully to leverage its strategic value chain as an engine of growth and a new source of competitive advantage. Our focus is on JAL's strategic use of the AXESS Computer Reservation System and Electronic Data Interchange, developed with a clear strategic intention to support JAL's emerging strategies on customer service, sales, value chain logistics coordination, and cost reduction. JAL's collaboration with the lOS-transformed virtual value chain firms significantly contributed to JAL's business growth and competitiveness. JAL's time-based competitiveness has been improved through its lOS-enabled interfirm joint product innovation cycle time reduction.
Key words and phrases: business process change, computerized reservation systems, electronic blackboard, interorganizational systems, resource-based view of the firm, time-based competition, virtual value chain