This paper addresses two questions. First, how does an organization allocate its environmental scanning resources among all the potential sources of information in the environment? Second, how does an organization allocate responsibility for acquiring environmental information? Specifically, when does an organization choose to monitor an environmental source within its hierarchy, and when does it outsource the task? In the former case, when does the responsibility for acquiring information rest with the ultimate user, 1Bob Zmud was the accepting senior editor for this paper.

We are entering a new competitive age in which the basis of competition is being fundamentally altered through the introduction of advanced information technologies and public communication infrastructures, such as the Internet. In these environments, the nature and locus of competition will radically alter, as information becomes an increasingly important resource. This paper develops ideas around the strategic characteristics of information—information separability and information specificity. Moreover, it attempts to redefine the nature of industry structure in such a competitive environment by examining what constitutes the real boundaries of competition, industry concentration, related diversification, and innovation for firms competing in the Information Age. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 130.15.241.167 on Fri AbstractIn 1989, the IT function of the exploration and production division of British Petroleum Company set out to transform itself in response to a severe economic environment and poor internal perceptions of IT performance. This case study traces and analyzes 'Robert Zmud was the accepting senior editor for this paper. the changes made over six years. The authors derive a model of the transformed IT organization comprising seven components that they suggest can guide IT departments in general as they seek to reform themselves in the late 1990s.This model is seen to fit well with recent thinking on general management in that the seven components of change can be reclassified into the Bartlett and Ghoshal (1994) framework of purpose, process, and people. Some suggestions are made on how to apply the model in other organizations.

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