Strategy, structure, and performance of IT services firms

Abstract

Sales of services are becoming a major source of revenues across industries. The shift towards services has been exacerbated as human capital has gained in importance in the "knowledge economy." And yet, products businesses have historically attracted, and are still attracting, most of the attention of managers and scholars. Centering on the information technology services industry, this thesis analyzes the strategy, structure, and performance of services firms. We analyze the information technology services industry and propose a framework to determine the drivers of performance of information technology services firms. The framework is applied to a database of 831 information technology services firms from 1990 to 2004. Chapter II provides an insight into the dynamics of the information technology industry. Chapter III then focuses on the specificities, characteristics and structure of the information technology services firms. In Chapter IV, the business model of services firms is contrasted with that of products firms. Inter-relations between the two business models are proposed. Chapter V introduces a strategic management framework and applies it to the definition of drivers of performance of IT services firms, which are analyzed in Chapter VI, and contrasted with those of software firms.