Information Technology for Customer Intimacy: A Niche for Research in the Internet Age

In an early article, Treacy and Wiersema argue that information technology (IT) can achieve three kinds of value disciplines: product leadership, operational excellence, and customer intimacy. In the past, we have seen a large amount of research that investigates the first two value disciplines in information systems research. New products armed with advanced IT have redefined many traditional markets. Many papers in information systems have focused on whether the use of IT improves firm’s operational efficiency and competitive effectiveness. A well-known perspective is to treat IT as valuable resources, which leads to enhanced organizational capabilities and eventually results in better firm performance. The role of customer intimacy has been under-investigated, though many companies use IT for customer services