Authors
Abstract
Yahia Eslami *, Saied Farhad Hosseini2, Mohi Al-din Gharibi3
1- Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
2- Ph.D. candidate in Strategic Management, Tarbiat Modares University(Tmu), Tehran, Iran
3- Master of Business Management, Tarbiat Modares University (Tmu), Tehran, Iran
Receive: / /2010 Accept: / /2011
Handmade carpet industry plays a vital role in the economy of Iran. It is not only a major earner of foreign exchange for the economy as a whole but also it contributes to generate large-scale employment opportunities. The importance of handmade carpet industry in country economy and the existence of powerful international competitors have nearly forced managers to identify high priority to achieving and maintaining national competitive advantage in this industry. Scholars such as Michael Porter have put more emphasis on the crucial role of information technology/systems in obtaining national competitive advantage. However, these systems development and maintenance costs are significant for organizations.
The findings of the IS literature review revealed that the feasibility studies can be helpful in IS projects especially for large projects. This study has two research objectives. First, it studies the (technical, operational and economic) feasibility of development of management information systems in the handmade carpet industry/art of Iran, and then identifies the IS development scenarios in this section. the required data were collected using a survey among 153 organizations and firms responsible for handmade carpet in Tehran and East Azerbaijan provinces. The results showed that, despite the low digital literacy of most individuals in this industry and also lack of hardware and software infrastructures in public and private organizations, it is possible to develop carpet' management information systems in terms of technical, organizational and economic aspects.
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