Information management in South African manufacturing enterprises

In the research on which this paper is based, an attempt was made to determine whether South African manufacturing enterprises used information to their competitive advantage. To investigate if the competitive position of enterprises can be strengthened on the strategic level if the information resources are efficiently managed, South African manufacturing enterprises were grouped according to the strategic types identified by the Miles and Snow management typology, It was found that information management is applied in the enterprises but that it is not used to the competitive advantage of these enterprises. It is recommended that South African manufacturing enterprises should improve their information management functions and that information management becomes a strategic management function towards reaching a competitive advantage. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.