Information technology can provide hospitality firms with a sustained competitive advantage, provided the technology complements operations. Based on interdisciplinary research findings with regard to the sustainability of IT-enabled competitive advantage, this article provides a framework that can help both hospitality scholars and managers formally analyze existing and proposed IT-dependent strategic initiatives. The chief element in achieving a competitive advantage is to identify the drivers of response lag, which is the time it takes for competitors to imitate an IT initiative—if they are able to do so. The drivers can be grouped into one of the following four barriers to erosion of competitive advantage: (1) IT-resources barrier, (2) complementary-resources barrier, (3) IT-project barrier, and (4) preemption barrier.
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