E-Collaboration Technologies and Strategies for Competitive Advantage Amid Challenging Times

Book excerpt: E-collaboration is a tool that breaks the boundaries of activities within and between organizations. E-collaboration technologies are making it easier than ever for people to work together no matter where they happen to be. Succeeding with collaboration at a level where it represents a competitive advantage requires a broad approach. Internal social networks can circumvent bureaucratic boundaries and facilitate information sharing activities among individuals across hierarchies and divisions or departments. This allows organizations to acquire resources or competencies from external sources that otherwise would be difficult or expensive to access. Accordingly, organizations focus more on their own areas of competence and gain a competitive advantage by acquiring richer content and better solutions in a creative and cost-effective way. Challenging times can provide new opportunities that need to be detected at the right time. There must be many other sources of competitive advantages which should support the main source of competitive value. Competitive advantage may be gained if the organization is able to find sources of competitive advantage in time of economic crises. Organizations have rapidly deployed technology solutions, such as collaboration tools and cloud computing, which enable their employees to work remotely and continue these organizational operations, especially during times of crisis. E-Collaboration Technologies and Strategies for Competitive Advantage Amid Challenging Times focuses on e-collaboration technologies, strategies, and solutions from a perspective of organizational competitive advantage, including e-collaboration technologies’ situation and solutions, innovation systems, competition and strategies, marketing, and growth capabilities. The book presents a full understanding on e-collaboration technologies, strategies, and solutions in organizations, and provides insight for how to develop e-collaboration technologies, strategies, and solutions more generally so as to simultaneously leverage potential benefit and guard against potential risk, promoting organizational competitive advantage amid challenging times. This book is ideally intended for policymakers, government officials, corporate heads of firms, managers, managing directors, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students seeking information on the e-collaboration technologies being employed in businesses in times of crisis.