The Use of Information Technology on Gaining Competitive Advantage in Turkish Contractor Firms

A study has been carried out in order to determine the current extent of IT usage and highlight the importance of the use of IT at strategic level which plays an effective role on providing competitive advantage. Current use of IT, main objectives on the use of IT, benefits and obstacles arise from the use of IT and impacts of IT implementations are determined by undertaking a field survey of a large number of contractor firms in Turkey. With the help of the field survey, levels of IT usage, IT skill levels and IT training of Turkish contractor firms are evaluated. Moreover, it is demonstrated whether Turkish contractor firms use IT or not on gaining competitive advantage. It is found that IT have been using mostly at operational level works which create only technical and economic effects, not strategic ones. Although firms which compete in construction industry need to use IT at strategic level in order to gain competitive advantage; there is not much evidence that the firms are gained competitiveness by using IT.