Bank of America: The Crest and Trough of Technological Leadership.

Author List: McKenney, James L.; Mason, Richard O.; Copeland, Ducan G.;

MIS Quarterly, 1997, Volume 21, Issue 3, Page 321-353.

The Bank of America Corp. literally changed the banking industry during the 1950s by means of its ERMA and IBM 702 computer systems. These innovations in information technology resulted in a dominate design that helped keep the Bank of America Corp. in the lead for over a decade and a half They were the collective work of a leader, Clark Beise, a maestro, AlZipf, and a group of supertechs, all of whom became the prototypes for these crucial roles. Bank of America Corp. was the first organization, among a selected few, to successfully negotiate the innovation cascade leading from crisis to a dominant IT design. Due in large part to IBM's failure to deliver a fully operational operating system for its 360/65, however, coinciding with the leadership's attention toward international markets, in the late 1960s the Bank of America Corp. lost its lead. After several decades in the trough," as a result of aggressive investment and leadership, the bank re-emerged as a strong competitor. This story of achieving alignment in strategy and structure by means of technological innovation, of the almost tragic breaking of that alignment, and of fervent efforts made to gain realignment illuminates some of the most important lessons of IT management that can be learned from the field's relatively recent, but dramatic, history.

Keywords: computer systems; economic environment; history of IS.; IS implementation; IS project management; Management theory; organizational use of IS; OS characteristics; task characteristics

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#119	0.264	implementation systems article describes management successful approach lessons design learned technical staff used effort developed organization experiences large managing discusses
#200	0.158	banking bank multilevel banks level individual implementation analysis resistance financial suggests modeling group large bank's services levels national data early
#163	0.108	critical realism theory case study context affordances activity causal key identifies evolutionary history generative paper events lead mechanisms evolution change
#279	0.075	field work changes new years time change major period year end use past early century half traditional areas established strong
#242	0.073	market competition competitive network markets firms products competing competitor differentiation advantage competitors presence dominant structure share using incumbent make important
#2	0.066	leadership leaders effective leader roles authority assume slow responsibility structure recognize responsibilities look size inevitable attain trend held articulate dominate
#210	0.061	innovation innovations innovative organizing technological vision disruptive crowdsourcing path implemented explain base opportunities study diversity taking actors practice shape creation