Introduction

Developments in technology, particularly since 1980, have affected the information-gathering process for marketing and innovation. Information technology has revolutionized the data-gathering processes and possibilities, enabling firms to capture, analyse and distribute market information more rapidly, more widely and more economically. It also enables solutions to be designed for, and in some cases by, individual customers themselves (see Consuming Experience). This chapter outlines the roles and applications of information technology (IT) for creating innovative solutions.

What is information technology?

Information systems do not deliver benefits, but can only facilitate improved business performance if used in the proper manner. Ward et al. , 1996

There are many different perspectives, or aspects, to IT. There have been definitional issues with IT since Leavitt & Whisler (1985) first introduced the term.

Various perspectives include:

1. IT as a social construction

2. IT as an information provider

3. IT infrastructure hardware and software

4. IT as business processes and systems.

With respect to the social construction of IT, individuals, due to their levels of knowledge, have their own views and definitions (MacKenzie & Wajcman, 1999; Koppes et al., 1991), depending on the purpose of the definition (Braun, 1998) and their subjective vantage point (Hitt & Brynjolfsson, 1996).

For the purpose of this chapter, IT is viewed as a collective term for a wide range of software, hardware, telecommunications and information management techniques, applications and devices (Leavitt & Whisler, 1985; Porter & Millar, 1985; Willcocks, 1996). Marketers should not be looking at the technology...