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74 Lubbe<br />
share. This is where e-commerce should ensure that everyone who might use the<br />
product is using it as fully and as often as possible. The problem, however, is that<br />
visitor’s numbers as claimed by Inter<strong>net</strong> Service Providers (ISP) cannot be verified<br />
and until that can be done, will CEOs surely look at the economic and social impact<br />
as things that cannot be reconciled.<br />
These gaps, as mentioned before, can contribute positively or negatively<br />
towards the economic strategy of the organization and it can affect the actual<br />
performance of the organization on the e-commerce strategy of the organization.<br />
These gaps are:<br />
• Product line gap: Introducing improved or new products should ensure that<br />
the organization could compete on the Inter<strong>net</strong>.<br />
• Distribution gap: This is where e-commerce can help to expand the<br />
coverage, intensity and exposure of distribution. This can help to better align<br />
the IT strategy and that of the organization.<br />
• Usage gap: The Inter<strong>net</strong> should help to induce current users to try the product<br />
and encourage users to increase their usage.<br />
• Competitive gap: This is where e-commerce and the economic and social<br />
impact approach of the organization can make inroads into the market position<br />
of competitors as well as product substitutes.<br />
The future marketing approach can be used as an advantage by the organization<br />
and can be increased. The alignment of the organization’s strategies can also<br />
be improved by increasing the organization’s industry economic potential, which<br />
can be done by increasing relevant industry sales while maintaining the present<br />
market share or by improving the organization’s real market share.<br />
IMPLICATIONS FOR IT BUSINESS VALUE<br />
DURING THE ALIGNMENT OF IS AND BUSINESS<br />
STRATEGY<br />
Tallon and Kraemer (1998) noted the argument that organizations’ inability to<br />
realize sufficient economic value from their e-commerce investment is because of<br />
an absence of strategic alignment. They cited Child (1992), who argued that the<br />
content of alignment should be a series on intersecting and mutually consistent<br />
choices across domains such as economic factors, business strategy, e-commerce<br />
strategy, organizational infrastructure and processes and e-commerce infrastructure<br />
and economic processes. Other authors noted that these domains do not allow<br />
considerations of strategic alignment as a continuous process, nor does it consider<br />
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