Tankiso Moloi - How Technologies Shape Strategy and Operations: How Technologies Shape Strategy and Operations

The Future of Business and Finance book series features professional works aimed at defining, describing and charting the future trends in these fields. The focus is mainly on strategic directions, technological advances, challenges and solutions which may affect the way we do business tomorrow, including the future of sustainability and governance practices. Mainly written by practitioners, consultants and academic thinkers, the books are intended to spark and inform further discussions and developments.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/16360

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This book examines how various forms of artificial intelligence (AI) could shape a firms strategy. To assess how AI is likely going to shape firm strategy, the book confines itself to AI forms such as machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and robotic process automation (RPA).

After the introductory chapter, the book discusses a high-level overview of artificial intelligence in Chap. discusses strategy implementation.

Chapter discusses machine learning as a form of artificial intelligence. It provides an understanding of machine learning as a starting point. It further considers how machine learning (ML) could be used to shape strategy and strategy implementation.

Chapter discusses natural language processing as a form of artificial intelligence. It provides an understanding of natural language processing (NLP). The chapter further postulates how the NLP could be used to shape strategy and strategy implementation.

Chapter provides a synopsis of the book.

This book is an interesting resource for graduate students, researchers, business executives, and artificial intelligence practitioners interested in strategy theories and artificial intelligence.

We would like to thank Dr. Denhere and Dr. Mhlanga for their assistance with gathering write-ups on some of the literature considered. They are post-doctoral research fellows in the School of Accounting.

March 2021.

Early economics literature had a profound belief that one of the core resources, if not the most principal resource, was the human resource. We have repeatedly seen the argument that the most critical resource for any form of organisation, be it in the country or the firm, is its people. Therefore, it was not a surprise that before the 1930s, the classical economic view was that businesses should hire employees. This could be done when and if businesses required them for specific tasks (Moloi, ).

It is equally not a surprise that in 1937, Ronald Coase put forward a compelling argument in The Nature of the Firm, observing that firms in the Detroit region grew only so long as it was cheaper for them to complete additional parts of the production process in-house rather than resort to the open market. With labour as an example, Ronald Coase argued that transaction costs and search-related complications associated with the procurement of resources at short notice could be problematic for firms. As such, his view was that it would make sense to keep employees on the companys books.

It would seem Ronald Coase feared that negotiations in an open market would likely increase the unit costs of labour, causing the production of an item to be expensive. Coase may also have feared that if the demand for a firms product was to increase, at the same time that the firm did not have sufficient labour to meet production requirements, the firm would either lose business to its competitors or may be forced to bid for these employees in the open market, and they would join that particular firm at a high cost.

Perhaps Coase had in mind what in todays terms we refer to as competitive pricing. In order for the firm to price its product competitively, it has to manage its costs. According to Chappelow (), competitive pricing refers to the process of selecting strategic price points. This allows the firm to best take advantage of a product- or service-based market relative to the competition.

Furthermore, this pricing method is often used by firms that are selling similar products . The distinguishing factor is then the pricing aspect since services can vary from one firm to the next whereas the attributes of a product remain similar. Accordingly, a competitive pricing strategy would ordinarily be used once a price for a product or service has reached a level of equilibrium. Equilibrium in this regard occurs when a product has been on the market for a long time and when there are many substitutes for the product.