ICT Transformation in China After Its WTO Entry: Lessons from the Tobacco Industry

This study examines ICT’s impact in meeting the challenges, Chinese tobacco companies are facing in the context of an open door policy as well as the WTO entry. The analysis is based on an in-depth study of the ICT evolution in Chinese tobacco companies. For our conclusion we use Nolan’s stage hypothesis and the strategic grid model. We show that, depending on a company’s strategic grid cell, different behavior patterns can be observed in terms of Nolan’s stage model. We conclude that a fast transformation of ICT plays a major role for Chinese tobacco companies in order to face the challenges entailed by the WTO entry.