International Management Institute, B-10 Qutab Institutional Area, Tara Crescent, New Delhi 110016, India

Correspondence: Himadri Das, E-mail: himadri.das@imi.edu

Received 26 May 2006; Revised 4 December 2007; Accepted 5 December 2007.

Abstract

The recent opening up of the Indian retail industry to foreign direct investment is expected to result in high growth in the industry. This high growth will increase competition on a global scale, especially with international retail organizations entering the Indian market. In order to survive and grow in this highly competitive environment, the Indian retail industry will have to enhance its competitiveness; and to be competitive, it must employ organizational IT usage best practices. This study involved measuring current IT usage in the Indian retail industry, relative to global best practices, across different retail segments, different business processes and critical features within each business process. Our study shows that organizational IT usage in India's retail industry is currently very low, relative to global best practices. Large gaps between current IT usage and best practices were found in many business processes and critical features within them. It is, therefore, imperative to close these gaps by transferring organizational IT usage best practices to the Indian retail industry to enhance competitiveness.