139 research outputs found
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Executives\u27 Perspectives on IT: Unraveling the Link between Business Strategy, Management Practices and IT Business Value
Executivesâ perspectives on realized IT payoffs are clearly important in IT investment decisions. In this paper, we investigate the link between business strategy, management practices and IT business value. Our results indicate that corporations with more focused goals for IT achieve higher payoffs from IT throughout the value chain. We also find that management practices contribute to IT payoffs and that a corporationâs use of management practices relates to their strategic intent or goals for IT
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A Process-oriented Assessmnt of the Alignment of Information Systems and Business Strategy: Implications for IT Business Value
It has been argued that organizationsâ inability to realize sufficient value from their IT investment is due in part to an absence of strategic alignment. In an attempt to formally evaluate this notion, we introduce a conceptual model containing the determinants (management practices) and consequences (IT business value) of strategic alignment. Using this model, we develop a process-level perspective on strategic alignment centered around the processes in the value chain
Data Value and the Search for a Single Source of Truth: What is it and Why Does it Matter?
Organizations aspire to a single source of truth to improve data-driven decision making. All too often, data is locked inside data silos, raising the question: if a single source of truth is key to unlocking value from data, what should organizations do to get there? This paper presents findings from a survey of 400 E.U. and U.S. organizations. First, cluster analysis reveals three organization types based on value from a single source of truth: data laggards, data followers, and data champions. Next, we show that data champions are more likely to have an adaptable and flexible IT infrastructure alongside a culture of data sharing. They report fewer inhibitors of a single source of truth such as conflicting data standards. Data laggards report fewer IT enablers but also, paradoxically, fewer inhibitors. We turn these results, and insights gleaned from follow-up interviews with IT executives, into a set of non-technical prescriptions for organizations
The Development and Application of a Process-oriented Thermometer of IT Business Value
The issue of whether firms are receiving an adequate return on their investment in information technology (IT) continues to pervade managerial decision making. While productivity and other financial metrics are established hallmarks of IT investment evaluation, research has called for broader and richer metrics that can take into account the diversity of IT impacts. In this paper, we extend previous instrument development research to develop and test a process-oriented thermometer of IT business value using survey data based on executives\u27 perceptions of IT impacts at multiple points along the value chain. Consistent with earlier research, we find that our process measures are sensitive to differences in industry, firm size, and business strategy. Through additional analysis of post-implementation reviews of IT impacts in four firms, we find consistency of within-firm perceptual measures among teams of senior executives, highlighting the potential for our thermometer to gauge the level of IT impacts within a single firm. We conclude that process-oriented perceptual measures can offer new and useful insights into IT impacts, complementing what we already know from firm-level objective metrics
How Board of Directorsâ Social Capital Enhances the Effectiveness of IT and R&D Resources Toward More Effective Innovation
A board of directors (BOD) plays a critical governance and strategic oversight role in an organization; acting as a fiduciary for shareholders, advising strategic decision making, and providing supportive resources and information to key decision makers. Especially critical is the role and contribution of corporate governance in guiding firm innovation. Such guidance has implications for investment in new products and services. In this paper, we examine the synergistic relationship between a firmâs BOD and technology and R&D inputs to innovation. We focus on the influence of the social capital of a BOD on different types of innovation. Our longitudinal findings show IT, R&D, and BOD social capital individually contribute to innovation performance, reflected in exploitative and exploratory innovation productivity. Moreover, BOD social capital enhances innovation enabled by IT activities. However, the combination of R&D activities and dimensions of BOD social capital leads to both negative and positive innovation performance
Digital Infrastructure, Business Unit Competitiveness, and Firm Performance Growth: The Moderating Effects of Business Unit IT Autonomy
This study examines the benefits that firms accrue from digital infrastructures that are effective in supporting corporate and business unit strategic objectivesâwhich we term digital infrastructure effectiveness. We hypothesize that digital infrastructure effectiveness influences two types of performance outcomesânamely, business unit competitive performance and firm performance growth. We further hypothesize that these relationships are both moderated by the degree of business unit IT autonomy. Using data from an international survey of multi-business firms, we find that business unit IT autonomy exerts differential moderation effects on the relationships between digital infrastructure effectiveness and the two types of performance outcomes. As business unit IT autonomy increases, the effect of digital infrastructure effectiveness on business unit competitive performance gets stronger, while its effect on firm performance growth gets weaker. The primary contribution of this paper is explaining how and when digital infrastructures influence business unit performance and firm performance growth
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Linking Information Technology and Dynamic Capabilities: The Elusive Dancing Partners?
A key question for information systems researchers and practitioners is how IT can build a competitive advantage in turbulent environments (Sambamurthy et al. 2003). The increase in environmental turbulence has made âdynamic IS strategyâ all the more challenging; however, this critical topic still remains relatively under-researched (Wade and Hulland 2004). Most important, even if the link between IT and competitive advantage has been extensively examined, there is still a debate about the strategic role of IT (Carr 2003), which may intensify in turbulent environments
Corporate Knows Best (Maybe): The Impact of Global versus Local IT Capabilities on Business Unit Agility
The relationship between the corporate unit and its strategic business units (SBUs) has been variously described in the IS literature as either antagonistic or affable. At a time when corporate units are considering how to share platform-based capabilities (dubbed global IT) with SBUs, some SBUs may feel a loss of control while others see it as a chance to focus local IT on solving problems that are best handled by SBUs. Using data from an international survey of CIOs in the U.S., Germany, and Australia, we find that platform or global IT capabilities are associated with higher SBU agility notably when SBUs operate in a relatively stable environment. We also find that local IT influences SBU agility, particularly if SBUs have high levels of IT autonomy. Thus, the search for SBU agility may prompt corporate units to balance use of local and global IT resources and capabilities
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