FACTORS INFLUENCING THE STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY WITH BUSINESS IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY

For the last two decades, information technology (IT) in general, and information systems (IS) in particular have rapidly advanced in capability and have changed the way organizations do business. For many organizations, IT spending constitutes one of the biggest investments each year and as a result, the strategic alignment between information technology (IT) and business has been a priority for information system practitioners and business executives. However, the conditions under which IT can be used for competitive advantage continues to be a major challenge. The objectives of this thesis were to identify the behavioral, technical and organizational underlying strategic alignment factors, and to investigate strategic alignment influence of the use of IT for competitive advantage. The findings of this study further extend the strategic alignment research stream. This was achieved by developing, empirically testing, and validating the second-order strategic alignment factor model to investigate the influence of the strategic alignment between IT and business on the use of IT for competitive advantage. Using the survey method, a mail questionnaire has provided 202 respondents of IT and business executives from the Malaysian service sector (Tour and Travel agents). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques to validate the hypothesized second-order strategic alignment factor model. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the coordination of IT planning with business planning; communication between IT and managers; human resource skills maturity; IT infrastructure flexibility; and organizational change adaptability as the underlying strategic alignment factors. The analysis also supported that strategic alignment between IT and business to positively influence the use of IT for competitive advantage. Furthermore, the hypothesized second-order strategic alignment factor model demonstrated an adequate model fit with the sample data. Hence, the hypothesis that the proposed second-order factor model fits the data was supported. The study has made theoretical and practical contributions. First, the theoretical contribution, the proposed second-order strategic alignment model of this study has vii extended the cumulative research of aligning IT strategy with business strategy by examining how strategic alignment can influence the use of IT for competitive advantage. Another theoretical contribution is that, strategic alignment is specified as a second-order construct, derived from the first-order constructs; which are a coordination of IT and business planning factor; communication between IT and business managers factor; human resource skills maturity factor; IT infrastructure flexibility factor; and organizational change adaptability factor. The revised secondorder strategic alignment factor model not only has acceptable model fit, but also performs better than the alternative model. This study has provided a validated and tested research model that will be an important tool for practitioners and managers to be able to know and assess the underlying strategic alignment factors, and the influence of strategic alignment of the use of IT for competitive advantage

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY WITH BUSINESS IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY

For the last two decades, information technology (IT) in general, and information systems (IS) in particular have rapidly advanced in capability and have changed the way organizations do business. For many organizations, IT spending constitutes one of the biggest investments each year and as a result, the strategic alignment between information technology (IT) and business has been a priority for information system practitioners and business executives. However, the conditions under which IT can be used for competitive advantage continues to be a major challenge. The objectives of this thesis were to identify the behavioral, technical and organizational underlying strategic alignment factors, and to investigate strategic alignment influence of the use of IT for competitive advantage. The findings of this study further extend the strategic alignment research stream. This was achieved by developing, empirically testing, and validating the second-order strategic alignment factor model to investigate the influence of the strategic alignment between IT and business on the use of IT for competitive advantage. Using the survey method, a mail questionnaire has provided 202 respondents of IT and business executives from the Malaysian service sector (Tour and Travel agents). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques to validate the hypothesized second-order strategic alignment factor model. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the coordination of IT planning with business planning; communication between IT and managers; human resource skills maturity; IT infrastructure flexibility; and organizational change adaptability as the underlying strategic alignment factors. The analysis also supported that strategic alignment between IT and business to positively influence the use of IT for competitive advantage. Furthermore, the hypothesized second-order strategic alignment factor model demonstrated an adequate model fit with the sample data. Hence, the hypothesis that the proposed second-order factor model fits the data was supported. The study has made theoretical and practical contributions. First, the theoretical contribution, the proposed second-order strategic alignment model of this study has vii extended the cumulative research of aligning IT strategy with business strategy by examining how strategic alignment can influence the use of IT for competitive advantage. Another theoretical contribution is that, strategic alignment is specified as a second-order construct, derived from the first-order constructs; which are a coordination of IT and business planning factor; communication between IT and business managers factor; human resource skills maturity factor; IT infrastructure flexibility factor; and organizational change adaptability factor. The revised secondorder strategic alignment factor model not only has acceptable model fit, but also performs better than the alternative model. This study has provided a validated and tested research model that will be an important tool for practitioners and managers to be able to know and assess the underlying strategic alignment factors, and the influence of strategic alignment of the use of IT for competitive advantage

Enterprise information security policy assessment - an extended framework for metrics development utilising the goal-question-metric approach

Effective enterprise information security policy management requires review and assessment activities to ensure information security policies are aligned with business goals and objectives. As security policy management involves the elements of policy development process and the security policy as output, the context for security policy assessment requires goal-based metrics for these two elements. However, the current security management assessment methods only provide checklist types of assessment that are predefined by industry best practices and do not allow for developing specific goal-based metrics. Utilizing theories drawn from literature, this paper proposes the Enterprise Information Security Policy Assessment approach that expands on the Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) approach. The proposed assessment approach is then applied in a case scenario example to illustrate a practical application. It is shown that the proposed framework addresses the requirement for developing assessment metrics and allows for the concurrent undertaking of process-based and product-based assessment. Recommendations for further research activities include the conduct of empirical research to validate the propositions and the practical application of the proposed assessment approach in case studies to provide opportunities to introduce further enhancements to the approach

Towards a business-IT alignment maturity model for collaborative networked organizations

Aligning business and IT in networked organizations is a complex endeavor because in such settings, business-IT alignment is driven by economic processes instead of by centralized decision-making processes. In order to facilitate managing business-IT alignment in networked organizations, we need a maturity model that allows collaborating organizations to assess the current state of alignment and take appropriate action to improve it where needed. In this paper we propose the first version of such a model, which we derive from various alignment models and theories

Correlating Architecture Maturity and Enterprise Systems Usage Maturity to Improve Business/IT Alignment

This paper compares concepts of maturity models in the areas of Enterprise Architecture and Enterprise Systems Usage. We investigate whether these concepts correlate, overlap and explain each other. The two maturity models are applied in a case study. We conclude that although it is possible to fully relate constructs from both kinds of models, having a mature architecture function in a company does not imply a high Enterprise Systems Usage maturity

Competences of IT Architects

The field of architecture in the digital world uses a plethora of terms to refer to different kinds of architects, and recognises a confusing variety of competences that these architects are required to have. Different service providers use different terms for similar architects and even if they use the same term, they may mean something different. This makes it hard for customers to know what competences an architect can be expected to have.\ud \ud This book combines competence profiles of the NGI Platform for IT Professionals, The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), as well as a number of Dutch IT service providers in a comprehensive framework. Using this framework, the book shows that notwithstanding a large variety in terminology, there is convergence towards a common set of competence profiles. In other words, when looking beyond terminological differences by using the framework, one sees that organizations recognize similar types of architects, and that similar architects in different organisations have similar competence profiles. The framework presented in this book thus provides an instrument to position architecture services as offered by IT service providers and as used by their customers.\ud \ud The framework and the competence profiles presented in this book are the main results of the special interest group “Professionalisation” of the Netherlands Architecture Forum for the Digital World (NAF). Members of this group, as well as students of the universities of Twente and Nijmegen have contributed to the research on which this book is based

Leveraging Open-standard Interorganizational Information Systems for Process Adaptability and Alignment: An Empirical Analysis

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the value creation mechanisms of open-standard inter-organizational information system (OSIOS), which is a key technology to achieve Industry 4.0. Specifically, this study investigates how the internal assimilation and external diffusion of OSIOS help manufactures facilitate process adaptability and alignment in supply chain network.Design/methodology/approachA survey instrument was designed and administrated to collect data for this research. Using three-stage least squares estimation, the authors empirically tested a number of hypothesized relationships based on a sample of 308 manufacturing firms in China.FindingsThe results of the study show that OSIOS can perform as value creation mechanisms to enable process adaptability and alignment. In addition, the impact of OSIOS internal assimilation is inversely U-shaped where the positive effect on process adaptability will become negative after an extremum point is reached.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the existing literature by providing insights on how OSIOS can improve supply chain integration and thus promote the achievement of industry 4.0. By revealing a U-shaped relationship between OSIOS assimilation and process adaptability, this study fills previous research gap by advancing the understanding on the value creation mechanisms of information systems deployment