Evaluating IT Governance Structure Implementation in the Gulf Cooperation Council Region

© 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. IT governance (ITG) implementations in organizations started to gain momentum during the turn of the twenty first century mainly due to (but not limited to) the need for IT business alignment, better return of investment, effective utilization of IT and for a strategic direction of IT. This initially mandates to establish and implement a set of ITG structures in the organization to initiate, adopt, and implement relevant ITG frameworks to set in the motion of successful ITG implementation. While researchers have stated twelve relevant ITG structures that needs to be set in place, two questions remain in terms of the two factors namely \u27ease of implementation/use\u27 and \u27effectiveness\u27 of these ITG structures. With scant research in this domain, we explore the relationship of these two factors on the twelve ITG structures through a survey of senior managers involved in ITG domain in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. With diverse board and executive level cultures evident in different regions of the world, the adoption of these ITG frameworks and standards depend on the ITG practices being followed in each cultural context. The results thus assist organisations and ITG consultants in the GCC region to know the level of effectiveness of relevant ITG structures as well as the implementation effort required for these

Towards a Taxonomy of Challenges in an Integrated IT Governance Framework Implementation

The rapid adoption of IT governance (ITG) frameworks in organizations worldwide, along with the subsequent need to select and integrate overlapping ITG frameworks has presented practitioners with challenges in choice and integration of frameworks. In this respect, the purpose of this study was to explore the ITG frameworks integration (ITGFI) challenges faced by organizations worldwide; develop and test a theory-based integrated ITG challenges (IIC) taxonomy model created from extant literature; and validate and compare these with those empirically extracted from three case studies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The results present the audience with a taxonomy of a prioritized set of common global and region-specific (UAE) ITGFI challenges. The study thus aids practitioners to prioritize and focus on these areas of an integrated ITG frameworks implementation

A Phenomenological Study Into Niche Marketing In Higher Education

As higher education continues to face declining enrollment and financial pressures from decreased funding, colleges and universities must find innovative ways to differentiate themselves from competing institutions through niche marketing initiatives. This qualitative, phenomenological study developed existing research and addressed a gap in the literature as it relates to niche marketing in higher education. The research objective of this study was to illustrate the perceived value of niche marketing in light of the shifting trends in marketing, the increased competition colleges and universities face, and the need to isolate the uniqueness of a university. This study further identified individuals who lead marketing efforts, exploring their perspectives on niche marketing initiatives at their respective institutions and the perceived effectiveness of such initiatives on increasing student enrollment

Mapping Improvements Achievable through the Adoption of IT Governance

Various companies have implemented IT governance frameworks to improve their management and governance of IT. The benefits and areas of focus of IT governance have been only explored in theory. In this research an international survey of 113 firms using CobiT was conducted to understand the impact on the IT governance focus areas as companies increase their adoption of CobiT. Results indicate that companies which have achieved higher implementation levels experienced high positive impacts on all of the areas of IT governance, particularly in the later stages of implementation. Furthermore, the research maps out the IT governance areas which are most likely to display improvements at different levels of maturity