Creating Strategies for Enhancing Complex New Product Development: Cluster Analysis of DEA Results

Firms need to constantly innovate to survive and remain competitive in the marketplace. Despite this, little research has examined the dynamics that affect innovation in large-scale, complex organizations that leverage multiple teams. This study utilizes data envelopment analysis output from a sample of new product development teams to create clusters based on how teams need to change communication-related inputs to increase creative efficiency. The study results exemplify how this approach can provide recommendations that sets of teams can implement, optimizing the use of resources compared to making individual adjustments. Implications are provided for new product development and large multinational enterprises

Investigation of How IT Leadership Impacts IT-Business Alignment through Shared Domain Knowledge and Knowledge Integration

Using full range leadership model and the knowledge-based view of organizations, we develop and test a model linking Information Technology (IT) leadership to IT-business alignment. Specifically, we examine how transformational IT leadership behaviors influence IT-business alignment through mechanisms that develop shared domain knowledge between IT and business personnel and mechanisms that integrate specialized IT and business knowledge. We also examine how the former mechanisms influence the efficiency of the latter. This study contributes to the existing literature by suggesting transformational leadership and mechanisms related to knowledge integration as key factors in IT-business alignment

INFORMATION SYSTEMS STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP IN THE LAST DECADE: NEW ADVANCEMENTS AND BLUE OCEAN OPPORTUNITIES

Information Systems (IS) strategic leadership literature is an important research stream in the IS field. Chief Information Officers (CIO) are central to this literature, with several themes discussing the roles, characteristics, effectiveness, CIO/TMT relationships, and organizational impact of CIOs. This paper discusses the IS leadership literature in last decade (2007-2017) with the objectives of synthesizing the recent articles, identifying new emerging themes, and presenting opportunities for “Blue Ocean” research. We argue that more research is still needed in this field, and potential contributions for both academia and practice are great

Mutual Understanding Determinants for Effective Communication in Business and IT Strategic Alignment Planning

Business and IT strategic alignment is continuously explored from different facets motivated by the demands for organisation to be well aligned in its business and IT strategies for business continuity. The management aspect rather than technological issues often causes misalignment in business and IT strategies more significantly. One of the issues is the communication ineffectiveness between business and IT people involved in planning the business and IT strategic alignment. Difficulty to achieve mutual understanding between these two teams is a critical problem in communication and hinders the successful alignment. Therefore, a set of determinants for mutual understanding is proposed. Extensive analysis on literature has been carried out to identify and define the determining factors. The review can serve as a reference for business and IT executives to improve in their communication effectiveness towards achieving well aligned business and IT strategic alignment

Analyzing community contributions to the development of community wireless networks

Community wireless networks (CWNs) have emerged as collective actions achieved by many communities worldwide to access the information highway. Developing autonomous CWNs depends, in large part, on community contributions that may include time, money, efforts, expertise and computer resources. However, there is a lack of instruments for measuring such contributions, as well as the outcomes of these networks. This study uses the social network analysis analytical approach to model, measure and analyze community contributions in the development of their wireless infrastructures. In particular, we model community contributions as a two-mode (or bipartite) graph composed of two sets of nodes: the first represents a set of community contributors and the other represents a set of wireless networks. The edges between these two sets stand for the inputs of contributors. Their contributions include volunteering time and manpower, sharing their wireless nodes with community members, donating money, donating hardware, providing technical support, and developing open source software for the network. The model is used to analyze these tangible and intangible forms of contributions. We hope this study provides a better understanding and sounder measurement of the role of communities in developing these emerging common wireless infrastructures and similar digital collective actions

A social capital dimensional approach to Business-IT alignment

This paper examines the role that social capital plays in organisations in order to create alignment between the IT and business communities. Business and IT communities seem often to have little in common with each other and experience difficulties sharing objectives, deliverables and even communicating with each other. The heart of the problem lies in the fact that the business and IT organisations do not perceive themselves as part of a common, unified organisation. Beginning with the premise the absence of social capital is destroyer of alignment, the paper suggests that where social capital is built across the boundaries of the business and IT organisations, this leads to collective efficacy or superior performance. This is elaborated in a dimensional framework comprising the dimensions and attributes of social capital. Collective efficacy and superior performance are seen when the IT and business organisations are aligned through social capital

Implications of Environmental Uncertainty for Business-IT Alignment: A Comparative Study of SMEs and Large Organizations

This paper presents a comprehensive study of the influence of environmental uncertainty on business-IT alignment. The existing literature postulates environmental uncertainty as a key challenge to achieving business-IT alignment. Hence, the first objective of this study is to identify the extent of the impact of environmental uncertainty on business-IT alignment, and to determine its relative impact in the light of the other antecedents. Furthermore, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) differ fundamentally from large firms in many ways. Thus this paper also aims to investigate the variation between SMEs and large firms with regard to the antecedents for strategic alignment. Based on data collected from 212 firms, a conceptual model is tested against the research objectives. The findings provide important contributions to both research and practice by demonstrating the relative impact of environmental uncertainty, and showing how the antecedents of alignment vary between SMEs and large firms

Enhancing Strategic IT Alignment through Common Language: Using the Terminology of the Resource-based View or the Capability-based View?

Despite all the studies on alignment in the past 30 years, alignment is still CIOs’ top concern, denoting the lack of prescriptive studies on antecedents of alignment. Particularly, shared language between CIO and top management team is one of the most important yet neglected antecedent of alignment. While previous studies suggest CIOs avoid technical language and use business terminologies, they do not provide further details. The purpose of this study is to prescribe guidance for CIOs regarding the terminologies that should be used in a conversation with the top management team. Leveraging the literature on strategic management, we suggest CIOs apply the nomenclature of theories of Resource-based View or Capability-base View instead of technical jargon. Moreover, using the Semantic Memory Theory, we hypothesized that applying the nomenclature of Capability-based View results in higher top managers’ understanding of the role of IT. An experiment is suggested to evaluate the hypotheses