A Literature Review of Business/IT Alignment Strategies

AbstractIn the last years, the alignment issue was addressed in several researches and numerous methods, techniques and tools were proposed. Indeed, the business and IT performance are tightly coupled, and enterprises cannot be competitive if their business and IT strategies are not aligned. This paper proposes a literature review useful for evaluating different alignment approaches, with the aim of discovering similarity, maturity, capability to measure, model, asses and evolve the alignment level existing among business and technological assets of an enterprise. The proposed framework is applied to analyse the alignment research published in the Information & Management journal and the Journal of Strategic Information Systems, that are the ones that more published on this topic. The achieved evaluation results are presented

The Impact of Aligning Business, IT, and Marketing Strategies on Firm Performance

In order to succeed in today's competitive business environment, a firm should have a clear business strategy that is supported by other organizational strategies. While prior studies argue that strategic alignment enhances firm performance, either strategic alignment including multiple factors or strategic orientation of firms has received little attention. This study, drawing on contingency theory and configuration theory, investigates the performance impact of triadic strategic alignment among business, IT, and marketing strategies while simultaneously considers strategic orientation of firms. A research model is tested through SEM and MANOVA using data collected in a questionnaire survey of 242 Yemen managers. The findings indicate that (1) triadic strategic alignment has a positive impact on firm performance and (2) there is an ideal triadic strategic alignment for prospectors and defenders. This research contributes to strategic alignment literature and managers' understanding of how to align business, IT and marketing strategies to improve firm performance

IT fit on auditors’ performance in Yemen

The alignment between the importance and utilisation of IT (IT fit), and the impact of IT fit on organisational performance has been an issue of concern for many researchers. Therefore, this study examined the effect of organisational, social, individual, and environmental factors on IT fit and on auditors’ performance as well as the influence of IT fit on auditors’ performance. It also examined the mediating effect of IT fit on the relationship between these independent variables and auditors’ performance. Data from 274 auditors were analyzed using the PLS-SEM. The results indicate that auditors perceived their utilisation of IT utilisation to be less than the importance of IT, hence providing important insights into the importance and the utilisation of technologies in the context of audit work in Yemen. The findings suggest that information systems audit in Yemen is still at the minimum level. Further analyses on the effect of the independent variables, namely IT knowledge, facilitating resources, IT trust, competitive pressure, management support, client’s complexity of the IT system, internalisation and cognitive style, on IT fit show them to be positive and significant. Interestingly, IT fit is found to be a mediator between these eight variables and auditors’ performance. This study also finds that management support, IT knowledge, IT trust, internalisation, IT training, client’s complexity of the IT System, cognitive style and IT fit have positive and significant effects on auditors’ performance. The three most important variables are IT knowledge, facilitating resources, and management support. The findings suggest the important role of IT fit in increasing the effect of these variables on auditors’ performance. Therefore, audit firms and professional bodies need to focus on the issue of IT fit to increase the performance of their auditors

Antecedents and Impacts of E-Business Aligment Amongst Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

E-business has great potentials for firms to extend their business efficiency. Nevertheless, due to various problems and constraints, the e-business deployment within SMEs sector has been reported as not effective. To ensure effective e-business deployment, necessary measures are needed to assess how firms align diverse ebusiness capabilities in support of their business operation. This study therefore aims to investigate the extent firms align diverse e-business capabilities across business processes (e-business alignment). Using a strategic fit perspective, this study has observed two major propositions. First, firms‟ ability to align e-business to support the most crucial business processes has potentially led to better realisation of ebusiness values. Secondly, certain managerial and environmental conditions have explained the differing characteristics of e-business alignment amongst firms. This study employs quantitative research approach using survey method to collect and collate evidences from 140 owner/managers of SMEs. Preliminary analysis has indicated e-business alignment/misalignment patterns across business functions. The cluster analysis further reveals three distinct profiles with different characteristics of e-business alignment. These profiles are labelled as 'highly fit', 'moderately fit' and 'low fit' based on their e-business fit characteristics. This result confirms the first proposition where highly aligned firms will report greater and wider e-business impacts. The second proposition reveals that environmental uncertainty, IT sophistication, owner/manager knowledge on advanced IT/IS, e-business deployment status, and support network are significant predictors to different e-business alignment characteristics among firms. This study suggests that firms relatively have different priority over e-business solutions to support their business. These findings have demonstrated why some firms do not progress to a higher e-business ladder. It further justifies unequal deployment of e-business solutions to support functions across firms

The impact of triadic strategic alignment on organisational performance in Yemen

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business ManagementTo survive and succeed in the very competitive business environment, firms should have a clear business strategy supported by appropriate information technology (IT) and marketing strategies. Whilst many prior studies argue that strategic alignment between, for example, business strategy and IT strategy generally enhances organisational performance, strategic alignment including multiple factors has received little attention and strategic orientation of firms is rarely considered. This research, drawing on configurational theory and strategic management literature, aims to understand the performance impact of triadic strategic alignment between business, IT, and marketing strategies based on strategic orientation of firms. A number of hypotheses are proposed to examine the relationship between triadic strategic alignment and organisational performance through the use of structural equation modelling, and to identify generic types of triadic strategic alignment. The hypotheses are tested through MANOVA using data collected in a questionnaire survey of 242 managers in Yemen. The findings indicate that (1) there is an ideal triadic strategic alignment for prospectors and defenders; (2) triadic strategic alignment has a positive impact on organisational performance; and (3) triadic strategic alignment provides a better indication of the nature and performance impact of strategic alignment. Follow-up interviews were also conducted to support the arguments and to clarify how strategies should be aligned. This research also contributes to managers’ knowledge and understanding by suggesting how a firm should coherently align its strategies to improve organisational performance

Business-IT alignment from operational level: empirical evidence from the Bank of Qingdao, China

Business-IT Alignment (BITA) has long been a significant topic for scholars as well as enterprise managers especially in the Internet era. Although numerous studies have identified the factors influencing the aligning process and relationships between them and organization successes from strategic perspective, few consider the impact of these elements on employees’s performances from an operational level. To fill this gap, this thesis first discusses the state-of-art and the challenges of BITA in China’s city commercial banks (CCBs) and further develops a theoretical framework to empirically evaluate the BITA in China banking industry. Finally, some recommendations for improving the level of BITA in China’s CCBs are provided. Taking the Bank of Qingdao (BQD) as a sample, this thesis empirically examines BITA maturity model with the results that five factors including communication, IT competency/value measurement, IT governance, partnership, and IT skills are positively related to the BITA while IT scope and architecture are not significant. In addition, the moderating effect of service quality between BITA and employee’s working performance is also supported by the survey. This study also develops a new theoretical model namely, business-IT punctuated equilibrium alignment model (BIPEAM), based on life cycle theory and punctuated equilibrium theory to describe the alternately leading roles between business and IT strategies. This model may contribute towards the better understanding of the mechanism of business-IT strategic alignment process from a longitudinal perspective within an enterprise.O alinhamento entre o negócio e as Tecnologias de Informação (TI) ou alinhamento business-IT (BITA) tem sido desde há muito um tópico significativo para académicos bem como para gestores de empresas, especialmente na era da Internet. Embora numerosas investigações tenham identificado os fatores que influenciam o processo de alinhamento e as relações entre eles e os sucessos da organização do ponto de vista estratégico, poucas consideram o impacto destes elementos no desempenho dos empregados a partir de um nível operacional. Para preencher esta lacuna, esta tese começa por discutir o estado da arte e os desafios do BITA nos bancos comerciais das cidades da China (CCBs) e desenvolve um quadro teórico para avaliar empiricamente o BITA na indústria bancária Chinesa. Por último, são fornecidas algumas recomendações para melhorar o nível de BITA nos CCBs da China. Tomando o Banco de Qingdao (BQD) como amostra, esta tese examina empiricamente o modelo de maturidade do BITA com os resultados de que cinco fatores, incluindo comunicação, competência/avaliação de TI, governação de TI, parceria, e competências de TI estão positivamente relacionados com o BITA enquanto que o âmbito e a arquitetura de TI não são significativos. Além disso, o efeito moderador da qualidade do serviço entre a BITA e o desempenho de trabalho do empregado é também apoiado pelo inquérito realizado. Este estudo também desenvolve um novo modelo teórico, nomeadamente o modelo de alinhamento de equilíbrio pontuado de business-IT (BIPEAM) baseado na teoria do ciclo de vida e na teoria do equilíbrio pontuado para descrever os papéis alternadamente de liderança entre as estratégias empresariais e de TI. Este modelo pode contribuir para uma melhor compreensão do mecanismo do processo de alinhamento estratégico entre empresas e as TI, a partir de uma perspetiva longitudinal dentro de uma empresa

A co-evolutionary framework to reducing the gap between business and information technology.

Over the past few years information technology (IT) and business alignment has become a great concern to organizations. To achieve alignment has become a daunting task for organizations due to rapid changes in business environment and lack of IT support. In business organizations business processes and IT are interrelated and interact with each other where one entity influences to another entity i.e. evolution in business processes requires evolution in IT and vice versa. When this co-evolution is not well aligned, a gap is created due to wrong configuration between business requirements and IT deployment. Organizations usually strive to bridge the gap by implementing business and IT strategies (i.e. top-down planning) and tend to ignore other aspects of the co-evolution. Alignment is a continuous co-evolutionary process in which all components of business and IT are interrelated and enhance organization performance. The co-evolution between business and IT is not restricted to a level but it occurs at all levels and therefore, it is necessary to understand and study co-evolution at all levels within organizations. This thesis presents a co-evolutionary framework that helps to study and understand the co-evolution at three levels i.e. strategic level, operational level and individual level in an integrated fashion. The three levels need to co-evolve so that all components at each level co-evolve. This framework will speed up the alignment in organizations. We argue that the lack of knowledge of business among IT people and IT knowledge among business executives may cause the gap; therefore, a need arises to have a knowledgeable mediator between the domains that could help in the co-evolution. A K-mediator (i.e. knowledge mediator) has been used in the proposed co-evolutionary framework that facilitates the co-evolution at each level. Finally the thesis presents a case study in financial domain in order to evaluate and validate the framework

A influência da orientação para inovação sobre o processo de comunicação integrada de marketing e desempenho de marketing

Orientadora: Profª Drª Ana Maria Machado ToaldoDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Administração. Defesa : Curitiba, 27/02/2019Inclui referências: p. 196-204Resumo: O presente estudo busca investigar a relação entre orientação para inovação e o processo de comunicação integrada de marketing (CIM), e verificar a influência desse processo sobre desempenhos de marketing das empresas. Entende-se que a orientação para inovação (OI) pode ser um fator positivo para a implementação de CIM resultando em melhores desempenhos de marketing. A pesquisa foi conduzida por meio de um survey em 206 pequenas e médias empresas (PMEs) do setor de hotelaria, um setor caracterizado pela escassez de recursos e que pode utilizar o processo de CIM como ferramenta para desenvolver relacionamentos de longo-prazo e por consequência melhores resultados. Os resultados foram analisados por meio modelagem de equações estruturais (MEE), onde confirmou-se uma influência positiva e significativa da OI sobre o processo de CIM e desse processo sobre o desempenho de marketing. Palavras-chave: Comunicação integrada de marketing; Orientação para inovação; Desempenho de marketing; Pequenas e médias empresas.Abstract: The present study seeks to investigate the relationship between innovation orientation and integrated marketing communications process and to verify the influence of this process over marketing outcomes. The paper has the objective of amplify the understanding about the impact of the IMC's process over the organization's outcomes and verify possible antecedents' factors of this processes. We believe that innovation orientations (IO) may be a positive factor for the implementation of IMC, resulting in greater marketing results. To observe these relationships, we conducted a survey in 206 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of the hospitality industry, which have scarce resources, and can use IMC as a way to produce long-term relationship and by consequence better results. The results were analyzed through structural equation modeling (EEM), which confirmed a positive relation between IO, IMC process and marketing performance Key-words: Integrated marketing communications; Innovation orientation; Marketing performance; Small and medium enterprises

Knowledge Management practices in Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions: a review on selected cases

This article underlines the fact that Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions are seriously geared in approaching its academic excellence status, becoming an international education hub attracting students from different parts of the world..

Knowledge Management practices in Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions: a review on selected cases

This article underlines the fact that Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions are seriously geared in approaching its academic excellence status, becoming an international education hub attracting students from different parts of the world..