Executives\u27 Perspectives on IT: Unraveling the Link between Business Strategy, Management Practices and IT Business Value

Executives’ 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 corporation’s use of management practices relates to their strategic intent or goals for IT

A Process-oriented Assessmnt of the Alignment of Information Systems and Business Strategy: Implications for IT Business Value

It has been argued that organizations’ 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

Globalization and E-Commerce III. The French Enviroment and Policy

According to most indicators, the use of the Internet and the development of e-commerce (over the Internet) in France are below the level that should be reached given the French level of development. This observation can be explained by the late adoption of digital technologies by the French. However, the French lateness is less important for professional uses than for domestic uses. France began to catch up with pioneering countries during 1999-2000, but the collapse Internet bubble reduced the pace of adoption. The French late adoption of digital technologies is partly the result of the strong involvement of France in the development of two pre-existing technologies: Minitel (principally dedicated to B2C) and EDI (dedicated to B2B). Both technologies provided the users with a sufficient level of service to support their business processes, but hindered their propensity to switch to new Internet-based technology. Consequently, most available indicators underestimate the actual level of e-commerce in France, especially the French business readiness to switching to Web-based commerce. The late adoption of technology was not the only inhibitor for e-commerce. In France\u27s recent economic history, decision makers focused for too long on other issues. France had to adapt its economy and its industry to a competitive and global environment. Since the State played a strong role in an economy that was not widely open to competition, a wide set of reforms took place between the mid-1980s and the late 1990s. However, this restructuring policy prepared France for the adoption of e-commerce. as France was transformed into a service economy. Most organizations became more flexible by externalizing non-core activities and by implementing modular principles of organization. French companies went international as well. This new business climate favored the adoption of e-business and e-commerce practice by the end of the 1990s. When macroeconomic and industrial restructurings were achieved, the French government launched a strong information society policy. Since 1998, the government furthered the deregulation of telecommunication services, reshaped the legal framework to adapt to digital technologies, promoted IT training and innovation, and developed e-government. These policies were both a component of and aligned with the year 2000 e-Europe initiative of the European Union (EU), which promoted the development of a strong digital economy. Specific support programs (in RD and development of content) were combined and an intensive effort for legislation and inter-member benchmarking occurred (to stimulate member states to align on the most advanced state), the Commission and the Council of the EU tried try to stimulate development of a dynamic digital industry in Europe, and to boost the adoption of digital technologies and the new-methods of work and business enabled by them. While the European and the French policies impacted the adoption of digital technologies and e-commerce development significantly, they were insufficient to really enable France to catch up. The bursting of the Internet bubble slowed the pace. Moreover, B2C e-commerce was inhibited by the efficiency of the French distribution system that serves at a low cost alternative to the Internet for most of the population. The existing installed base of EDI, especially in the automobile and distribution industries, inhibits B2B e-commerce over the Internet. Consequently, the French e-commerce path of development is unique since it relies less on the Internet than in many other countries. Despite these inhibitors, France is adopting digital technologies and related practices at a higher pace than the other European countries. Within France, e-commerce is quite different in the various regions and industries. The Paris area (one-fifth of the French population), the IT industry, the professional services and distribution industries, and large companies are as intensively digitized as most advanced countries, industries, and companies worldwide. H

The Political Character of Computing Developments: Citizens\u27 interests and Government Services

This paper focuses on how citizens\u27 interests are dealt with and mediated by means of computer technology. It examines the distribution of computing resources to different government activities and, indirectly, to different client groups. It asks to what extent the patterns of computer use reflect stable patterns of choice favoring some uses over others and, therefore, some client groups over others. Two political perspectives on the patterns of choice are considered: managerial rationalism and reinforcement politics. To the extent that managerial rationalism characterizes computing decisions, we would expect to see computing distributed in favor of these government activities that provide direct services to citizens, and that actually expand, rather than contract, the array of choices available to citizens. In contrast, to the extent that reinforcement politics characterizes computing decisions, we would expect to see computing used in support of routine administrative activities, basic local government services, bureaucratic control over government departments and agencies, and social control over the recipients of social services such as welfare, health, and recreation. To examine which of these perspectives best characterizes computing in public organizations, we examine the portfolios of investment in computer based applications, using data collected from over 700 city and county governments in the United States. First, we look at the extent to which computing is applied to different local government functions. This examination suggests that computing tends to reinforce the traditional emphases of local governments towar

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

IT and Productivity in Developed and Developing Countries

Previous research at the cross-national level has found that IT investment is associated with significant productivity gains for developed countries but not for developing countries. Notwithstanding the lack of evidence of productivity gains, developing countries have increased their investment in IT dramatically. Given all of this investment, there is a need for research to study whether the investment has begun to pay off in greater productivity for developing countries. In this study, we employ production function analysis on new data on IT investment and productivity for 49 countries from 1985-2004, and compare the results from 1994-2004 with the earlier years (1985-1993) that were covered by Dewan and Kraemer (2000). The goal is to find out whether developing countries have been able to achieve significant productivity gains from IT investment in the more recent period as they have increased their IT capital stocks and gained experience with the use of IT. We also incorporate a set of complementary factors missing from previous studies, including telecommunications investment and prices, human resources, and foreign direct investment, to determine whether these factors have an impact on the relationship of IT to productivity. We find that for developing countries, there was no significant effect for IT capital for the 1985-1993 sample, but the relationship is positive and significant for the 1994-2004 sample. On the other hand, for developed countries, IT capital is significant across all time periods. Non-IT capital stock and labor hours also are positive and significant across all samples and time periods as expected. We also find developing countries with higher levels of tertiary education and lower telecommunication prices achieve greater productivity gains. To our knowledge, this is the first empirical research to find productivity impacts from IT investments in developing countries. The finding that developing countries only began to realize payoffs from IT investment in more recent years suggests that there may be some critical level of IT capital stock, or some minimum level of accumulated experience (human capital) required before such gains become evident. For policymakers in developing countries, these findings provide evidence that IT investments are likely to lead to productivity gains and give support for policies to promote IT investment and use

A Process Oriented Framework for Assessing the Business Value of Information Technology

In the current competitive environment, the need for better management of all organizational resources, and specifically IT, requires comprehensive assessment of their contribution to firm performance. However, there is little empirical evidence that IT is capable of creating nor has a comprehensive framework of business value emerged. ManyoftheavailablestudiesoflTproductivityandbusinessvaluewereconductedusingfirmleveloutput measures of value. The focus on finn level output variables, while important, provides only limited understanding of how value is created using IT. This paper develops a conceptual framework of the business value outcomes of IT by synthesizing the extant literature on IT business value and IT supported organization and process design. The frameworkprovides a basis for process oriented studies of IT business value and enhances our understanding of the links between information technology and firm performance