The Impact of IS-Business Alignment Practices on Organizational Choice of IS-Business Alignment Strategies

This study utilizes a mixed method approach to examine the relationship between IS/Business alignment practices and organizational choice of IS/business alignment strategy. To this end, the significance of six maturity factors of IS/Business alignment – governance, partnership, scope and architecture, communication, value, and skills – from the Strategic Alignment Maturity model are examined against three alignment strategies (independent, sequential, and synchronous) adopted by different organizations. Governance and partnership were found to be the most significant factors towards the evolutive process of IS/business alignment regardless of the alignment strategy. Moreover, our data shows that organizations that are most mature in partnership have a higher tendency to implement sequential integration strategy (IS strategy formulation follows and supports business strategy formulation) and not synchronous – where IS strategy formulation and business strategy formulation are done simultaneously. Follow-up group discussions with senior managers were also conducted in an attempt to identify the top management practices that advance the IS/business alignment process. The discussions revealed three management practices that considerably contribute to the process of aligning IS and business strategies: (1) the formalization of a program management process, (2) the improvement of support for hierarchies of authority, and (3) the integration of collaboration values. Those findings are discussed and future avenues of research are offered

Examining the moderating effect of individual-level cultural values on users’ acceptance of E-learning in developing countries: a structural equation modeling of an extended technology acceptance model

In this study, we examine the effects of individual-level culture on the adoption and acceptance of e-learning tools by students in Lebanon using a theoretical framework based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). To overcome possible limitations of using TAM in developing countries, we extend TAM to include subjective norms (SN) and quality of work life constructs as additional constructs and a number of cultural variables as moderators. The four cultural dimensions of masculinity/femininity (MF), individualism/collectivism, power distance and uncertainty avoidance were measured at the individual level to enable them to be integrated into the extended TAM as moderators and a research model was developed based on previous literature. To test the hypothesised model, data were collected from 569 undergraduate and postgraduate students using e-learning tools in Lebanon via questionnaire. The collected data were analysed using the structural equation modelling technique in conjunction with multi-group analysis. As hypothesised, the results of the study revealed perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), SN and quality of work life to be significant determinants of students’ behavioural intention (BI) towards e-learning. The empirical results also demonstrated that the relationship between SN and BI was particularly sensitive to differences in individual-cultural values, with significant moderating effects observed for all four of the cultural dimensions studied. Some moderating effects of culture were also found for both PU and PEOU, however, contrary to expectations the effect of quality of work life was not found to be moderated by MF as some previous authors have predicted. The implications of these results to both theory and practice are explored in the paper

A cross-cultural validity of the E-learning Acceptance Measure (ElAM) in Lebanon and England: A confirmatory factor analysis

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