Business Process and IT Cospecialization: Conceptualization and Suggestions for Future Research

Existing IT alignment literature argues that the potential of IT to create value for firms depends on the use of IT resources to support value chain processes. It also argues that improving IT support for operational value chain processes leads to higher IT alignment at the process-level. However, it does not explain the role of IT in enabling managerial business processes that are central for firms competing in dynamic business environments. This paper extends prior treatments of the link between IT and business processes to explicitly account for potential complementarities between IT and managerial processes. Specifically, drawing on resource-based theory and prior IT alignment literature, we develop the business process IT cospecialization construct to capture complementarities that accrue from exploiting IT resources to enable both operational and managerial processes. Propositions are developed that reveal how business process IT cospecialization creates value for firms under varying conditions of environmental dynamism

Theorizing Agency and Temporality in IT-Enabled Competitive Actions

This paper seeks to extend earlier treatments of the relationship between information technology (IT) resources and competitive actions to explicitly account for the roles of human agency and temporality, which have not been adequately addressed in prior research. It draws on the literatures on competitive dynamics and time-situated agency to understand and explain the role of managers in formulating and executing IT-enabled competitive actions. We discuss insights from a review of the extant literature and argue that further inquiry is warranted to understand how the agency of managers shapes the development and execution of two types of IT-enabled competitive actions, i.e., proactive actions and reactive actions. In this research-in-progress paper, we address this issue and present a set of propositions to serve as the basis for a new theory of agency and IT-enabled competitive actions

On the Conceptualization of Strategic Information Technology Alignment: Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Construct

In this study we conceptualize strategic information technology (IT) alignment as a two-way relationship where business strategy influences IT, and IT influences business strategy. This implies that a multidimensional rather than the traditional unidimensional conceptualization of strategic IT alignment is appropriate. To validate this approach we develop and test a new multidimensional measure that captures the first-order effects of IT alignment at the process-level, where they are expected to be realized. We test the model using survey data from 94 companies that span three countries ─ US, Australia and Germany. Results reveal that the multidimensional measure of strategic IT alignment is a better predictor of both business unit agility and performance than the unidimensional measure of strategic IT alignment

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE RENEWAL OF BUSINESS MODELS

With the advent of the information age, shrinking product lifecycles and intense competition, organizations continuously seek to renew their business models to exploit new market opportunities. Existing literature suggests that advances in IT and the rise of corporate-wide IT platforms facilitate the use of IT resources across the organization and can drive the evolution of business models. However, we still know little about the role of IT in enabling successful business models. This study investigates the relationship between corporate IT platforms and business model evolution. We examine the case of DHL Express to understand how its efforts to build a corporate IT platform influenced the company’s business model. Drawing on insights from prior literature and findings from the DHL case, we discuss evidence that corporate IT platforms enable business model evolution to the extent that they generate digital options that can be exercised by managers to renew value propositions for customers

Corporate Knows Best (Maybe): The Impact of Global versus Local IT Capabilities on Business Unit Agility

The relationship between the corporate unit and its strategic business units (SBUs) has been variously described in the IS literature as either antagonistic or affable. At a time when corporate units are considering how to share platform-based capabilities (dubbed global IT) with SBUs, some SBUs may feel a loss of control while others see it as a chance to focus local IT on solving problems that are best handled by SBUs. Using data from an international survey of CIOs in the U.S., Germany, and Australia, we find that platform or global IT capabilities are associated with higher SBU agility notably when SBUs operate in a relatively stable environment. We also find that local IT influences SBU agility, particularly if SBUs have high levels of IT autonomy. Thus, the search for SBU agility may prompt corporate units to balance use of local and global IT resources and capabilities

Digital Infrastructure, Business Unit Competitiveness, and Firm Performance Growth: The Moderating Effects of Business Unit IT Autonomy

This study examines the benefits that firms accrue from digital infrastructures that are effective in supporting corporate and business unit strategic objectives—which we term digital infrastructure effectiveness. We hypothesize that digital infrastructure effectiveness influences two types of performance outcomes—namely, business unit competitive performance and firm performance growth. We further hypothesize that these relationships are both moderated by the degree of business unit IT autonomy. Using data from an international survey of multi-business firms, we find that business unit IT autonomy exerts differential moderation effects on the relationships between digital infrastructure effectiveness and the two types of performance outcomes. As business unit IT autonomy increases, the effect of digital infrastructure effectiveness on business unit competitive performance gets stronger, while its effect on firm performance growth gets weaker. The primary contribution of this paper is explaining how and when digital infrastructures influence business unit performance and firm performance growth

Business Process and Information Technology Alignment: Construct Conceptualization, Empirical Illustration, and Directions for Future Research

Since strategic alignment first rose to prominence with Henderson and Venkatraman’s (1993) seminal paper, research has tended to focus on the extent of fit between IT and business strategy at the firm level. Although useful, a firm-level view of alignment could mask what firms are doing to realize intellectual alignment between business and IT strategy and whether their actions will likely succeed. In this study, we build on an emergent stream of research that considers alignment between IT and business strategy at the process level. Since research tends to view this form of alignment through the lens of IT support for business strategy, this perspective fails to account for how IT can enable the development of new business strategies. Accordingly, we conceptualize alignment between IT and business strategy at the process level using the lens of IT shortfall (a lack of IT support for business activities) and IT slack (having more IT than needed to support current business activities). Using data from matched surveys of IT and business executives at 317 U.S. and E.U. firms, we illustrate the value of this conceptualization and its process measures. Our results show that IT shortfall is negatively correlated with IT business value, while IT slack is positively correlated with IT business value. We further note that the existence of IT shortfall and IT slack depends on differences in firms’ chosen business strategy and whether a process is critical or non-critical to that strategy’s success

The Role of IT Application Orchestration Capability in Improving Agility and Performance

This paper investigates how IT application orchestration – a dynamic capability encapsulating a firm’s ability to refresh its application portfolio through a process of building, buying, and retiring IT applications – impacts firm performance. We propose a conceptual model in which the effect of IT application orchestration on firm performance is mediated by process agility. We further propose that a firm’s strategic orientation moderates the effect of IT application orchestration capability on process agility. Analysis of data from an international survey of IT executives supports our proposed hypotheses. This research contributes to the emergent literature on dynamic capabilities by proposing and testing a theory of how IT application orchestration capability affects agility and firm performance

Information Technology and the Search for Organizational Agility: A Systematic Review with Future Research Possibilities

Organizations are increasingly turning to information technology (IT) to help them respond to unanticipated environmental threats and opportunities. In this paper, we introduce a systematic review of the literature on IT-enabled agility, helping to establish the boundary between what we know and what we don’t know. We base our review on a wide body of literature drawn from the AIS Basket of Eight IT journals, a cross-section of non-Basket journals, IT practitioner outlets, and premier international IS conferences. We review the use of different theoretical lenses used to investigate the relationship between IT and organizational agility and how the literature has conceptualized agility, its antecedents, and consequences. We also map the evolution of the literature through a series of stages that highlight how researchers have built on previous work. Lastly, we discuss opportunities for future research in an effort to close important gaps in our understanding

The Complementarity of Corporate IT Alignment and Business Unit IT Alignment: An Analysis of Their Joint Effects on Business Unit Performance

Alignment between IT and business strategy is a perennial challenge for IT executives, in part due to the evolving nature of organizational structure. In multi-business organizations (MBOs), a pressing issue for IT executives is how to improve the performance of each strategic business unit (SBU). In this paper we examine how IT alignment in MBOs affects SBU performance. We distinguish between IT alignment at the corporate and SBU levels and propose that these two types of IT alignment are complementary and exert joint effects on SBU performance. Two hypotheses related to these joint effects are developed and tested using data collected from an international survey of IT executives. Our findings indicate that complementarities between corporate IT alignment and SBU IT alignment enhance SBU performance. The primary contribution of this paper is explaining how different types of IT alignment in MBOs - individually and jointly - affect SBU performance