Why does IT governance need to be reconceptualized? Corporate governance: theoretical lens and models. IT governance: theoretical lens and models. IT governance reconceptualization and framework. The antecedents factors' of the IT involvement into TMT: a research model.Why does IT governance need to be reconceptualized? Corporate governance: theoretical lens and models. IT governance: theoretical lens and models. IT governance reconceptualization and framework. The antecedents factors' of the IT involvement into TMT: a research model.LUISS PhD Thesi

Caporarello, Leonardo

Why does IT governance need to be reconceptualized? Corporate governance: theoretical lens and models. IT governance: theoretical lens and models. IT governance reconceptualization and framework. The antecedents factors' of the IT involvement into TMT: a research model

Archivio della ricerca- LUISS Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli di Roma

   IT GOVERNANCE: A FRAMEWORK PROPOSAL, AND AN EMPIRICAL STUDY  THESIS ABSTRACT  Leonardo Caporarello  Supervisor: Prof. Domenico Bodega   A thesis submitted for the degree of The XX Doctor of Philosophy in Management Information Systems at LUISS University Rome (Italy)      January 2008   - 2 - Abstract Every organization engages in the use of information technology (IT). The role and impact of IT on organizations have significantly changed since 1970s. IT has evolved from its traditional “back office” role toward a “strategic” role being able to support current business strategies and also to shape new business strategies (Keen, 1991; Venkatraman, 1991). Nowadays, most of the managers agree on necessity of considering IT as an “organizational strategic player” (Boynton, et al., 1994; Orlikowski and Barley, 2001; Sambamurthy, 2000; Venkatraman and Henderson, 1998). As organization’s strategy changes over time, IT has to change too. Recently, increasing attention has given by business management to the topic of IT management, and to the emerging concept of IT governance. Many articles in the IT literature discuss and theorize the concept of IT governance, using different lens of analysis such as business and IT alignment (Armstrong and Sambamurthy, 1999; Bakos and Treacy, 1986; Henderson and Venkatraman, 1992; Lederer and Mendelow, 1987; Lederer and Sethi, 1988; Luftman, et al., 1999; Reich and Benbasat, 1996; Tavakolian, 1989), relationship between Chief Executive Officer and Chief Information Officer (Feeny, et al., 1992), IT management and IT use (Boynton, et al., 1994), IT function (Agarwal and Sambamurthy, 2002), and the role of IT (Sambamurthy, et al., 2003; Kaarst-Brown, 2005). IT governance reflects the broader corporate governance principles (Weill and Ross, 2004). Thus, understanding of underpinning of corporate governance could help to understand why IT governance is a topic with such increasingly relevance either for academics or for organizations and professionals. Corporate governance concerns the structures and processes among stakeholders (i.e. shareholders, board of directors, top and business management, employees, and customers) with the objective to assure accountability and improve organizational performance (Cadbury Committee, 1992; Dunlop, 1998; Ho, 2005; OECD, 1999; Shleifer and Vishny, 1997).  - 3 - As corporate governance goal is to align actions and choices of managers with the interests of stakeholders (Hawley and Williams, 1996; Letza, et al., 2004; Shleifer and Vishny, 1997), IT governance goal could be to align actions and choices of IT managers with the interests of stakeholders.  The concept of IT governance emerged the late 1990s when Brown (1997) and Sambamurthy and Zmud (1999) wrote about the “IT governance arrangement and framework”. They said that IT governance arrangements represent “an organization’s IT-related authority patterns”. IT governance’s objective is to define structures, processes, and mechanisms to define decision making rights and responsibility about main IT issues, to control and monitor the effectiveness of such decisions, and to mitigate IT-related risks in order to achieve organization’s objectives. Drawn on the above literature analysis, I propose a receonceptualization and a framework for IT governance, which is a system of organizational arrangements – like structures, processes, and mechanisms – established by the top management, which objectives are to: □ align IT and organization’s strategy and objectives, □ define decision making rights and responsibility about main IT issues, □ control and monitor the effectiveness of such decisions, □ mitigate IT-related risks, and □ contribute to design of and to achieve the organization performance.  Both the reconceptualization and the framework intend to provide understanding of accumulated knowledge about IT governance through a broad literature review, to provide a new lens of analysis of IT governance, to identify gaps in knowledge. Considering some of these gaps in knowledge, a research model is proposed for exploring, in particular, the antecedents factors’ of the IT involvement into Top management team. This model is empirically tested. A total of 1361 CIOs, or responsible for IT decisions, were interviewed. The response rate was of 68%.   - 4 - Results show as the main antecedents of the IT involvement into Top management team are the IT responsible autonomy level, the reporting level of IT responsible, and the innovation capacity of organization. Finally, some research propositions are presented, which regard, for example, the relationships among the use of IT governance framework, the use of IT for cost reduction, the use of IT for competitive thrus, and the organizational innovation level.  References  Agarwal, R., Sambamurthy, V. (2002) Principles and models for organizing the IT function, MIS Quarterly Executive 1(1), pp. 1-16 Armstrong, C. P., Sambamurthy, V. (1999) Information Technology Assimilation in Firms: The Influence of Senior Leadership and IT Infrastructure, Information Systems Research 10(4), pp. 304-327 Bakos, J. Y., Treacy, M. E. (1986). Information Technology and corporate strategy: a research perspective, MIS Quarterly 10(2), pp. 107-119 Boynton, A. C., Zmud, R. W., Jacobs, G. C. (1994). The influence of IT management practice on IT use in large organizations, MIS Quarterly 18(3), pp. 299-318 Brown, C. V. (1997) Examining the Emergence of Hybrid IS Governance Solutions: Evidence from a Single Case Site, Information Systems Research 8(1), pp. 69-94 Cadbury Committee (1992). The Report of the Cadbury Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance: The Code of Best Practice, Accountancy, January, 1993, UK Dunlop, A. (1998) Corporate Governance and Control, CIMA Publishing, London Feeny, D. F., Edwards, B. R., Simpson, K. M. (1992) Understanding the CEO/CIO relationship, MIS Quarterly 16(4), pp. 435-448 Hawley, J. P., Williams, A. T. (1996) Corporate governance in the United States: the rise of fiduciary capitalism – a review of the literature. The first prize of Lens 1996 Corporate Governance Paper Competition. Available online at www.lens-library.com/info/competition.html Henderson, J. C., Venkatraman, N. (1992) Strategic Alignment: a model for organizational transformation through information technology, in Transforming  - 5 - Organizations, Kochan, T. A. and Useem M. (eds), Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York Ho, C. (2005) Corporate Governance and Corporate Competitiveness: an international analysis, Corporate Governance 13(2), pp. 211-253 Kaarst-Brown, M. L. (2005) Understanding an organization’s view of the CIO: the role of assumptions about IT, MIS Quarterly Executive 4(2), pp. 287-301 Keen, P. G. W. (1991) Shaping the Future: Business Design Through Information Technology, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA Lederer, A. L., Mendelow, A. L. (1987) Information resource planning: overcoming difficulties in identifying top management’s objectives, MIS Quarterly 11(3), pp. 389-399 Lederer, A. L., Sethi, V. (1988) The implementation of information systems planning methodologies, MIS Quarterly 12(3), pp. 444-461 Letza, S., Sun, X., Kirkbride, J. (2004) Shareholding versus Stakeholding: a critical review of corporate governance, Corporate Governance 12(3), pp.242-262 Luftman, J. N., Papp, R., Brier, T. (1999) Enablers and inhibitors of business-IT alignment, Communications of AIS 1(11), pp.1-33 OECD (1999) Principles of Corporate Governance, OECD website (www.oecd.org), Paris Orlikowski, W. J., Barley, S. R. (2001) Technology and Institutions: What Can Research on Information Technology and Research on Organizations Learn from Each Other?, MIS Quarterly 25(2), pp. 145-165 Reich, B. H., Benbasat, I. (1996) Measuring the Linkage between Business and Information Technology Objectives, MIS Quarterly 20(1), pp. 55-81 Sambamurthy, V. (2000). “Business Strategy in Hypercompetitive Environments: Re-thinking the Role of IT Differentiation”, in R. W. Zmud (ed.). Framing the Domains of IT Management Research: Glimpsing the Future through the Past, Cincinnati, Pinnaflex Press Sambamurthy, V., Bharadwaj, A., Grover, V. (2003). Shaping agility through digital options: reconceptualizing the role of Information Technology in contemporary firms, MIS Quarterly 27(2), pp. 237-263 Sambamurthy, V., Zmud, R. W. (1999) Arrangements for Information Technology Governance: A Theory of Multiple Contingencies, MIS Quarterly 23(2), pp. 261-290 Shleifer, A., Vishny, R. W. (1997). A survey of corporate governance, The Journal of Finance 52(2), pp. 737-783  - 6 - Tavakolian, H. (1989) Linking the Information Technology structure with organizational competitive strategy: a survey, MIS Quarterly 13(3), pp. 309-317 Venkatraman, N. (1991) Information Technology-Induced Business Reconfiguration: The New Strategic Management Challenge, in The Corportation of the 1990s, Scott Morton, M. S. (ed.), Oxford University Press, Oxford Venkatraman, N., Henderson, J. (1998) Real Strategies for Virtual Organizing, Sloan Management Review 40(1), pp. 33-48 Weill, P., Ross, J. W. (2004). IT Governance: How Top performers manage IT decision rights for superior results, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA  

English

IT Governance: a framework proposal, and an empirical study

LUISSearch

  
 
IT GOVERNANCE: 
A FRAMEWORK PROPOSAL, AND 
AN EMPIRICAL STUDY 
 
THESIS ABSTRACT 
 
Leonardo Caporarello 
 
Supervisor: Prof. Domenico Bodega 
 
 
A thesis submitted for the degree of 
The XX Doctor of Philosophy in 
Management Information Systems at 
LUISS University 
Rome (Italy) 
 
 
 
 
 
January 2008 
 
 - 2 - 
Abstract 
Every organization engages in the use of information technology (IT). 
The role and impact of IT on organizations have significantly changed since 1970s. IT has 
evolved from its traditional “back office” role toward a “strategic” role being able to 
support current business strategies and also to shape new business strategies (Keen, 
1991; Venkatraman, 1991). Nowadays, most of the managers agree on necessity of 
considering IT as an “organizational strategic player” (Boynton, et al., 1994; Orlikowski 
and Barley, 2001; Sambamurthy, 2000; Venkatraman and Henderson, 1998). As 
organization’s strategy changes over time, IT has to change too. 
Recently, increasing attention has given by business management to the topic of IT 
management, and to the emerging concept of IT governance. 
Many articles in the IT literature discuss and theorize the concept of IT governance, 
using different lens of analysis such as business and IT alignment (Armstrong and 
Sambamurthy, 1999; Bakos and Treacy, 1986; Henderson and Venkatraman, 1992; 
Lederer and Mendelow, 1987; Lederer and Sethi, 1988; Luftman, et al., 1999; Reich and 
Benbasat, 1996; Tavakolian, 1989), relationship between Chief Executive Officer and 
Chief Information Officer (Feeny, et al., 1992), IT management and IT use (Boynton, et 
al., 1994), IT function (Agarwal and Sambamurthy, 2002), and the role of IT 
(Sambamurthy, et al., 2003; Kaarst-Brown, 2005). 
IT governance reflects the broader corporate governance principles (Weill and Ross, 
2004). Thus, understanding of underpinning of corporate governance could help to 
understand why IT governance is a topic with such increasingly relevance either for 
academics or for organizations and professionals. 
Corporate governance concerns the structures and processes among stakeholders (i.e. 
shareholders, board of directors, top and business management, employees, and 
customers) with the objective to assure accountability and improve organizational 
performance (Cadbury Committee, 1992; Dunlop, 1998; Ho, 2005; OECD, 1999; 
Shleifer and Vishny, 1997). 
 - 3 - 
As corporate governance goal is to align actions and choices of managers with the 
interests of stakeholders (Hawley and Williams, 1996; Letza, et al., 2004; Shleifer and 
Vishny, 1997), IT governance goal could be to align actions and choices of IT managers 
with the interests of stakeholders. 
 
The concept of IT governance emerged the late 1990s when Brown (1997) and 
Sambamurthy and Zmud (1999) wrote about the “IT governance arrangement and 
framework”. They said that IT governance arrangements represent “an organization’s 
IT-related authority patterns”. 
IT governance’s objective is to define structures, processes, and mechanisms to define 
decision making rights and responsibility about main IT issues, to control and monitor 
the effectiveness of such decisions, and to mitigate IT-related risks in order to achieve 
organization’s objectives. 
Drawn on the above literature analysis, I propose a receonceptualization and a 
framework for IT governance, which is a system of organizational arrangements – like 
structures, processes, and mechanisms – established by the top management, which 
objectives are to: 
□ align IT and organization’s strategy and objectives, 
□ define decision making rights and responsibility about main IT issues, 
□ control and monitor the effectiveness of such decisions, 
□ mitigate IT-related risks, and 
□ contribute to design of and to achieve the organization performance. 
 
Both the reconceptualization and the framework intend to provide understanding of 
accumulated knowledge about IT governance through a broad literature review, to 
provide a new lens of analysis of IT governance, to identify gaps in knowledge. 
Considering some of these gaps in knowledge, a research model is proposed for 
exploring, in particular, the antecedents factors’ of the IT involvement into Top 
management team. 
This model is empirically tested. A total of 1361 CIOs, or responsible for IT decisions, 
were interviewed. The response rate was of 68%.  
 - 4 - 
Results show as the main antecedents of the IT involvement into Top management team 
are the IT responsible autonomy level, the reporting level of IT responsible, and the 
innovation capacity of organization. 
Finally, some research propositions are presented, which regard, for example, the 
relationships among the use of IT governance framework, the use of IT for cost 
reduction, the use of IT for competitive thrus, and the organizational innovation level. 
 
References 
 
Agarwal, R., Sambamurthy, V. (2002) Principles and models for organizing the IT 
function, MIS Quarterly Executive 1(1), pp. 1-16 
Armstrong, C. P., Sambamurthy, V. (1999) Information Technology Assimilation in 
Firms: The Influence of Senior Leadership and IT Infrastructure, Information Systems 
Research 10(4), pp. 304-327 
Bakos, J. Y., Treacy, M. E. (1986). Information Technology and corporate strategy: a 
research perspective, MIS Quarterly 10(2), pp. 107-119 
Boynton, A. C., Zmud, R. W., Jacobs, G. C. (1994). The influence of IT management 
practice on IT use in large organizations, MIS Quarterly 18(3), pp. 299-318 
Brown, C. V. (1997) Examining the Emergence of Hybrid IS Governance Solutions: 
Evidence from a Single Case Site, Information Systems Research 8(1), pp. 69-94 
Cadbury Committee (1992). The Report of the Cadbury Committee on the Financial 
Aspects of Corporate Governance: The Code of Best Practice, Accountancy, January, 
1993, UK 
Dunlop, A. (1998) Corporate Governance and Control, CIMA Publishing, London 
Feeny, D. F., Edwards, B. R., Simpson, K. M. (1992) Understanding the CEO/CIO 
relationship, MIS Quarterly 16(4), pp. 435-448 
Hawley, J. P., Williams, A. T. (1996) Corporate governance in the United States: the rise 
of fiduciary capitalism – a review of the literature. The first prize of Lens 1996 
Corporate Governance Paper Competition. Available online at www.lens-
library.com/info/competition.html 
Henderson, J. C., Venkatraman, N. (1992) Strategic Alignment: a model for 
organizational transformation through information technology, in Transforming 
 - 5 - 
Organizations, Kochan, T. A. and Useem M. (eds), Oxford University Press, Oxford and 
New York 
Ho, C. (2005) Corporate Governance and Corporate Competitiveness: an international 
analysis, Corporate Governance 13(2), pp. 211-253 
Kaarst-Brown, M. L. (2005) Understanding an organization’s view of the CIO: the role of 
assumptions about IT, MIS Quarterly Executive 4(2), pp. 287-301 
Keen, P. G. W. (1991) Shaping the Future: Business Design Through Information 
Technology, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA 
Lederer, A. L., Mendelow, A. L. (1987) Information resource planning: overcoming 
difficulties in identifying top management’s objectives, MIS Quarterly 11(3), pp. 389-399 
Lederer, A. L., Sethi, V. (1988) The implementation of information systems planning 
methodologies, MIS Quarterly 12(3), pp. 444-461 
Letza, S., Sun, X., Kirkbride, J. (2004) Shareholding versus Stakeholding: a critical review 
of corporate governance, Corporate Governance 12(3), pp.242-262 
Luftman, J. N., Papp, R., Brier, T. (1999) Enablers and inhibitors of business-IT alignment, 
Communications of AIS 1(11), pp.1-33 
OECD (1999) Principles of Corporate Governance, OECD website (www.oecd.org), Paris 
Orlikowski, W. J., Barley, S. R. (2001) Technology and Institutions: What Can Research 
on Information Technology and Research on Organizations Learn from Each Other?, 
MIS Quarterly 25(2), pp. 145-165 
Reich, B. H., Benbasat, I. (1996) Measuring the Linkage between Business and 
Information Technology Objectives, MIS Quarterly 20(1), pp. 55-81 
Sambamurthy, V. (2000). “Business Strategy in Hypercompetitive Environments: Re-
thinking the Role of IT Differentiation”, in R. W. Zmud (ed.). Framing the Domains of IT 
Management Research: Glimpsing the Future through the Past, Cincinnati, Pinnaflex Press 
Sambamurthy, V., Bharadwaj, A., Grover, V. (2003). Shaping agility through digital 
options: reconceptualizing the role of Information Technology in contemporary firms, 
MIS Quarterly 27(2), pp. 237-263 
Sambamurthy, V., Zmud, R. W. (1999) Arrangements for Information Technology 
Governance: A Theory of Multiple Contingencies, MIS Quarterly 23(2), pp. 261-290 
Shleifer, A., Vishny, R. W. (1997). A survey of corporate governance, The Journal of 
Finance 52(2), pp. 737-783 
 - 6 - 
Tavakolian, H. (1989) Linking the Information Technology structure with organizational 
competitive strategy: a survey, MIS Quarterly 13(3), pp. 309-317 
Venkatraman, N. (1991) Information Technology-Induced Business Reconfiguration: The 
New Strategic Management Challenge, in The Corportation of the 1990s, Scott Morton, M. 
S. (ed.), Oxford University Press, Oxford 
Venkatraman, N., Henderson, J. (1998) Real Strategies for Virtual Organizing, Sloan 
Management Review 40(1), pp. 33-48 
Weill, P., Ross, J. W. (2004). IT Governance: How Top performers manage IT decision 
rights for superior results, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA 
 


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IT Governance: a framework proposal, and an empirical study

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