Exploring the impact of operating model choice on the governance of inter-organizational workflow: the U.S. e-prescribing network

Inter-organizational networks play an increasing role in delivering computer-mediated public services such as healthcare. Many networks govern through an infomediary (i.e., electronic broker) that brings together disparate member organizations. These networks can resemble an enterprise where standards and incentives for use are imposed on its partners. This study seeks to extend an enterprise IT governance (ITG) concept to the U.S. e-prescribing network as it transitions from a paper-based network to a computer-mediated one. The operating model, proposed by Ross et al (2006), emphasizes choices in standardization and integration to align strategy with operational processes to improve enterprise performance. Missing in their work is evidence that macro-level choices embedded in the operating model directly impact network workflow. A comparative synthesis traces the changes made to the U.S. e-prescribing operating model to their impact upon the roles and relationships among network members. Some workflow mis-alignments were traceable to the operating philosophy imposed by healthcare policy-makers. The study suggests IT alignment in networks may be better achieved through governing operating models rather than the traditional ITG focus on organizational forms.     

Board-level IT governance and organizational performance

Research on the strategic management of Information Technology (IT) resources has mostly focused on the oversight provided by the management team as a means to increase organizational performance. In recent years, boards of directors have also increased their involvement in IT matters, and various theoretical lenses suggest that this oversight too has the potential to influence organizational performance. Hence, this study synthesizes the resource-based and contingency views of MIS with corporate governance theories, and examines key antecedents and consequences of board-level IT governance (ITG) using a multi-method approach. Structural Equation Modelling analysis applied to organization-level data collected from 171 board members suggested that the level of ITG exercised by boards was contingent upon the organization's ‘IT use mode’, along the two dimensions of need for (a) fast and reliable IT, and (b) new innovative IT. But, the findings further suggested that the contingency approach may be suboptimal because it can cause new ways of leveraging IT to be ignored. High levels of board-level ITG, regardless of existing IT needs, increased organizational performance. This phenomenon was illuminated with applicability checks. Moreover, content analysis and structured interviews with board members further enriched these insights.     

Board IT Governance in Context: Considering Governance Style and Environmental Dynamism Contingencies

ABSTRACT

We theorize that IT governance (ITG) by the board of directors is most effective when there is a fit between the dynamics of the business environment and the governance style through which board ITG is delivered. Survey findings from 110 board members largely supported these assertions. Findings show that authoritative governance style and environmental dynamism represent important boundary conditions for the efficacy of board ITG to achieve performance gains. Research and practical implications are discussed.     

Effective information technology (IT) governance mechanisms: An IT outsourcing perspective

Effective IT governance will ensure alignment between IT and business goals. Organizations with ineffective IT governance will suffer due to poor performance of IT resources such as inaccurate information quality, inefficient operating costs, runaway IT project and even the demise of its IT department. This study seeks to examine empirically the individual IT governance mechanisms that influence the overall effectiveness of IT governance. Furthermore, this study examines the relationship of effective IT governance, the extent of IT outsourcing decisions within the organizations, and the level of IT Intensity in the organizations. We used structural equation modeling analysis to examine 110 responses from members of ISACA (Information Systems and Audit Control Association) Australia in which their organizations have outsourced their IT functions. Results suggest significant positive relationships between the overall level of effective IT governance and the following mechanisms: the involvement of senior management in IT, the existence of ethic or culture of compliance in IT, and corporate communication systems.     

Effects of strategic alignment on IS success: the mediation role of IS investment in Korea

The purpose of this research is to develop a comprehensive information system (IS) evaluation model for IS success linked to organizational performance. The primary focus of this research is to investigate the role of IT investment in business values by means of a group survey of about 300 business executives in Korea. We used the contingency theory to discover the mediation effect of IS investment on strategic alignment and IS success. In contrast to previous research, this study expanded the test scope to IS architecture and organizational structure at the operational level. The results from 273 business executives in Korea indicated that strategy integration with IT is positively related to IT investment, and IT investment is a critical antecedent of IS success. Thus, the implications of the findings are that right-directional IT investment has played an important role in the success of IT companies in Korea.     

Creating value through governing IT deployment in a public/private-sector inter-organisational context: a human agency perspective

Harnessing value from Information Technology (IT) has long been a focus of research, but evidence is lacking about how effective practice of Information Technology Governance (ITG) contributes to creating value for stakeholders in inter-organisational contexts. This is especially so for public/private sector partnerships. In this study we used ISO/IEC 38500:2008, the corporate governance of IT standard, to direct analysis of how ITG was practised in deployment of a large IT project in an inter-organisational public/private sector context. The findings demonstrate that ITG strategies related to human agency contribute to the realisation of value for participating stakeholders, particularly through pre-emptive stakeholder participation in evaluating IT functionality of the old system and iteratively in deployment of the new system. Further, our investigation shows that ISO/IEC 38500:2008 has merit as an analytical framework to objectively evaluate corporate governance of IT, although there is need for some enhancement.     

An empirical examination of a process-oriented IT business success model

The value of information technology (IT) to modern organizations is almost undeniable. However, the determination of that value has been elusive in research and practice. We used a process-oriented research model developed using two streams of IT research to examine the value of IT in business organizations. One stream is characterized by examining how IT and non-IT variables affect other so-called IT success variables. The second stream is commonly referred to as IT business value, defined as the contribution of IT to firm performance. The resulting research model is referred to in our paper as the IT business success model. Data was collected from 225 top IS executives in fairly large organizations to empirically examine several hypotheses derived from theory concerning the causal nature of the IT business success model. A set of measures for the IT business success model was developed through an intense investigation of the IT literature. The measures were tested for validity and reliability using confirmatory factor analysis. The hypotheses that resulted from past research and conceptually illustrated in the research model were assessed using structural equation analysis. The implications of these findings and the limitations of the study are discussed in an effort to contribute to building a process-oriented theory base for IT business success at the organizational level of analysis.     

The influence of SOA governance mechanisms on IT flexibility and service reuse

While many firms have introduced SOA, only one in five have achieved anticipated benefits such as increased IT flexibility or reuse. Industry analysts assume that a lack of SOA governance is the main reason why SOA projects fail. Addressing the substantial research gap on SOA governance this paper theoretically and empirically investigates which SOA governance mechanisms are needed to achieve the benefits of SOA, such as increasing IT flexibility and reusing services. The proposed theoretical SOA governance model is evaluated using data from 81 SOA-using organizations.Overall, the results confirm the relevance of a variety of SOA governance mechanisms (structures, processes, and employees/relations), but at the same time, that IT infrastructure flexibility and service reuse are influenced by different mechanisms. Key governance mechanisms that show a strong effect on infrastructure flexibility are using standards, service management processes, educating employees, and IT/business communication while reuse can only be increased through service management, standards and qualification. Contrary to expectations, implementing new, dedicated decision-making bodies for SOA hampers organizations in achieving higher degrees of IT flexibility and reuse, and a firm is better off using existing IT decision-making bodies.     

Adoption of open source software in organizations: A socio-cognitive perspective

Open source software (OSS) is an important trend in the information technology adoption landscape. It has received considerable attention in the scientific literature, but mostly in the professional press. In fact, there is much debate over its actual commercial and organizational value. Since the public discourse accompanying an IT may influence adoption decisions, it is important to consider IT specialists’ perceptions of the discourse on OSS. In this study, we investigated the relationship between IT specialists’ profiles, IT specialists’ reception of the public discourse on OSS, and their organizations’ receptivity to OSS. Drawing on the socio-cognitive perspective of IT innovation adoption and the organizing vision theory, a survey of 271 IT specialists was conducted to examine these issues. Our results indicate that a majority of IT specialists in our sample are rather neutral about the OSS concept conveyed in the public discourse. However, our sample also comprises respondents with more extreme perceptions who can be classified as either supporters or detractors. Our results indicate that detractors have more years of experience but have been less exposed to OSS than supporters, and that IT specialists’ perceptions of the OSS concept are positively associated with their organizations’ openness to OSS adoption and, to a lesser extent, with the existence of an organizational policy that favors OSS adoption. Altogether, our findings provide strong support for the organizing vision theory and the idea that the popularity of an IT innovation concept favors the adoption of the material IT innovation in organizations. By providing a preliminary test of a nomological network of IT specialists’ perceptions of the OSS concept, our study offers insights as to why organizations may or may not take OSS into account in their software procurement decisions.     

E-government adoption in public administration organizations: integrating institutional theory perspective and resource-based view

We develop and test a theoretical model to investigate the adoption of government-to-government (G2G) information systems in public administration organizations. Specifically, this model explains how top management commitment (TMC) mediates the impact of external institutional pressures on internal organizational resource allocation, which finally leads to the adoption decision. The hypotheses were tested using survey data from public administration organizations in China. Results from partial least squares analyses suggest that coercive and normative pressures positively affect TMC, which then positively affects financial and information technology (IT) human resources in the G2G adoption process. In turn, financial and IT human resources are confirmed to positively affect the intention to adopt G2G. Surprisingly, we do not find support for our hypothesis that mimetic pressures directly influence TMC. Rather, a post hoc analysis implies that mimetic pressures indirectly influence TMC via the influence of coercive pressures. Our findings provide important managerial implications for public administration organizations.     

The Effect of IT Governance Maturity on IT Governance Performance

There are several best practice based frameworks that detail effective arrangements for the internal structure of an IT organization. Although it is reasonable that there is a correlation between the quality of the internal structure of an IT organization – labeled IT governance maturity, and the external impact of the same IT organization on the business – labeled IT governance performance, this has not been validated. The results, based on 35 case studies, confirm the hypotheses of a positive correlation between IT governance maturity and IT governance performance. Among IT processes described in 34 references, the internal structure of the IT organization, clearly defined organizational structures and relationships, mature quality management, and cost allocation show the strongest positive correlation to IT governance performance. The maturity of project management and service level management, as well as performance and capacity management, show almost no correlation to IT governance performance. The findings can be used to improve current frameworks for IT governance.     

Crafting Information Technology Governance

Information Technology (IT) governance has emerged as a fundamental business imperative, and rightfully so, because it is key to realizing IT business value. IT governance describes the distribution of IT decision-making rights and responsibilities among different stakeholders in the enterprise, and defines the procedures and mechanisms for making and monitoring strategic IT decisions. This article presents a holistic view of IT governance, in which structural, process, and relational capabilities are an integral part of an effective IT governance architecture. the article concludes with an IT Governance Assessment Process (ITGAP) model, with which business and IT executives can assess the effectiveness of their company's current IT governance architecture.     

Achieving IT‐based synergies through regulation‐oriented and consensus‐oriented IT governance capabilities

This study aims at exploring the IT governance capabilities that enable organizations to achieve IT‐based synergies. Following existing work on the contextualization of theories and drawing on the resource‐based view of the firm (RBV), we develop an RBV of IT‐based synergies in two steps. First, we adopt existing context‐specific constructs and relationships from prior work on IT governance capabilities, IT relatedness, and synergies to develop a preliminary contextualization of the RBV. Second, to further refine our theoretical framework, we conduct an exploratory field study that includes interviews with 26 CIOs and other IT executives from 21 multibusiness firms. Our findings suggest that IT governance capabilities lead to IT‐based synergies through IT relatedness and business process relatedness. We found regulation‐oriented IT governance capabilities (IT roles and IT processes) to increase IT relatedness, while consensus‐oriented IT governance capabilities (IT groups and relational capabilities) had a positive effect on business process relatedness. Our results suggest that, in isolation, IT and business process relatedness lead to IT cost synergies, while collectively enabling IT‐induced business synergies. Our study is among the first to treat IT relatedness as an endogenous construct and to explicitly integrate business process relatedness into the IT governance domain. Our context‐specific decomposition of IT governance capabilities helps to better explain their links to IT and business process relatedness. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the tension between IT‐based synergies and business‐IT alignment. Decision‐makers are guided in developing IT governance capabilities to achieve IT‐based synergies.     

IT centrality,IT management model,and contribution of the IT function to organizational performance: A study in Canadian hospitals

The characterization of the IT function in organizations represents a central topic of investigation in the information systems field. The main purpose of this study was to predict the contribution of the IT function to organizational performance by focusing on the centrality of IT and the IT management profile as primary determinants. A cross-sectional survey of CIOs working in Canadian hospitals reveals that IT centrality positively influences the strategic orientation of the IT management model. In turn, the stronger the strategic orientation of the IT management model in place, the greater is the IT function’s contribution to organizational performance.     

Information technology,the organizational capability of proactive corporate environmental strategy and firm performance: a resource-based analysis

The study of the relationships between information technology (IT), environmental organizational issues and firm performance is a cutting-edge research topic for the information systems (IS) community. However, at present we know very little about these relationships. Drawing on the perspective of IT-enabled organizational capabilities and the literature on organizations and the natural environment, our study introduces conceptually the construct organizational capability of proactive corporate environmental strategy to the IS field. We propose that IT capability may enable the implementation of a proactive environmental strategy and that this strategy could play a significant role in determining the business value of IT. Using structural equations modeling with data collected from 63 firms, we find that IT capability is an enabler of proactive environmental strategy and that this strategy plays a significant role in mediating the effects of IT on firm performance. Our study provides initial evidence on the role of IT in the implementation of proactive environmental practices. Our results suggest to IT executives that their decisions matter in shaping environmental sustainability, which in turn will generate business value from IT.     

Associating organizational strategic performance with information technology investment: an exploratory research

In the last twenty years, firms have witnessed an explosive growth in information technology (IT) investment. This is true both for manufacturing industries and service industries. The existing literature on IT investment and organizational strategic performance, however, provides very little evidence linking IT investment to organizational strategic and economic performance. The present research investigates whether certain IT investment measures are useful in differentiating organizational economic performance among the most effective information technology users. Eight measures were used to represent IT investment. Ten ratios were utilised to measure organizational strategic and economic performance. The sample organizations were analysed using multidimensional cluster analysis. The results of the analysis suggest that a clear distinction exists between organizations in terms of IT investment and organizational strategic and economic performance. This is true even among the most effective users of information technology. The results also suggest that the majority of the organizations that are investing more in IT seem to be achieving superior strategic and economic performance.     

Firm-level benefits of IT-enabled resources: A conceptual extension and an empirical assessment

While the business value of IT (BVIT) is central to the IS discipline, only recently a possible chain of causation from IT assets (i.e., fungible, widely available, commodity-like, technology-based products) to firm performance has been conceptually specified. Furthermore, little empirical evidence exists regarding IT assets’ business value. In light of this paucity, this paper makes several contributions to IS research and practice. First, it advances the BVIT literature by empirically testing a model that traces a path from IT assets through IT-enabled resources to firm performance. Second, it extends the BVIT and resource-based view (RBV) literatures by explicating and testing the impact of a firm’s external environment on its IT-enabled resources. Third, it builds on recent literature to argue for, and test, two distinct forms of firm-level outcome: operational and strategic benefits. Finally, the paper contributes to managers’ and IS practitioners’ knowledge by demonstrating the transformative capacity of IT assets on the strategic potential of organizational resources. Empirically, the paper develops and employs valid and reliable scales to test the research model using survey data on IT-enabled customer service departments. The findings demonstrate that when an IT asset is combined with an organizational resource, the extent of synergy borne out of the resulting relationship can positively impact the strategic potential of the ensuing IT-enabled resource. This IT-enabled resource, in turn, is positively associated with firm-level benefits. Further, the external environment is shown to exert a positive effect on the strategic potential of outside-in IT-enabled resources. In sum, this paper offers several important conceptual and empirical contributions to a stream of research that is at the core of the IS discipline.     

Toward a theory of managing creativity-intensive processes: a creative industries study

This paper reports the results of an exploratory, theory-building study on the impact of creativity on business processes, their management, and the use of information technology (IT) in particular. The empirical evidence was derived from organizations within the creative industries, specifically film and visual effects (VFX) production. An adapted grounded theory approach was employed in order to analyze the data. The study identifies the dynamics of business processes that can be described as highly dependent on creativity, intensively involving the client, complex, and interdependent. It explains the processes’ organizational context as well as strategies and IT systems that organizations use in order to manage these processes. The study suggests that creativity-intensive processes are characterized by high levels of uncertainty with regard to outcome, process structure, and required resources. Creative organizations pursue both creative and operational process performance while simultaneously mitigating creative and operational risk.     

Evaluating organizational efficiency resulting from information technology investment: an application of data envelopment analysis

Abstract. Even during this recessionary era, information technology (IT) expenditure in most organizations continues to grow at a high rate. Because of this increased IT expenditure, more and more senior managers are demanding that IT play a greater role in determining their firm's success by helping them increase organizational efficiencies and perhaps even achieve competitive advantage. The existing information systems literature on IT investment and organizational strategic performance, however, provides very little help to senior managers in making before-the-fact IT investment decisions. The present research study puts forth some 'hard' evidence relating IT investment to organizational strategic and economic performance by using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Eight IT investment measures were used as inputs and 10 organizational strategic and economic performance ratios were used as outputs for the DEA model. The results indicate that two-thirds of the organizations in this research study are deemed efficient by DEA. A clear distinction exists between the efficient group and the inefficient group in terms of IT investment and organizational strategic and economic performance. The firms in the efficient group had a much higher return on their information technology investment than the inefficient group. In addition, the DEA results pinpoint the inefficient inputs and deficient outputs for an inefficient firm allowing a senior manager to take corrective actions to compensate for the situation.     

Organizational impact of system quality,information quality,and service quality

Increased organizational dependence on information systems drives management attention towards improving information systems’ quality. A recent survey shows that “Improve IT quality” is one of the top concerns facing IT executives. As IT quality is a multidimensional measure, it is important to determine what aspects of IT quality are critical to organizations to help Chief Information Officers (CIOs) to devise effective IT quality improvement strategies. In this research, we model the relationship between information systems’ (IS) quality and organizational impact. We hypothesize greater organizational impact in situations in which system quality, information quality and service quality are high. We also hypothesize a positive relationship between system quality and information quality. We test our hypotheses using survey data. Our structural equation model exhibits a good fit with the observed data. Our results show that IS service quality is the most influential variable in this model (followed by information quality and system quality), thus highlighting the importance of IS service quality for organizational performance. This paper contributes theoretically to IS success models through the system quality-to-information quality and IS quality-to-organizational impact links. Implications of our results for practice and research are discussed.