CEO/CIO mutual understanding,strategic alignment,and the contribution of IS to the organization

Mutual understanding between the CEO and CIO is thought to facilitate the alignment of an organization's IS with its business strategy, and thereby enhance the contribution of the IS to business performance. A survey of 202 pairs of CEOs and CIOs was taken to investigate the relationships between them. Mutual understanding was measured as the role of IS in the organization, using the perspectives of both executives. Strategic alignment was measured as the fit between the CEO's assessment of eight STROBE dimensions and the CIO's assessment of the analogous STROEPIS dimensions; both the CEO and CIO evaluated IS contribution. Mutual understanding of the role of IT led to seven alignment dimensions whereas six alignment dimensions led to IS contributions. Our study extended the theory of IT strategic alignment and provided direction for CEOs and CIOs interested in improving the IS contribution of their organization.     

Alignments between the depth and breadth of inter-organizational systems deployment and their impact on firm performance

This paper explores the performance impact of alternative deployment alignment strategies for inter-organizational systems (IOS) in supply chains. Based on the asset orchestration perspective, we consider two deployment alignment strategies, namely, balanced alignment and reinforcing alignment, which represent strategic choices made by firms in relation to the emphases placed on depth and breadth of IT deployment in supply chain operations. The results of our empirical study show that the depth and breadth of IOS deployment enhance a firm's competitive performance through operational improvement, and the balanced alignment between IOS depth and breadth enhances the firm's competitive performance.     

The synergistic effects of IT-enabled resources on organizational capabilities and firm performance

Computing the value of IT investments and clarifying how the portfolio of IT/IS resources affect a firm's performance and sustainable competitive advantage are critical issues today. We attempted to develop an effective measurement technique and use organizational theory to discover the strategic role of IT-enabled resources in the firm's competitive agenda. Based on a resource-based view of the firm, we proposed a way to evaluate the synergistic effect of such resources on the firm's capabilities, as they, influence the firms’ strategic objectives and improve its financial performance. The technological, human, and organizational resources work together to generate sub-additive cost and super-additive value synergies. Operations, R&D, and marketing capabilities allow firms to implement a business strategy that reflects its customer needs. A survey was conducted to check our framework. Our findings should provide valuable decision guides for practitioners when choosing a portfolio of IT/IS resources for implementing business strategies.     

Strategic context and patterns of IT infrastructure capability

The importance of a firm's information technology (IT) infrastructure capability is increasingly recognised as critical to firm competitiveness. Infrastructure is particularly important for firms in industries going through dynamic change, for firms reengineering their business processes and for those with multiple business units or extensive international or geographically dispersed operations. However, the notion of IT infrastructure is still evolving and there has been little empirically based research on the patterns of IT infrastructure capability across firms.We develop the concept of IT infrastructure capability through identification of IT infrastructure services and measurement of reach and range in large, multi-business unit firms. Using empirical case research, we examine the patterns of IT infrastructure capability in 26 firms with diverse strategic contexts, including different industry bases, level of marketplace volatility, extent of business unit synergies and the nature of firm strategy formation processes. Data collection was based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods with multiple participants.More extensive IT infrastructure capability is defined as a combination of more IT infrastructure services and more reach and range. More extensive IT infrastructure capability was found in firms where: (i) products changed quickly; (ii) attempts were made to identify and capture synergies across business units; (iii) there was greater integration of information and IT needs as part of planning processes; and (iv) there was greater emphasis on tracking the implementation of long term strategy. These findings have implications for both business and technology managers particularly in regard to how firms link strategy and IT infrastructure formation processes.     

Examining the role of information technology in cultivating firms’ dynamic marketing capabilities

Most prior research has investigated an organization's dynamic capabilities in general and overlooked their effect on critical business functions. Our study considered the role of IT in improving firm's dynamic marketing capabilities. We developed a model consisting of market orientation, IT infrastructure capabilities, and the use of IT in customer relationship management (CRM). With data collected from 135 manufacturing and service firms in Taiwan, our results supported most of our hypotheses. Our results showed important direct effects of a firm's market orientation, use of IT to support CRM, and the functionality of IT infrastructure capabilities on its dynamic marketing capabilities.     

Impact of digital leadership capability on innovation performance: The role of platform digitization capability

Following a mixed-methods approach, we theorized that digital leadership influences innovation performance by digitalizing the firm's platform. A multiple case study of ten companies was deployed to derive a theoretical model relating digital leadership and innovation performance. The resulting model was empirically tested on a sample of 117 European firms. We find that digital leadership improves a firm's innovation performance by digitalizing the firm's platform. We contribute to IS research by theoretically developing the concepts of digital leadership capability and platform digitization capability and empirically analyzing the relationship of these two critical IT capabilities and their impact on innovation performance.     

The effects of information systems integration and organizational culture on a firm's effectiveness

Though the relationship between the investment in information systems (IS) and a firm's performance continues to be important; conclusive evidence that information technology (IT) contributes to a firm's effectiveness is rare. This study tests the relationship between the integration of IS during mergers and acquisitions and their effectiveness. The findings point to a positive relationship between IS integration and effectiveness only when controlling for (a) IT intensity, and (b) organizational culture differences between the joining firms. Thus, managers are advised to take into account IT intensity and cultural differences during the pre-merger negotiations and during the post-merger integration process.     

Ideal patterns of strategic alignment and business performance

Strategic alignment or “fit” is a notion that is deemed crucial in understanding how organizations can translate their deployment of information technology (IT) into actual increases in performance. While previous theoretical and methodological works have provided foundations for identifying the dimensions and performance impacts of the strategic alignment between IT, strategy, and structure, few attempts have been made to test the proposed theory empirically and operationalize fit systemically. Based on a gestalt perspective of fit and theory-based ideal coalignment patterns, an operational model of strategic alignment is proposed and empirically validated through a mail survey of 110 small firms. Using cluster analysis, it was found that low-performance firms exhibited a conflictual coalignment pattern of business strategy, business structure, IT strategy, and IT structure that distinguished them from other firms.     

Complementary IT resources for enabling technological opportunism

This study examines the use of information technologies (ITs), IT human capital, the level of IT vendor support, and their joint effects on firm's sensing and responding to IT changes (technological opportunism). Using data from the U.S. and Spain, the results suggest that IT use and the firm's IT human capital are the main drivers of technological opportunism (TO). The effect of IT vendor support on TO is country dependent, with a U-shaped effect in the U.S. and no effect in Spain. IT vendor support can have positive effects on TO if the firm invests in IT human capital.     

Does it pay to align a firm’s competitive strategy with its industry IT strategic role?

While researchers have increasingly recognized the importance of information technology (IT) in leveraging a firm’s competitive strategy for achieving superior firm performance, our understanding of the nature of how a firm’s competitive strategy aligns with its industry IT strategic role and how such alignment influences firm performance remains limited. Drawing upon strategic alignment perspective, this study aims to theorize and empirically test how the firm’s competitive strategy (i.e., cost leadership, differentiation, and dual strategy) aligns with its industry IT strategic role to improve firm performance. Based on the data of Chinese publicly listed firms during 2009–2015, our results indicate that different competitive strategy aligns with different industry IT strategic roles for achieving superior performance. Specifically, cost leadership strategy aligns with automate IT strategic role, dual strategy aligns with informate IT strategic role, and differentiation strategy aligns with transform IT strategic role in generating superior firm performance. We also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the current study.     

Assessing the importance of industry in the adoption and assimilation of IT: Evidence from Italian enterprises

We analysed the role of industry in determining the diffusion and business value created by IT. Data was collected for this purpose by surveying 192 large enterprises in Italy. Our research revealed three findings. First, in the material services and non-hi-tech manufacturing industries, firms had a relatively limited adoption of IT, resulting in little business impact. Second, firms’ IT spending behaviour depended on their industry type and not on their IT capabilities. However their capabilities were more important than industry in explaining why firms achieved benefits from IT adoption that depended on the previous accumulation of IT resources and other capabilities. Third, industry type determined the degree to which IT affected profitability and its effectiveness in helping firms to defend their competitive advantage. Specifically, the slower the adoption of IT in an industry, the greater its impact on the firm's profitability.The implications of these findings for managers and policy-makers are discussed.     

Matching information technology and organizational structure: an empirical study with implications for performance

In information systems and organization theory research, the alignment or fit between information technology (IT) and organizational structure has long been hypothesised to be a sine qua non for success. However, few solid results have been found linking this relationship to enterprise level performance, as problems abound in defining and measuring IT, performance and the fit between technology and structure. In view of this, an empirical study was conducted among 108 small and medium-sized manufacturing firms, using a comprehensive instrument to measure overall IT sophistication along two dimensions, namely IT usage and IT management. Taking organizational size and environmental uncertainty into account, it was found that IT sophistication is positively related to structural sophistication, IT usage is positively related to organizational performance, and the relationship between IT management and structural sophistication is stronger among the better-performing firms than among the worst-performing firms.     

How interfirm collaboration benefits IT innovation

Many studies have observed that close interfirm collaborations have positive effects on a firm's innovation. Yet, they have not shown how the collaboration contributes to this process. Higher innovation rates could be a result of revolutionary improvements, evolutionary improvements, or both. We investigated changes in the innovation process. Longitudinal data from 23 top IT firms across 9 years were collected and analyzed. Results suggested that close interfirm collaborations were associated with evolutionary but not revolutionary improvement. Results also suggested that the longer the IT firms had engaged in close interfirm collaboration, the larger the effect on IT innovations.     

Exploring value networks: theorising the creation and capture of value with open source software

The emergence of open source software (OSS) as a form of peer production and innovation challenges theories of organisation and strategy due to its non-reliance on traditional governance mechanisms to organise production. OSS requires firms to rethink the processes that facilitate value creation and capture. The objective of this paper is to theorise how firms create and capture value from OSS. We derive a model from extant research and refine it through the study of three inter-organisational networks. The findings reveal how a firm's ability to access a value network of complementors is crucial for effective value creation and capture. Two types of networks are evident: a high-density network of familiar partners and a low-density network of multiple, often unfamiliar, partners. Leveraging these networks depends on the level of commitment, volume of knowledge exchange and the alignment of objectives among participant firms. Effective governance is revealed as critical for creating and capturing value within both types of network; and depends on both formal and informal mechanisms.     

Mixed results in strategic IT alignment research: a synthesis and empirical study

The alignment of business strategy and IT has been a top managerial concern for decades. Yet despite much investigation, the effect of strategic IT alignment on organizational performance remains unclear, with mixed results reported in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of mixed findings in IT alignment research. We first examine inconsistent findings reported in two streams of alignment research: the traditional firm-level IT alignment literature and the emerging literature into process-level IT alignment. We then empirically investigate whether firm- and process-level conceptualizations of IT alignment lead to different conclusions about the effect of alignment on performance. Using data from a survey of 120 firms, we show that firm-level IT alignment and process-level IT alignment yield different conclusions when testing the same theory under the same conditions. We also show that differences in firms’ strategic orientations can help explain these results. This research provides evidence that firm- and process-level conceptualizations of IT alignment are not interchangeable and that the choice of conceptualization can mean the difference between accepting and rejecting a theory.     

The relationship between information technology acceptance and organizational agility in Malaysia

We examined the influence of information technology (IT) acceptance on organizational agility. The study was based on a well-established theoretical model, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). We attempted to identify the relationships between IT acceptance and organizational agility in order to see how the acceptance of technology contributes to a firm's ability to be an agile competitor. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to analyze the data. Results from a survey involving 329 managers and executives in manufacturing firms in Malaysia showed that actual system or technology usage had the strongest direct effect on organizational agility. Meanwhile, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of IT influenced organizational agility indirectly through actual systems or technology use and attitudes towards using the technology. The results have several implications for IS management.     

The leveraging influence of strategic alignment on IT investment: An empirical examination

Businesses have invested enormous sums in information technology (IT). The challenge now is to optimize these investments. We empirically examined the influence of the alignment between IS strategy and business strategy (strategic alignment) on the payoff of IT investment. Many studies have been performed on the value of IT investment and strategic alignment separately, in the past, but here we combined them by investigating the moderating affect of strategic alignment on the relationship between IT investment and firm performance for a group of manufacturing firms. The results indicated that there is a synergistic coupling between strategic alignment and IT investment with firm performance. Firms that have aligned IT and business strategies can invest in additional IT resources with some assurance that they will be leveraged substantially. One of our main contributions was in the examination of four differing perspectives of strategic alignment and their relationship with the payoff of IT investment.     

Assessing the impact of knowledge management strategies announcements on the market value of firms

Although there is much literature on the relationship between KM strategies and organizational performance, the benefit of KM strategies is not well understood. We addressed this issue by exploring how KM strategies influence a firm's market value using event study methodology. We evaluated the cumulative abnormal returns for KM strategies announced by U. S. firms from 1998 to 2003. Our findings supported the hypothesis that firms’ announcements about their KM strategies provoked positive reactions in the market. More specifically, strategies that focus on either (i) knowledge reusability through IT or (ii) knowledge sharing through informal discussions among employees contributed to higher performance than strategies that emphasized both. This outcome empirically supported our argument that the emphasis on either tacit or explicit knowledge results in a better market value of the firm. Furthermore, the market's reaction to the announcement is dependent on the firm's industry classification. The findings of this study offer insights that may help managers maximize the market impact of their KM strategies.     

Evaluating cross-organizational impacts of information technology – an empirical analysis

This paper documents information technology (IT) impacts that extend across organizational boundaries based on the economic theory. It evaluates how a firm's production cost is affected by the IT decisions of its business partners, over which it has no direct control. Using cross-sectional data on 100 audit engagements for the 100 largest continuing clients of a leading international public accounting firm's main office, it empirically evaluates the impact of the clients’ IT choices on their supplier's (the public accounting firm's) production costs, professional allocations and product prices. The results indicate, other things being equal, that the higher intensity or complexity a client's IT exhibits, the more effort public accounting professionals need to exert, thus, the higher the production cost incurred by the public accounting firm. In contrast, the better documentation or security a client's IT furnishes, the lower the cost the public accounting firm sustains. Furthermore, such differences in production cost are eventually passed on to the client via differences in product price.     

Friends or foes? Strategic technology opening and adopting under competition between technological firms

This study investigates the motivation behind an incumbent firm's strategy to open up its technology and an entrant's decision on whether to adopt this technology. We model the interactions between firms’ strategies toward coopetition and the entrant's technology development capacity, as well as the technology transformation rate, which occurs in the technology adopting process. We find that the two technological parameters exert significant influence on the coopetition decisions of firms. Moreover, consumer surplus and social welfare are compared under different configurations. We further verify the robustness of our main results in two extension cases.