An empirical investigation of information technology structure, control and corporate governance

In a study involving 72 large publicly-held organizations, the relationships between information technology (IT) structure, control, and corporate governance were examined. Despite the fact that some have called centralized systems electronic dinosaurs, many companies are turning to this traditional approach because it does offer one thing that decentralized systems generally lack, namely, control. The results indicate that information technology structure (centralized vs. decentralized) is strongly related to management equity ownership and to concentration of stock holding. For example, an organization where top executives and managers own a relatively high percentage of the company's stock possesses a more centralized information technology structure than an organization with a relatively lower percentage of management ownership. This means that user departments in the latter have more control over their IT functions than users in the former. Conversely, companies with a high level of stock concentration have a more decentralized IT structure. In addition, the research revealed a statistically significant relationship between a company's equity to debt ratio and the level of IT centralization.     

Towards a flexible information architecture: integrating business strategies,information systems strategies and business process redesign*

Abstract. . Factors which help to integrate business and information systems strategy are identified, a linchpin being the identification of what might be termed an information strategy. Information is defined and the implications of this definition for Vie provision of a flexible information environment are identified. The use of soft systems methodology in identifying key information needs and flows is summarized and an extension of this approach, which utilizes the concept of developing alternative future scenarios and associated business strategies, is introduced.     

An information technology trilogy: business strategy,technological deployment and organizational performance

The objective of this empirical study is to identify various profiles of technological deployment specific to various types of business strategy that best support organizational performance. Top managers from 223 organizations completed two questionnaizres analyzed using a Partial Least Squares tool (PLS graph). Profiles of technological deployment based on the strategic impact of the information system department, the technological architecture, the information system performance evaluation and technological scanning were identified. Using Miles and Snow's typology to characterize business strategy, an outward technological profile contributes directly to organizational performance for the analyzer strategic activities, while an inward profile of technological deployment contributes indirectly to organizational performance for the prospector strategic activities.     

Exploring the perceived business value of the flexibility enabled by information technology infrastructure

We developed a multidimensional definition of IT infrastructure (ITI) and applied it in exploring the perceived strategic payoffs of ITI-enabled flexibility. We began by developing a typology of theoretical approaches that can be used to organize the literature and then developed a multidimensional model by conceptualizing how flexibility can be enabled through technical, human, and process elements of ITI and how these are interrelated. We used a resource-based view of the firm and a dynamic capabilities perspective to account for competitive impacts of the flexibility. Finally, we hypothesized on the moderating effects of organizational size and reporting level of the top IT executive. Data collected from 293 IT managers showed that the range of managerial ITI capabilities, which were positively affected by all areas of IT personnel knowledge and skills, was responsible for the competitive impacts of the ITI-enabled flexibility. Multigroup analyses showed that large organizational size or reporting to the CEO reduced the positive effects of the range of managerial ITI capabilities on competitive impacts.     

An empirical study of the impacts of integrating business planning and information systems planning

This study reports on a follow-up analysis of a prior study (Teo & King, 1996, Information and Management) of the impact of the integration of information systems planning (ISP) with business planning (BP) on organizational performance. The empirical data are re-analysed using path analysis in order to determine the direct and indirect impacts of BP-ISP integration on intermediate performance measures related to ISP process and output problems, as well as on five perceptual measures of organizational performance. The results empirically substantiate the importance of BP-ISP integration, since higher levels of integration were found to have a significant inverse relationship with the extent of both process and output varieties of ISP problems and a significant positive relationship with each of the five perceptual measures of the extent of IS contributions to overall organization performance.     

Causality in the alignment of information technology and business strategy

The need for a link between information technology (IT) use and organizational strategy has been identified and discussed for a number of years. The thrust of this work argues that the motives for investment in IT should derive from firm objectives and, more particularly, from the strategic plan which the organization wishes to pursue. This paper argues that, often, mere lip service is paid to the strategic nature of IT. Further, strategy justification has become a tool for securing investment in IT by circumventing established organizational policy on investments. Many IT investments labelled ‘strategic’ appear to be operational in nature. This paper discusses the nature and evaluation of strategy and relates it to the literature on IT as a strategic tool. The extent to which the relationship between IT and strategy has altered over recent years is subsequently investigated. The implementation process is investigated and evidence of IT investment activities and the returns available to investing organizations are reviewed. The paper argues that there are a number of alternative views on the IT-strategy relationship, some of which are organizationally detrimental.     

独立董事特征与公司绩效关系的实证研究

在梳理国内外大量文献的基础上,对独立董事特征与公司绩效的关系进行分析并提出了研究假设。以深圳证券市场中小板上市公司为研究样本,用SPSS13.0软件对我国中小型上市公司独立董事特征与公司绩效进行了典型相关分析,结果显示,独立董事与公司绩效之间存在不显著的相关关系。     

Configuration vs. adaptation for business process variant maintenance: An empirical study

Many approaches for process variant management employ a reference model for deriving a target variant either using configuration or adaptation mechanisms. What is missing at this stage is empirical insight into their relative strengths and weaknesses. Our paper addresses this gap. We selected C-YAWL and vBPMN for a comparative, empirical user study. Both approaches center on a reference process, but provide different types of configuration and adaptation mechanisms as well as modularization support. Along with this aspect, we investigate the effect of model complexity and professional level on human process variant modeling performance. Given unlimited processing time, we could not show that complexity or the participant's professional level significantly impacts the task success rate or user contentment. Yet, an effect of model complexity can be noted on the execution speed for typical variant maintenance tasks like the insertion and deletion of process steps. For each of the performance measures of success rate, user contentment and execution speed, vBPMN performs significantly better than C-YAWL. We argue that this is due to vBPMN's advanced modularization support in terms of pattern-based process adaptations to construct process variants. These insights are valuable for advancing existing modeling approaches and selecting between them.     

An empirical investigation of electronic word-of-mouth: Informational motive and corporate response strategy

The proliferation of the Internet has given birth to a number of complaint web sites where dissatisfied and frustrated consumers can easily articulate their opinions and comments on products, services, or companies. Little attention, however, has been paid to the influence of online complaints on potential consumers’ behaviors. This study attempts to provide the understanding of causal attribution process in the online complaining behaviors. The results showed that informational factors, such as vividness and consensus, facilitated consumers’ attribution to companies’ responsibility for the negative events, and subsequently led to changing their evaluation of the companies. In addition, we found that corporate response strategies to online complaints should be different from the conventional response strategies.     

An evaluation of the impact of corporate strategy and the role of information technology on IS functional outsourcing

Information systems (IS) outsourcing, or the turning over of IS functions to an external vendor, is proliferating among business firms. This study represents an early attempt at understanding motivations of IS outsourcing. Outsourcing is discussed as an administrative process innovation, and initiation (or the need to innovate) was examined. Resource based perspectives are discussed in order to motivate the propositions which relate resource gaps to the extent of IS outsourcing. It is suggested that organizational strategy and the role of information technology (IT) would moderate this relationship. Data were gathered through a survey of 188 IS executives to test the propositions with carefully validated measures for the outsourcing of five IS functions. The results indicate that outsourcing is indeed strategic. Organizational strategy and role of IT both had a profound impact on the base relationship between gaps and outsourcing. The discussion then attempts to explain the changes in the base relationship consistent with the exploratory nature of the study.     

Evaluating business information systems: reflections on an empirical study

Abstract. A leading vendor of information technology (IT) systems commissioned the authors to investigate how its clients made their decision to acquire new systems, what benefits they expected to gain, and the kind of evaluation procedures used both before taking the decision to go ahead and subsequently when the systems were in operation. The 16 organizations participating in the study had all purchased major systems and were willing to talk frankly about their experiences. The results of the research have been extensively reported elsewhere. The purpose of this paper is to draw out the implications for IT management. The paper opens with a summary of the findings of the original research. The main part of the paper consists of six case studies from which the management issues are drawn out.     

Resource-based view and competitive strategy: An integrated model of the contribution of information technology to firm performance

The contribution of IT to business performance has been studied from two main perspectives: a ‘strategy as positioning perspective,’ which underlines a market power imperative, and a resource-based view perspective, which conceptualizes the enterprise as a ‘bundle of unique resources.’ The objective of the present study is to improve our understanding of the contribution of IT to firm performance in building upon the complementarity between the two perspectives. To do so, a model proposed by [Spanos, Y.E., Lioukas, S. 2001. An examination into the causal logic of rent generation: contrasting Porter's competitive strategy framework and the resource-based perspective. Strategic Management Journal 22(10), 907–934], which comprises both a competitive strategy framework and the resource-based perspective was adapted to reflect the role played by IT. More precisely, the model encapsulates the effects of both IT support for business strategy and IT support for firm assets on firm performance. To test the model, a survey of 96 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) was conducted.     

Impact of information technology investment: An empirical assessment

Assessing the impact of information technology (IT) investment on organizational performance has been found to be problematic. Past studies of relationships between information technology investment and organizational performance has generally produced mixed, inconclusive, and even confusing results. The research described here attempts to demonstrate the impact of IT investment by investigating relationships between sets of IT investment measures and organizational performance measures. The results reveal positive and significant relationships between certain of the IT investment measures and organizational performance measures used in the study, indicating that organizations with greater levels of IT investment also had higher performance, as measured by return on investment, return on sales, sales per employee, sales by total assets, and market value to book value.     

An empirical study of the use of business expert systems

The evolution of computers from computational tools to “thinking machines” is causing businesses to evaluate their views of the computer's role. The inevitable availability of smart computers leads to questions of how and when fifth generation hardware and software will be integrated into corporate culture. Here, we present the results of a survey given to information systems managers to determine the extent of expert systems development by data processing departments and expert systems usage in organizations. The attitudes of management toward the future of expert systems are also discussed using the survey data. It was discovered that, while computer managers are receptive toward this new tool, most have no definite plans to develop expert systems in the near future. These results seem to be in conflict with other evidence about the growing numbers of expert systems in business applications. One explanation is that this new technology is part of the continuing “grass roots” movement of end-user computing.     

An empirical evaluation of process alternatives for developing strategic information

Strategic data bases (SDB) were prescribed by King and Cleland as the most practically useful way in which salient information could be incorporated into strategic planning processes. Critical success factors are one of several kinds of such strategic data bases, as are carefully-developed concise strength and weakness assessments. While the notion has great face validity, it has not been subjected to stringent empirical assessment. One such assessment is reported on here with the result that the SDB approach gives evidence of being useful and effective.     

Aligning the IT portfolio with business strategy: Evidence for complementarity of corporate and business unit alignment

Research on alignment between business strategy and information technology (IT) strategy has generated extensive insights over the last three decades. That research has focused primarily on the fit between business and IT strategies, while cross-domain alignment, i.e., alignment between business strategy and IT infrastructure components, has received far less attention. Further, previous studies have focused on the implications of alignment for firm performance while the effects of cross-domain alignment on business unit performance in multi-business organizations (MBOs) are yet to be examined. This issue is important as IT infrastructures are evolving rapidly. Specifically, MBOs are increasingly turning to corporate IT platforms to support a common set of shared IT needs, while still allowing individual business units to manage unique aspects of their own IT needs through local IT applications. Extending prior research, this study proposes that performance of business units in MBOs is influenced by two complementary forms of cross-domain alignment, viz., alignment between the corporate IT platform and the corporate business strategy, and alignment between the business unit’s portfolio of IT applications and its business strategy. Using data from a global survey of 120 organizations, we find evidence that complementarity between these two forms of cross-domain alignment creates a joint positive effect on business unit performance. We also find that this effect varies with the extent of process digitization within business units. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Modeling the business value of information technology

Modeling and measurement issues have been considered the heart of information technology (IT) productivity paradox problem. By collecting data from seven mortgage firms, this research attempts to shed light on the causal relationships and complementarity properties among IT and performance variables. The result is a multi-level business value model that connects the use of IT to a firm’s profit. It is concluded that although there exists a causal relationship between IT and profit, this relationship is indirect and complex. Due to the complementary nature of the relationships, such a complexity is not reducible. All complementary factors must be in favorable conditions for a positive return of IT investments.     

Self-organization process in open-source software: An empirical study

Software systems must continually evolve to adapt to new functional requirements or quality requirements to remain competitive in the marketplace. However, different software systems follow different strategies to evolve, affecting both the release plan and the quality of these systems. In this paper, software evolution is considered as a self-organization process and the difference between closed-source software and open-source software is discussed in terms of self-organization. In particular, an empirical study of the evolution of Linux from version 2.4.0 to version 2.6.13 is reported. The study shows how open-source software systems self-organize to adapt to functional requirements and quality requirements.     

Inside the adaptive enterprise: an information technology capabilities perspective on business process agility

Recent innovations in utility computing, web services, and service-oriented architectures, combined with a growing array of IT skills, have improved firms’ ability to be more agile in responding to change. Using the resource-based view of the firm, prior research suggests that IT resources, in isolation, are unlikely to yield superior performance and so as firms try to boost their agility, the question becomes how to configure IT resources to prepare for, or react to, change. In this paper, we posit that managerial IT capabilities based on IT-business partnerships, strategic planning, and ex-post IT project analysis lead to the development of technical IT capabilities associated with a flexible IT infrastructure which in turn drives agility or a firm’s ability to react to change in its products and markets. Using data from matched surveys of IT and business executives in 241 firms, we find that managerial and technical capabilities affect agility. In further testing, we reveal that in a stable setting, technical IT capabilities are more important to agility than managerial IT capabilities, while in a dynamic setting, the opposite is true. Thus, for firms operating in volatile markets, effective models of managerial IT governance are essential for delivering superior agility or adaptiveness.