Benchmarking strategic alignment of business and IT strategies: opportunities, risks, challenges and solutions

Abstract

Business and IT strategy alignment is a complex dynamic process in which organizations are in a position to enable extensive IT capabilities to achieve their business objectives. This interdependence is amplified by the COVID-19 crisis, which makes the integration of IT and business strategies more important than ever. This paper mainly aims to contribute to the understanding of strategic alignment from a practical perspective, as well as to demonstrate the applicability and robustness of the Strategic Alignment Model (SAM). Moreover, potential opportunities and risks associated with the strategic alignment of business and IT strategies are analysed. Findings are discussed after a qualitative analysis of 31 participants (semi-structured survey and interviews). Results indicated several difficulties affecting the strategic alignment implementation transcend the business and IT strategies like communication, corporate culture, governance, resource prioritization, and effective leadership. The study contends that there is a need to align and harmonize different agendas and interests within an organization and improve the understanding of the value of Strategic Alignment.

Strategic alignment dimensions and structured practices of learning organizations: A case study of Wasit university

“…1. The efficient alignment of strategies is critical to organizational success and prosperity [28][29][30]. Linking the vision to the organization ensures compatibility by associating the organization's strategy with the guidelines and policies of information technology.…”

How do information strategy and information technology governance influence firm performance?

“… Mikalef and Pateli (2017) also suggested that IT-enabled dynamic capabilities facilitate two types of agility, market capitalizing and operational adjustment agility, which in sequence enhance firm performance. Dairo et al (2021) indicate the strategic alignment of IT and business brings many advantages, including enhanced operational efficiencies, business innovativeness, and additional competitive advantage, which together lead to improved performance. In addition, some scholars believe the complementary system of IT resources has significant effects on corporate performance ( Cohen and Olsen, 2013 ).…”

“…Furthermore, the literature on ITG generally shows that ITG plays a positive role in improving firm performance ( Wu et al, 2015 ; Aubert and Rivard, 2020 ). Only a few studies discuss business and IT strategy alignment ( Dairo et al, 2021 ), the relationship between IT investment and strategic alignment ( Sabherwal et al, 2019 ), and the mediation of strategic alignment in mechanisms that ITG affects organizational performance ( Wu et al, 2015 ). However, the related literature lacks the macro-level thinking of strategy’s impact on corporate governance.…”

“…First, this study extends prior research on firm strategy and firm performance. Existing research mainly focuses on business and IT strategy alignment ( Dairo et al, 2021 ), the relationship between IT investment and strategic alignment ( Sabherwal et al, 2019 ), discusses the mediation of strategic alignment in mechanisms that ITG affects organizational performance ( Wu et al, 2015 ), and lacks research that explores the impact of IS on firm performance from an independent perspective. This study constructs the measure of IS and tests the impact of IS on firm performance.…”

Preliminary Results on the Online Lessons of IDPE Department of University of West Attica 2019-2020

“…The fruits of their labor were consumed by their students without a choice being involved due to pandemic conditions. Business and IT strategies have been aligned to some extend but their relative independence was magnified by the COVID-19 crisis (Dairo et al, 2021). What is more, for most universities' evaluation schemes (Hussein et al, 2017), online delivery was not directly addressed and thus data were not as thoroughly collected within the frame of self-evaluation as to be useful.…”