Business Strategic Orientation, Information Systems Strategic Orientation, and Strategic Alignment

Abstract

Information systems strategic alignment—the fit between business strategic orientation and information systems (IS) strategic orientation—is an important concept. This study measured business strategic orientation, IS strategic orientation, and IS strategic alignment, and investigated their implications for perceived IS effectiveness and business performance. Analyses of data gathered in a mail survey of North American financial services and manufacturing firms indicated that 1) business strategic orientation, IS strategic orientation, and IS strategic alignment are modeled best by utilizing holistic, ‘systems’ approaches instead of dimension-specific, ‘bivariate’ approaches, 2) three generic IS strategic orientations can be detected, 3) user information satisfaction does not capture important strategic aspects of IS effectiveness, 4) IS strategic alignment is a better predictor of IS effectiveness than is strategic orientation, and 5) business strategic orientation, IS strategic alignment, and IS effectiveness have positive impacts on business performance.

The IS–business relationship and its implications for performance: An empirical study of South African and Australian organisations

“…The findings have important practical implications. (Reich and Benbasat, 1996) Business executives go out of their way to maintain a strong working relationship with IS managers (Morgan and Hunt, 1994) Business executives frequently demonstrate enthusiasm for the IS function's efforts (Enns et al, 2001) IS Understands the Business a IS executives have a good level of understanding of strategic business plans (Reich and Benbasat, 1996;Segars and Grover, 1998) IS executives have a good level of understanding of the work environment of the business (Nelson and Cooprider, 1996) Business Understands IS a Business executives have a good level of understanding of the work environment of the IS function (Nelson and Cooprider, 1996) Business executives have a good level of understanding of strategic IS plans (Reich and Benbasat, 1996) Shared Vision a Business and IS executives share a common vision for the long term role of IS within the organisation (Reich and Benbasat, 1996) Business and IS executives agree on priorities for the organisational use of IS (Lederer and Salmela, 1996) Business and IS executives agree on the key IS management issues affecting the organisation Please circle the extent to which the following aspects of the organisational unit's performance can be attributed to IS… IS Performance b Growth in the organisational unit's market share attributable to IS (Premkumar, 1989;Teo, 1994;Chan et al, 1997) Growth in the organisational unit's profitability relative to competitors attributable to IS (Premkumar, 1989;Teo, 1994;Chan et al, 1997) Improved competitive position of the organisational unit attributable to IS (Premkumar, 1989;Teo, 1994) Improved internal efficiency of the organisational unit's operations attributable to IS (Chan et al, 1997) Improved decision making effectiveness of the organisational unit attributable to IS (Silk, 1990) a = measured on a 5-point scale 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree The IS-business relationship and its implications for performance: An empirical study of South African and Australian organisations. International Journal of Information Management, 26 (6).…”

“…Consistent with the conceptualization of IS performance as the contribution that IS makes to supporting and shaping the host organisation's objectives, IS performance was measured by asking respondents to indicate the extent to which five financial, market oriented and operational measures of organisational performance could be attributed to IS (1 for "very little extent" to 5 for "very large extent"). These items were adapted from Premkumar (1989), Teo (1994), and Chan, Huff, Barclay and Copeland (1997). Table 1 identifies each of the items (as they appeared on the questionnaire) together with corresponding literature support.…”

Maturity Level at University Academic Information System Linking it Goals and Business Goal Based on Cobit 4.1

“…In the year of 1981, IBM provide a motivation of the perspective that the emphasis of the alignment process is to focus on the Strategic Plan for Business and IT long-term plan of the organization. Empirically in (Chan 1997;Irani 2002;Kearns & Lederer 2003), found the findings that support the hypothesis, that people who succeed to align their business strategy with IT strategy will be superior to those who do not apply.…”

Defining CSFs for Information Systems Strategic Planning in Holding Companies: A Case Study of an Iranian Managerial Holding Company (System Group)

“…Therefore, when investing in and building its systems, an organization must pay close attention to ensure that any IS changes align with and support the goals of the organization (Gottschalk, 2001;Chan, 1993;Chan, 1997;Chan, 2002). Selig's (1982) study of information resource management planning in 25 large multinational companies was one of the first to recognize the need and describe best practices for aligning IS planning with corporate strategy.…”