Will Innovation, Training, and IT Support Moderate IT Investments in a Mandated Environment, Such as in a Covid-19 Era, to Create Value for Students in a Tertiary Educational Setting?

Abstract

Objectives: To examine the creation of Value from IT investments for tertiary students. The focus was to use the complementary assets (Innovation, Training, and IT Support) as moderating variables for the relationship between IT investments and value creation in a mandated (Covid-19 setting) tertiary educational setting. Methods: One of the leading universities in Ghana was used as the object of study. A google form questionnaire was sent to the student body, and 508 responses were received. Smart PLS was used to analyze the responses. Findings: The results revealed that even though there was some level of interaction between the complementary assets (Innovation, training, IT Support) and IT investments, none of them had a significant effect on IT Value (Training > IT VALUE, p = 0.412; Innovation > IT VALUE, p = 0.371; IT Support > IT VALUE, p = 0.417). It was also revealed that IT investments was significantly correlated with IT Value (IT INVESTMENTS > IT VALUE, p = 0.000), confirming the insignificance of the moderators. In other words, the IT investments alone created value for the students. Novelty: The study is one of the early studies in IT value creation beyond IT investments in a mandated tertiary educational setting. In this study, it is evident that students in a mandated environment, such as in the case of Covid-19, where students are mandated to use the LMS and other IT infrastructure, will find their way out to create value for themselves once the IT infrastructure is in place; complementary assets may not be too necessary.