Towards an effective IT governance structure for organizations in developing economies

The pervasive use of IT is prominent amongst organizations in developing economies. However, there is growing evidence that these economies fail to capitalize on their IT investment to transform their organizations to be competitive both locally and globally. IT-related benefits are possible with appropriate governance of the IT-related resources, and we need to broaden our understanding on the IT governance mechanics suitable for organizations in the developing economies. In this study, we adopted an initial interpretive design to obtain a deeper understanding of the IT governance (ITG) environment and conceptions of the stakeholders on effective IT governance structures for the developing economies. We found that the presence of an IT Strategic Planning Committee, Multiple level of authority, and a Forum for informal discussions as the crucial components of an ITG structure in developing economies.

Aligning business and IT strategies in multi-business organizations

The alignment of business and information technology (IT) strategies is an important and enduring theoretical challenge for the information systems discipline, remaining a top issue in practice over the past 20 years. Multi-business organizations (MBOs) present a particular alignment challenge because business strategies are developed at the corporate level, within individual strategic business units and across the corporate investment cycle. In contrast, the extant literature implicitly assumes that IT strategy is aligned with a single business strategy at a single point in time. This paper draws on resource-based theory and path dependence to model functional, structural, and temporal IT strategic alignment in MBOs. Drawing on Makadok's theory of profit, we show how each form of alignment creates value through the three strategic drivers of competence, governance, and flexibility, respectively. We illustrate the model with examples from a case study on the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. We also explore the model's implications for existing IT alignment models, providing alternative theoretical explanations for how IT alignment creates value.

Alinhamento estratégico de TI: avaliando as percepções de executivos de negócio e TI

The Information Technology (IT) is a concept which has gained importance for organizations. It is expected that the strategic use of IT not only sustain the business operations of enterprises, but mainly leverage the initiative of new competitive strategies. However, these expectations on the earnings with the IT not have been achieved and questions arise about the return of the investments in IT. One of the causes is credited to the lack of alignment between the strategies of business and IT. The search of strategic alignment between IT and business takes to the necessity of measure it. This assessment can help identify whether the perceptions of business executives and IT executives, about the strategic alignment of IT, are similar or different. The objective of this work is to investigate the perceptions of business executives and IT executives in relation to the IT strategic alignment implemented in a selected organization. It was conducted a case study, in a company that provides services to the financial market. As a result, this work identified that there is no statistically significant difference between the perceptions of business executives and IT executives, related to the level of IT strategic alignment maturity implemented in the organization, and highlighted factors that promote this alignment: (a) senior management supports the IT (b) IT takes part of strategic planning, (c) IT understands the business of the company, and (d) there is a partnership between business and IT executives. Additionally, it was proposed that these similar perceptions result from the sharing of assumptions, knowledge and common expectations for the IT strategic alignment between the two groups of executives interviewed, and that led the company to achieve a higher level of IT strategic alignment. Each Practice of Strategic Alignment was examined separately. Although not have statistically significant differences between the perceptions of business executives and IT executives, the practices of Communication, Measures of Value and Competence, and Skills were better assessed by business executives and the practices of Governance and Partnerships have been better perceived by IT executives. The practice of Scope and Architecture and the IT Strategic Alignment, showed no differences in perceptions between the two groups of executives.

Alinhamento estratégico entre negócio e tecnologia de informação na perspectiva da teoria Ator-Rede: o caso da internet em um banco brasileiro

Alinhamento Estratégico entre Negócio e Tecnologia de Informação (TI) é um fenômeno complexo, estudado intensivamente há muitos anos. As diversas pesquisas desenvolvidas têm contribuído em grande medida para a evolução do conhecimento sobre o tema. Porém, estudos sinalizam que ainda existem aspectos a explorar e apontam a Teoria Ator-Rede como uma alternativa para abordar o tema Alinhamento. Esta dissertação apresenta a perspectiva teórica da Teoria Ator-Rede; e do ponto de vista empírico, à luz desta perspectiva, estuda o processo pelo qual a utilização da Internet tornou-se uma realidade para um banco brasileiro e evoluiu de 1995 a 2005, neste banco. Também discute os benefícios e contribuições da adoção desta perspectiva teórica no contexto do tema Alinhamento Estratégico entre Negócio e TI. O estudo (1) sinaliza que diversos atores estiveram envolvidos com a incorporação da Internet pelo banco e estão envolvidos com a sua manutenção como uma tecnologia importante para a instituição; várias estratégias foram, e são, adotadas para sustentar esta situação; e (2) sugere que a Teoria Ator-Rede oferece uma visão diferente de ¿alinhamento¿, daquela atribuída ao pensamento tradicional de gestão, e sua perspectiva de análise de fatos representa uma ferramenta para os gestores que buscam o Alinhamento.

A influência do alinhamento estratégico da tecnologia de informação no desempenho empresarial: um estudo sobre o impacto da orientação estratégica na integração, uso e benefícios desta tecnologia ao negócio

Este estudo tem como objetivo avaliar a influência da Tecnologia de Informação (TI) no Desempenho Empresarial sob o direcionamento da Estratégia de Negócio. A pesquisa faz um estudo específico da TI pelo alinhamento estratégico da tecnologia na integração, uso e benefícios da TI ao negócio e a influência nas diversas perspectivas de desempenho da firma. A estratégia recebe o recorte na pesquisa da orientação estratégica ao impactar a integração da TI ao negócio. O estudo utilizou da técnica de modelagem em equações estruturais com estimação PLS-PM (Partial Least Squares Path Modeling) num estudo empírico de 222 empresas. Os resultados indicam influência da TI no desempenho empresarial, ao explicar a variabilidade de 34,1% do desempenho de aprendizado & crescimento, 46.1% do desempenho do processo interno, 44,7% do desempenho do mercado, e 32,7% do desempenho financeiro. O estudo possibilitou explicar 74,1% da variabilidade do uso e benefícios da TI à estratégia e os processos de negócio e os diversos efeitos da TI no desempenho empresarial, além de destacar a importância e ênfase dada pelas empresas às variáveis da orientação estratégica. O modelo possibilitou explicar a variabilidade das várias perspectivas do desempenho e sugere outras formas de mensurar a adoção e uso da tecnologia nas organizações.

The Influence of Enterprise Systems on Business and Information Technology

Business strategy is important to all organizations. Nearly all Fortune 500 firms are implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to improve the execution of their business strategy and to improve integration with its information technology (IT) strategy. Successful implementation of these multi-million dollar software systems are requiring new emphasis on change management and on Business and IT strategic alignment. This paper examines business and IT strategic alignment and seeks to explore whether an ERP implementation can drive business process reengineering and business and IT strategic alignment. An overview of business strategy and strategic alignment are followed by an analysis of ERP. The “As-Is/To-Be” process model is then presented and explained as a simple, but vital tool for improving business strategy, strategic alignment, and ERP implementation success.

Estructuras, Procesos, Indicadores para Gestionar el Proceso de la Demanda Estratégica en las TI

En los últimos años, el desarrollo industrial a nivel globalizado en los diferentes sectores, la difusión de la TI y el uso estratégico de la misma, han crecido de manera exponencial. El uso adecuado de esta, se ha convertido en una gran preocupación para los órganos de gobierno de las organizaciones ya que la falta de dirección y control en las inversiones que se realizan en ellas, así como un uso inadecuado de las mismas pueden comprometer la consecución de los objetivos de la organización, su competitividad y su sostenibilidad a medio-largo plazo. La preocupación de los propietarios de los negocios es mejorar su rendimiento con la ayuda de la TI frente a sus competidores, realizando los procesos de negocio de una manera eficaz y eficiente, por lo que muchas organizaciones han realizado inversiones importantes en la adquisición de tecnología para lograr sus propósitos. Sin embargo la ejecución de estas inversiones no se ha gestionado adecuadamente, conforme a las políticas y planes especificados en los planes de negocio de la organización y la entrega de los servicios de TI no ha sido conforme a los objetivos previstos, generando pérdidas importantes y lo que es peor un gran deterioro de la imagen de la organización, por lo que consideramos a la gestión de la demanda estratégica de la TI como uno de los factores claves para el éxito de los negocios, el cual no ha sido tomada en cuenta por los consejos de gobierno o los altos ejecutivos de las organizaciones. La investigación comienza con una amplia revisión de la literatura, identificando dos elementos muy importantes, la demanda y el suministro de la TI dentro de la gobernanza corporativa de la TI; notándose la escasa información relacionado con la gestión de la demanda estratégica de la TI. Se realizó un estudio exploratorio para conocer como los miembros del consejo de administración y altos ejecutivos de una organización gestionan la demanda estratégica de la TI, obteniendo una respuesta de 130 encuestados, donde se confirma que hace falta normas o metodologías para la gestión de la demanda estratégica de la TI. En base a estos resultados se ha construido un marco de trabajo para todo el proceso de la gestión de la demanda de la TI y como una solución que se plantea en esta tesis doctoral, consiste en la elaboración de una metodología, combinando e integrando marcos de trabajo y estándares relacionados con la gobernanza corporativa de la TI. La metodología propuesta está conformada por tres fases, cada fase con sus actividades principales, y cada actividad principal por un conjunto de sub-actividades. Además, se establecen los roles y responsabilidades de los altos ejecutivos para cada una de las actividades principales. Esta propuesta debe ser de fácil implantación y aplicable en las organizaciones, permitiendo a estas afrontar con éxito el desarrollo de sus negocios, con una mejor calidad, reduciendo los costes de operación y empleando el menor tiempo posible. La validación de la metodología propuesta se realizó a través de una encuesta online y un estudio de casos. En la encuesta de validación participaron 42 altos ejecutivos de diferentes empresas y el estudio de casos se realizó con 5 empresas internacionales. Las respuestas de los estudios fueron analizados, para determinar la aceptación o el rechazo de la metodología propuesta por los participantes, confirmando la validez y confiabilidad del estudio. Este es uno de los primeros estudios reportado con evidencias empíricas para el proceso de la gestión de la demanda estratégica de la TI. Los resultados de esta investigación han sido publicados en revistas y congresos internacionales. ABSTRACT In recent years, the globalized industrial development, diffusion and strategic use of IT in different sectors has grown exponentially. Proper use of IT has become a major concern for government bodies and organizations. Uncontrolled or mismanaged IT investments or improper IT use may compromise the achievement of an organization’s objectives, competitiveness and sustainability in the medium to long term. Business owners set out to use IT to outperform their competitors, enacting business processes effectively and efficiently. Many organizations have made significant investments in technology in order to achieve their aims. However, the deployment of these investments has not been managed properly in accordance with the policies and plans specified in the organizations’ business plans, and IT services have not been delivered in accordance with the specified objectives. This has generated significant losses and, worse still, has seriously damaged the image of organizations. Accordingly, we believe that IT strategic demand management is one of the key factors for business success which has not been overlooked by the boards of trustees or senior executives of organizations. The research begins with an extensive review of the literature. This review has identified two very important elements: IT demand and supply within the corporate governance of IT. We have found that information related to IT strategic demand management is scant. We conducted an exploratory study to learn how members of the board of directors and senior executives of an organization manage IT strategic demand. The survey, which was taken by 130 respondents, confirmed that standards or methodologies are needed to manage IT strategic demand. Based on the results, we have built a framework for the entire IT demand management process. The solution proposed in this thesis is to develop a methodology, combining and integrating frameworks and standards related to the corporate governance of IT. The proposed methodology is divided into three phases. Each phase is composed of a series of key activities, and each key activity is further split into minor activities. We also establish the roles and responsibilities of senior executives for each of the key activities. This proposal should be easy to implement and apply in organizations, enabling corporations to successfully conduct better quality business, reduce operating costs and save time. The proposed methodology was validated by means of an online survey and a case study. The validation survey was completed by 42 senior executives from different companies, and the case study was conducted at five international companies. The study results were analysed to determine the acceptance or rejection of the proposed methodology by the participants, confirming the validity and reliability of the study. This is one the first studies to report empirical evidence for the process of IT strategic demand management. The results of this research have been published in international journals and conferences.

Alinhamento estratégico da TI: o caso da UFRN

It is considered that the Strategic Alignment IT is the first step within the IT Governance process for any institution. Taking as initial point the recognition that the governance corporate has an overall view of the organizations, the IT Governance takes place as a sub-set responsible for the implementation of the organization strategies in what concerns the provision of the necessary tools for the achievement of the goals set in the Institutional Development Plan. In order to do so, COBIT specifies that such Governance shall be built on the following principles: Strategic Alignment, Value Delivery, Risk Management, Performance Measurement. This paper aims at the Strategic Alignment, considered by the authors as the foundation for the development of the entire IT Governance core. By deepening the technical knowledge of the management system development, UFRN has made a decisive step towards the technical empowerment needed to the “Value Delivery”, yet, by perusing the primarily set processes to the “Strategic Alignment”, gaps that limited the IT strategic view in the implementation of the organizational goals were found. In the qualitative study that used documentary research with content analysis and interviews with the strategic and tactical managers, the view on the role of SINFO – Superintendência de Informática was mapped. The documentary research was done on public documents present on the institutional site and on TCU – Tribunal de Contas da União – documents that map the IT Governance profiles on the federal public service as a whole. As a means to obtain the documentary research results equalization, questionnaires/interviews and iGovTI indexes, quantitative tools to the standardization of the results were used, always bearing in mind the usage of the same scale elements present in the TCU analysis. This being said, similarly to what the TCU study through the IGovTI index provides, this paper advocates a particular index to the study area – SA (Strategic Alignment), calculated from the representative variables of the COBIT 4.1 domains and having the representative variables of the Strategic Alignment primary process as components. As a result, an intermediate index among the values in two adjacent surveys done by TCU in the years of 2010 and 2012 was found, which reflects the attitude and view of managers towards the IT governance: still linked to Data Processing in which a department performs its tasks according to the demand of the various departments or sectors, although there is a commission that discusses the issues related to infrastructure acquisition and systems development. With an Operational view rather than Strategic/Managerial and low attachment to the tools consecrated by the market, several processes are not contemplated in the framework COBIT defined set; this is mainly due to the inexistence of a formal strategic plan for IT; hence, the partial congruency between the organization goals and the IT goals.

Muito além da tecnologia : o impacto dos mecanismos não operacionais na efetividade da governança de TI na administração pública

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Administração, 2016.

“Entrepreneurial management” as a strategic choice in firm behavior : linking it with performance

Establishing the core principals of “entrepreneurial management” within an organization describes a certain strategic choice that affects a company in six dimensions, according to Stevenson (1983). Our aim is to empirically measure entrepreneurial management (it’s existence and degree) and to link this measured strategic choice (for or against) entrepreneurial management with firm performance. Our argument here is that companies that follow core principals of entrepreneurial management should outperform other more administrative firms in certain measures of strategic performance. This paper builds on an empirical investigation published by Brown, Davidson & Wiklund (2001), who have developed and tested a reliable measurement instrument for Stevenson’s definition of “entrepreneurial management” (Stevenson 1983, Stevenson & Jarillo 1990). In the first part of our paper we aim to replicate and to some extent improve this study. In the second part we link the measured degree of “entrepreneurial management” with firm performance. To our knowledge, even so Stevenson’s definition of entrepreneurial management is commonly acknowledged and Brown et al. (2001) developed a reliable instrument to empirically capture this behavioral approach to management, the construct of entrepreneurial management never before has been linked to firm performance in an empirical study. Since most papers on corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance are based on Covin & Slevin’s (1991) or Miller’s (1983) concept of entrepreneurial orientation, we contribute to the literature on corporate entrepreneurship in a novel way, given the fact that the entrepreneurial management dimensions measured in our study can theoretically and empirically be clearly distinguished from the construct of entrepreneurial orientation as defined by Covin & Selvin (1991).

Strategic entry deterrence : does it constitute a misuse of market power?

A challenge for regulators and the courts has been establishing the boundary between behaviour is exclusionary and should be condemned under s 46 of the then Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (TPA), now s 46 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (CCA), and behaviour that is not exclusionary and might even be pro-competitive. This boundary can be especially difficult to draw in the case of entry deterring strategies. Section 46(1) prohibits corporations with a substantial degree of market power from taking advantage of that market power for one of the statutorily proscribed purposes which include preventing the entry of a person into that or any other market. Section 45(2) separately prohibits corporations from making and giving effect to contracts arrangements and understandings that have the purpose, effect or likely effect of substantially lessening competition in a market. The latest case in which the ACCC has failed to satisfy the s 46 criteria is the decision of Greenwood J in ACCC v Cement Australia Pty Ltd [2013] FCA 909 (Cement Australia case). Final orders were published in a separate judgment, in ACCC v Cement Australia Pty Ltd [2014] FCA 148 (28 February 2014). The case concerned an entry deterring strategy, namely the pre-emptive buying of input factors in an upstream market to protect an incumbent with substantial market power in a downstream market and to prevent new entry in the downstream market. Greenwood J found that while Cement Australia Pty Ltd, formerly known as Queensland Cement Ltd (QCL), had substantial market power, its conduct in entering into the pre-emptive contracts was not a contravention of s 46, because Cement Australia had not “taken advantage” of its market power. However, since Cement Australia’s purpose in entering into the pre-emptive contracts was anti-competitive, they were held to contravene s 45(2) of the TPA. The purpose of this Note is to consider only the reasons for judgment in the Cement Australia case in relation to the “taking advantage” element. The judgment was handed down on 10 September 2013. The final hearing date was 15 July 2011, so it was long-awaited. At 714 pages, it is carefully drafted.

The Strategic outsourcing Decision of IT and eCommerce: The Case of Small Businesses in New Zealand

In New Zealand, small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a very important role in the economy by their contribution to both employment and gross domestic product. Addressing issues pertinent to SMEs is of paramount importance in driving this sector forward. Information Technology (IT) emerges as one main enabler for SMEs in automating their operations, seeking new opportunities and enhancing their strategic business positioning in local and international markets. However, the inability of SMEs to handle the dynamic nature of IT due to problems inherent in their size, structure and resources, makes it difficult for them to take appropriate decisions to benefit from the IT technologies. The advent of eCommerce (EC) has only compounded this problem. One way out of this complex situation is to outsource the IT and EC technology requirements by the SMEs. This study endeavours to identify the pattern of IT and EC outsourcing issues of SMEs within New Zealand. This research attempts to identify the main driver for IT/EC outsourcing in SMEs as well as to explore the problems of IT outsourcing and makes suggestions for further research in this crucial sector.