Strategic Alignment Between Business and Information Technology: A Knowledge-Based View of Behaviors, Outcome, and Consequences
Authors: Kearns, Grover S.; Sabherwal, Rajiv
Journal: Journal of Management Information Systems (2006)
DOI: 10.2753/mis0742-1222230306
Senior executives continue to be concerned about factors influencing the business effect of information technology (IT). Prior research has argued that business–IT strategic alignment facilitates business effect of IT and that contextual factors affect business–IT alignment. However, the role of knowledge considerations in the relationship between contextual factors and alignment, and the role of IT projects in the relationship between alignment and business effects of IT, have not been explicitly examined. Therefore, this paper pursues the following two research questions: (1) Based on knowledge considerations, how do planning behaviors (specifically, IT managers’ participation in business planning and business managers’ participation in IT planning) and top management knowledge of IT mediate the effects of two contextual factors—organizational emphasis on knowledge management and centralization of IT decisions—on business–IT strategic alignment? (2) How do aspects of IT projects (specifically, quality of IT project planning and implementation problems in IT projects) mediate the relationship between business–IT strategic alignment and business effects of IT? Results from a surve…