The impact of IT-business strategic alignment on firm performance in a developing country setting: exploring moderating roles of environmental uncertainty and strategic orientation

Abstract

Aligning information technology (IT) strategy with business strategy has been one of the top concerns of practitioners and scholars for decades. Although numerous studies have documented positive effects of IT-business alignment on organizational performance, our knowledge about this relationship is still limited due to the complexity of contingent factors. The extant literature is largely based on research in the context of developed countries and few studies have explicitly considered the effects of contextual factors such as market environment and competitive strategy on this relationship. In this study, we attempt to fill these gaps by testing the alignment-performance relationship in a developing country setting and investigating the moderating roles of environmental uncertainty and strategic orientation on the performance effects of strategic alignment using survey data collected in Turkey. Our analyses show that this positive effect is statistically significant in highly uncertain environments and varies across performance measures. Our results also show that the strategic alignment between IT and business has a significant impact on performance across all choices of strategic orientation -defender, prospector, or analyzer. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed and future research directions are explored.

Strategic IT Alignment: Twenty-Five Years on

“…Recent research continues to build on empirical evidence that reveals positive effects of alignment on business performance (Sabherwal and Chan, 2001;Oh and Pinsonneault, 2007;Yayla and Hu, 2012;Gerow et al, 2014). The central argument underlying these studies is that organizations will perform well when key IT resourcesphysical IT infrastructure components, technical and managerial IT skills, and knowledge assets − are aligned with business strategy and when appropriate structures are used to supervise the deployment and effective management of these resources.…”

“…Further, distinct construct attributes (e.g., fit, support, congruence) have been employed to investigate alignment between several different business and IT objects including realized strategies, strategic plans, business processes, and associated IT concepts such as IT use, IT strategy, IT capabilities, and IT portfolio (Queiroz, 2014). The growing family of alignment constructs, lack of coherence in the way that alignment is conceptualized and measured, combined with mixed results reported in the literature (Palmer and Markus, 2000;Byrd et al, 2006;Tallon and Pinsonneault, 2011;Yayla and Hu, 2012), reignites the long familiar debate between holistic theories (that adopt umbrella constructs to keep the field relevant and in touch with the ever-changing world of IT practice) and reductionism in scientific explanation (that uses individualistic theories to satisfy a series of rigorous standards for establishing desired levels of validity and reliability).…”

Da TI Reativa para uma TI Estratégica

“…Uma alternativa para conseguir agilizar o trabalho e conseguir concluir no período de três a quatro horas deaula é entregar o caso antecipadamente, para os alunos analisarem fora da aula e trazerem suas recomendações na aula seguinte para discutir em grupo e fechar o trabalho. YAYLA, 2012;GEROW;GROVER;THATCHER, 2014). O argumento central subjacente a esses estudos é que as organizações têm um bom desempenho quando os principais recursos da TI, como componentes físicos, infraestrutura, habilidades, técnicas de gestão e ativos de conhecimento estão alinhados com a estratégia de negócios, e quando as estruturas adequadas são usadas para supervisionar a implementação e gestão eficaz desses recursos (KARAHANNA; PRESTON, 2009).…”

Healthcare service innovation based on information technology : The role of social values alignment

“…To be more specific, business-IT alignment refers to "the degree to which the mission, objectives, and plans contained in the business strategy are shared and supported by the Information Technology (IT) strategy" (Reich & Benbasat, 1996, p. 56). The alignment framework inspired several empirical studies with findings that indicate that well-aligned organizations see their performance increases (Chan et al, 1997;Croteau & Bergeron, 2001;Sabherwal & Chan, 2001;Bergeron et al, 2004;Oh & Pinsonneault, 2007;Yayla & Hu, 2012;Gerow et al, 2014;Coltman et al, 2015). Research on business-IT alignment distinguishes between alignment in terms of intended strategic plans (e.g.…”