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"Chan, Yolande E."
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Alignment Between Business and IS Strategies: A Study of Prospectors, Analyzers, and Defenders
Alignment between business strategy and IS strategy is widely believed to improve business performance. This paper examines the impact of alignment on perceived business performance using Miles and Snows popular classification of Defender, Analyzer, and Prospector business strategies. A priori theoretical profiles for these business strategies are developed using Venkatraman's (1989a) measure of business strategy. Theoretical profiles for IS strategies are developed in terms of four types of systemsoperational support systems, market information systems, strategic decision-support systems, and interorganizational systems. Empirical data from two multirespondent surveys of 164 and 62 companies, respectively, are analyzed. Results indicate that alignment affects perceived business performance but only in some organizations. Alignment seems to influence overall business success in Prospectors and Analyzers but not in Defenders. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.
Journal Article
Organizational knowledge retention and knowledge loss
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the effectiveness of organizational information technology (IT)-based and non-IT-based knowledge transfer mechanisms (KTMs) for the retention of different types of knowledge from mobile experts. It differentiates among four types of knowledge loss (KL), namely, conscious knowledge (i.e. individual explicit knowledge that can be codified); codified knowledge (i.e. explicit knowledge captured at the social level); automatic knowledge (i.e. implicit individual knowledge); and collective knowledge (i.e. implicit knowledge embedded in the organization).
Design/methodology/approach
A research framework connecting the organizational knowledge retention (KR) cycle to KL is developed and an exploratory analysis is conducted using data from two case studies in the Canadian federal public service. Findings are confirmed using a third government agency.
Findings
Without the right processes in place for organizational knowledge retrieval and reuse, the KR cycle is not complete, leading to KL. The lack of available social KTMs for the conversion of individual to social objectified knowledge leads to KL. KTMs shortcomings increase the risk of automatic and objectified KL.
Research limitations/implications
Exploratory results demonstrate that KL does not always equate to lack of KR. Implementing knowledge-specific organizational KTMs is important to encourage the retention of individual knowledge at the social level. Propositions and a framework are developed for future research.
Practical implications
Mobile experts hold valuable knowledge at high risk of being lost by organizations. This paper provides managers with a set of guidelines to develop a knowledge-specific strategy focused on KTMs that increase KR and mitigate KL.
Originality/value
This paper challenges the assumption that KL only results from poor retention and studies both retention and loss to identify additional types of unintentional loss that occur when individual knowledge is not converted to social knowledge.
Journal Article
IT Alignment: What Have We Learned?
We provide a review of the alignment literature in IT, addressing questions such as: What have we learned? What is disputed? Who are contributors to the debate? The article is intended to be useful to faculty and graduate students considering conducting research on alignment, instructors preparing lectures, and practitioners seeking to assess the ‘state-of-play’. It is both informational and provocative. Challenges to the value of alignment research, divergent views, and new perspectives on alignment are presented. It is hoped that the article will spark helpful conversation on the merits of continued investigation of IT alignment.
Journal Article
Mutual Understanding in Information Systems Development
Although information systems development (ISD) projects are critical to organizations and improving them has been the focus of considerable research, successful projects remain elusive. Focusing on the cognitive aspects of ISD projects, we investigate how and why mutual understanding (MU) among key stakeholder groups (business and information technology managers, users, and developers) changes within and across projects, and how it affects project success. We examine relationships among project planning and control mechanisms; sensegiving and sensemaking activities by, and MU among, these stakeholder groups; and project success. Combining deductive and inductive approaches for theory building, we develop an initial model based on the literature and then modify it based on the results of a longitudinal embedded mixed-methods study of 13 projects at 2 organizations over a 10-year period. The results provide insights into the development of MU within projects, including (1) how MU changes during projects as a result of cognitive activities (sensegiving and sensemaking); (2) how planning and control mechanisms (and the associated artifacts) affect these cognitive activities; (3) how MU, and achieving it early in the project, affects success; and (4) how stakeholder engagement (in terms of depth, scope, and timing) affects the relationships in (1) and (2). The results also indicate that project management mechanisms, stakeholder engagement, and MU may change (either improve or deteriorate) across projects, depending on the disagreements among stakeholders in previous projects, the introduction of new project elements in subsequent projects, and the reflection on previous projects.
Journal Article
A Multilevel Model for Measuring Fit Between A Firm's Competitive Strategies and Information Systems Capabilities
To compete in a highly dynamic marketplace, firms must frequently adapt and align their competitive strategies and information systems. The dominant literature on the strategic fit of a firm's information systems focuses primarily on high-level measures of the strategic fit of a firm's overall IS portfolio and the impact of fit on business performance. This paper addresses the need for a more fine-grained approach for assessing the specific areas of misfit between a firm's competitive strategies and IS capabilities. We describe the design and evaluation of a multilevel strategic fit (MSF) measurement model that enables researchers and practitioners to measure the strategic fit of a firm's information systems at both an overall and a detailed level. The steps in the model include identifying the relevant IS capabilities according to the type of system; measuring the current level of support for each capability using a capabilities instrument; identifying the ideal level of support for each capability using an adaptation ofConant et al.'s (1990) instrument to assess strategic archetype; and comparing the ideal and realized level of support for each capability. Evidence from a multiple case study analysis indicates that the fine-grained assessment of strategic fit can strengthen the validity, utility, and ease ofcorroboration of the strategic fit measurement outputs. The paper also demonstrates how an iterative design science research approach, with its emphasis on evaluating the utility of prototype artifacts, is well suited to developing field-tested and theoretically grounded measurement models and instruments that are accessible to practitioners. This focus on practical utility in turn provides researchers with results that can be more readily corroborated, thus improving the quality and usefulness of the research findings.
Journal Article
Digital Product Architecture and Customer Agility: Evidence from New Digital Ventures
New digital ventures are transforming the world around us. Born-digital companies (such as Uber) that were initially established to serve a specific market can quickly detect new opportunities in other markets and respond to these opportunities by reassembling their resources with speed and ease. Limited research has investigated how product architecture enables or hinders the ability of the firm to sense customer-related opportunities and respond to them effectively. By examining two new digital ventures, this study sheds light on new digital ventures’ customer agility. Specifically, we address how the characteristics of new digital ventures’ product architectures facilitate or hinder the development of the customer-sensing and customer-responding capability dimensions of customer agility. We present theoretical and managerial implications regarding how to leverage digital technologies to foster customer agility.
Journal Article
Digital Product Architecture and Customer Agility: Evidence from New Digital Ventures
New digital ventures are transforming the world around us. Born-digital companies (such as Uber) that were initially established to serve a specific market can quickly detect new opportunities in other markets and respond to these opportunities by reassembling their resources with speed and ease. Limited research has investigated how product architecture enables or hinders the ability of the firm to sense customer-related opportunities and respond to them effectively. By examining two new digital ventures, this study sheds light on new digital ventures’ customer agility. Specifically, we address how the characteristics of new digital ventures’ product architectures facilitate or hinder the development of the customer-sensing and customer-responding capability dimensions of customer agility. We present theoretical and managerial implications regarding how to leverage digital technologies to foster customer agility.
Journal Article
Exploring the Renewal of IT-enabled Resources from a Structural Perspective
Organizations are exposed to ever-increasing dynamic environments, making sustaining the derivation of IT benefits critical. However, researchers have observed that IT benefits are short-lived and have called for studies on how organizations can sustain the derivation of IT benefits, especially in dynamic environments. Research shows that the integration of IT assets and other organizational resources needed to form IT-enabled resources from which organizations derive IT benefits can also constrain the renewal of IT-enabled resources to sustain the derivation of IT benefits. In this study, we draw on relevant theories, published empirical cases, and a primary case study to explore, from a structural perspective, the renewal of IT-enabled resources to sustain the derivation of IT benefits. We find that certain structural properties (i.e., component flexibility, component centrality, and component coupling) emerge during the formation and modification of IT-enabled resources and influence the renewal of IT-enabled resources. We extend Nevo and Wade’s model on the formation of IT-enabled resources with the structural properties and offer eight propositions on how the structural properties and organizational capabilities influence the renewal of IT-enabled resources. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications and identify areas for future research.
Journal Article
IT Alignment: An Annotated Bibliography
We provide summaries of over 150 alignment articles. The information is intended to assist faculty and graduate students who are conducting IT alignment-related research. The findings presented should interest practitioners also. We hope that the article will facilitate the ongoing study and practice of IT alignment.
Journal Article