You are here

FAU Collections » FAU Research Repository » FAU Theses and Dissertations

Antecedents of IT-Business Strategic Alignment and the Moderating Roles of Goal Commitment and Environmental Uncertainty

Download pdf | Full Screen View

Date Issued:
2008
Summary:
Aligning information technology (lT) strategy with business strategy has been one of the top concerns of practitioners and scholars. Despite the documented positive effects of strategic alignment on organizational success, only few organizations consider themselves in alignment. Although numerous studies exist about IT-business alignment, the empirical studies based on strong theories have been rare in the alignment literature. This dissertation attempts to fulfill this gap by proposing and empirically validating a comprehensive strategic alignment model. Drawing on prior literature, we identified five antecedents of alignment; centralization, formalization , shared domain knowledge, successful IT history and relationship management. We further hypothesized that the effects of these antecedents are mediated by the drivers of alignment, which are conceptualized as the level of connection of lT and business planning and the level of communication between IT and business managers. Furthermore, the proposed research model investigated the moderating effects of goal commitment of business executives to achieving and sustaining strategic alignment and environmental uncertainty. The results showed that both drivers had significant effects on alignment, and the effect of connection is about twice that of communications. Our findings also support for the effects of all antecedents except centralization. Finally, we found partial support for the effects of moderating variables. Overall, the main contribution of this dissertation is the development and empirical validation of a comprehensive strategic alignment model with considerations for antecedents and potential moderating effects, thus extending the alignment literature by differentiating the effects of dimensions of environmental uncertainty as well as introducing the goal commitment and IT unit structure constructs, and providing prescriptive insight for managing IT-business strategic alignment.
Title: Antecedents of IT-Business Strategic Alignment and the Moderating Roles of Goal Commitment and Environmental Uncertainty.
162 views
78 downloads
Name(s): Yayla, Ali Alper, author
Hu, Qing, Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 2008
Date Issued: 2008
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 175 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Aligning information technology (lT) strategy with business strategy has been one of the top concerns of practitioners and scholars. Despite the documented positive effects of strategic alignment on organizational success, only few organizations consider themselves in alignment. Although numerous studies exist about IT-business alignment, the empirical studies based on strong theories have been rare in the alignment literature. This dissertation attempts to fulfill this gap by proposing and empirically validating a comprehensive strategic alignment model. Drawing on prior literature, we identified five antecedents of alignment; centralization, formalization , shared domain knowledge, successful IT history and relationship management. We further hypothesized that the effects of these antecedents are mediated by the drivers of alignment, which are conceptualized as the level of connection of lT and business planning and the level of communication between IT and business managers. Furthermore, the proposed research model investigated the moderating effects of goal commitment of business executives to achieving and sustaining strategic alignment and environmental uncertainty. The results showed that both drivers had significant effects on alignment, and the effect of connection is about twice that of communications. Our findings also support for the effects of all antecedents except centralization. Finally, we found partial support for the effects of moderating variables. Overall, the main contribution of this dissertation is the development and empirical validation of a comprehensive strategic alignment model with considerations for antecedents and potential moderating effects, thus extending the alignment literature by differentiating the effects of dimensions of environmental uncertainty as well as introducing the goal commitment and IT unit structure constructs, and providing prescriptive insight for managing IT-business strategic alignment.
Identifier: FA00000617 (IID)
Note(s): College of Business
Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008.
Subject(s): Information Technology--Management
Strategic Planning
Management Information Systems
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Digital Libraries
Sublocation: Digital Library
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000617
Restrictions on Access: All rights reserved by the source institution
Restrictions on Access: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Restrictions on Access: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.