Despite the importance to researchers, managers, and policy makers of how information technology (IT) contributes to organizational performance, there is uncertainty and debate about what we know and don’t know. A review of the literature reveals that studies examining the association between information technology and organizational performance are divergent in how they conceptualize key constructs and their interrelationships. We develop a model of IT business value based on the resource-based view of the firm that integrates the various strands of research into a single framework. We apply the integrative model to synthesize what is known about IT business value and guide future research by developing propositions and suggesting a research agenda. A principal finding is that IT is valuable, but the extent and dimensions are dependent upon internal and external factors, including complementary organizational resources of the firm and its trading partners, as well as the competitive and macro environment. Our analysis provides a blueprint to guide future research and facilitate knowledge accumulation and creation concerning the organizational performance impacts of information technology.

This paper discusses IT infrastructure development and use in the European fertilizer division of Norsk Hydro. The main element of the infrastructure discussed is a new SAP-based solution for this division. However, this solution is not an isolated artifact. Its important aspects are emerging as it is becoming an integrated part of a larger infrastructure. This infrastructure is designed and controlled by managers and IT personnel, but also an actor shaping its environment as well as its own future. Like any actor, the technology builds alliances with others. However, the alliances might change over time. In the case reported here, SAP was first allied with top management, playing the role as a powerful change agent. Later on, SAP was allied with local managers and users, helping them bringing the change process under their influence and to the speed they preferred. Currently, SAP is changing its role as it is installed and integrated into a larger corporate infrastructure. As...

Abstract The emerging electronic economy is bringing with it new forms of IT-enabled intermediation, virtual supply chains, rapidly changing electronic commerce technologies, increasing knowledge intensity, and unprecedented sensitivity for time-to-market by customers. Customers are demanding more value, customized to their exact needs, at less cost, and as quickly as possible. The enterprises that will survive in such a demanding environment will need to innovate and invent new ways of creating value, and will require different enterprise architectures and different IT infrastructures. This article focuses on providing a framework for guiding an enterprise as it transforms itself to function more effectively in the electronic economy. Using the distribution industry in general and Marshall Industries in particular as a context, the article draws insights for transforming an extended enterprise's architecture and its IT infrastructure to enable new ways of creating value in ...

Critical Social Theory has been regarded as an alternative approach to information systems development in the era of ubiquitous information technologies and extensive applications. However, critical theorists have so far clarified few fundamental concepts to be actually discussed, planned and implemented in practical development initiatives to constitute a proper systems development approach. This paper contributes by reflecting fundamental concepts of the genre theory of organisational communication on the goals and guiding principles of Critical Social Theory. Use of the suggested concepts – 'genre', 'normative scope', 'genre system', 'genre repertoire ' and 'document genre ' – is demonstrated by a small-scale field experiment conducted to rethink enterprise document management in an industrial organisation. The suggested concepts and implications of the field experiment are discussed in the light of eight maxims identified for the Critical Social Theory approach to information systems. The discussion implies that the concepts presented are usable within the Critical Social Theory approach to information systems development, at least in the domain of enterprise document management. Finally, some deficiencies of the presented ideas and the field experiment are identified, and directions for further research are proposed. 1.

As IT becomes more closely tied to business objectives, successful investment must consider two dimensions: technology scope and strategic objectives.

The development and subsequent spread of a versatile and flexible information infrastructure in internationally oriented business organizations is readily recognized as strategically important. There is a pressing need to develop a firmer, empirically underpinned understanding of the structure and contents of such broad, sociotechnical processes for control, management, or intentional shaping to be viable. We study and discuss a six year effort in an internationally oriented oil company to develop a flexible, Lotus Notes based infrastructure facilitating the company's further development toward globalization of its business processes. Drawing upon a historical reconstruction of this case, we describe key characteristics of infrastructure diffusion: the need to continuously re-appropriate it, the vital episodes of improvisation, the bundling or packaging of the infrastructure, and the alignment with the existing, installed base of information systems and work routines. Bas...

esources that are the basis for organizational capabilities. Specifically, firms with resources that are valuable, rare, and inimitable can realize sustainable competitive advantage (Barney 1992). RBV provides a framework for understanding the relationship between a firm's IT capabilities and its competitiveness. Ross, Beath and Goodhue (1996) identified three resources, or assets, that establish a firm's ability to apply IT as a competitive weapon: (1) a highly motivated IT staff focused on applying technologies to solve business problems; (2) a reusable IT infrastructure supporting rapid application development and cost-effective operations; and (3) a strong IT-business partnership based on mutual trust and shared goals. The researchers found that these three assets were interdependent in that they built upon one another, and the weakest of the three established limits on the impact of IT within the firm. Currently, all three of these assets are proving to be very difficult to devel

A comprehensive and feasible model that delineates the interrelationships between knowledge assets and knowledge creation processes is absent. This study aims to fill this void. Unlike previous research, this study investigates the interrelations among four categories of knowledge assets and four knowledge creation processes — socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization (SECI). In our framework, we argued that different types of knowledge assets may have differing influences on knowledge creation. In order to test the feasibility of this framework, we conducted an empirical research. This study employed a survey instrument to collect data from a wide variety of organizations in manufacturing, trade, transportation and service industries, computer industries, finance, and academic institution. A total of 204 usable responses were analyzed. We identified four interrelationships from this study. (1) Compared to other knowledge assets, conceptual knowledge assets have a greater effect on externalization of knowledge creation process; (2) Compared to other knowledge assets, routine knowledge assets have a greater effect on socialization of knowledge creation process; (3) Compared to other knowledge assets, experiential knowledge assets do not have a greater effect on internalization of knowledge creation process; and (4) Compared to other knowledge assets, systemic knowledge assets do not have a greater effect on combination of knowledge creation process. The implications of the study are discussed, and further research directions are proposed.

Computer networks are used in different organizations to many purposes. Some use them internally to enable work processes, others may see network as a strategic resource. This paper looks at local area networks, those networks that are the core of the entire information system in organizations today. The are many important management tasks in the area of local area networks, for example expansion planning and security. Outsourcing is seen as a possible solution in organizing network management tasks.

Lately we have seen a growing interest from both public and private organisations to adopt Open Source Software (OSS), not only for a few, specific applications but also on a more general level throughout the organisation. As a consequence, the organisations ’ decisions on adoption of OSS are becoming increasingly more important and complex. We present three perspectives organisations can employ in their decisions: seeing OSS acquisition as a business case, as COTS acquisition, and as architectural change within a governance framework. We present case studies of decisions on OSS adoption, and categorise the decision criteria we have found. Our results indicate that for large-scale adoption of OSS, focus will be on architectural considerations: enterprise-wide architectures will at first be a barrier, but in the long term OSS’s support of open standards can be a major enabler for OSS adoption. In contrast, in smaller organisations and in small-scale adoption of OSS, the cheap price of OSS is a major enabler, as it provides a good opportunity for experiments and short-term economic benefits. For small organisations these experiments can lead to development of a common IT-architecture, and in larger organisations OSS can be adopted in niche-areas, without significantly