Research Paper Review

Research Paper Review

Introduction

After the extensive debate and research of two years, strategic IT alignment has been identified as a fit between business strategy and information technology. Strategic IT alignment has been the top priority for practitioner and researchers of information systems. Research work has found that alignment affects productivity, profit, reputation and sales growth. The area of research and problem is based on strategic IT alignment and this research prompts the organizations to focus on efforts in order to further enhance the extent of fit between business strategy and IT (Benaroch, 2002).

A careful review of the strategic management and organizational studies literature reveals a series of contradictory knowledge and resource-based arguments supporting both a positive and negative association between alignment and agility. Knowledge sharing and associated behaviors among IT and business executives are an enabler of alignment and an important factor in sensing environmental threats and opportunities before deciding if, how, and when firms should respond. If this is correct, then alignment could help agility (Benaroch, 2002). However, knowledge sharing is also claimed to foster myopia and a desire to protect the status quo. Such behaviors place the exploitation of existing resources ahead of the exploration of new opportunities, potentially hurting agility (Benaroch, 2002). Once firms achieve alignment, especially if this involves a large-scale, multiyear IT investment or significant managerial personal effort, firms may prefer to maintain a state of stable equilibrium, extracting as much value as possible from their existing IT investments and making as little change as possible to IT or business strategy. The net result is that firms may downplay the need for change or the opportunity costs of failing to be agile since they have a vested interest in securing the status quo (Benaroch, 2002).

The current study seeks to determine whether in fact alignment helps or hurts agility which is the basic research question in the conducting study. Study is done by constructing nomological network for predicting performance of the organization. This allows test the direction of the relationship between alignment and agility but it also allows evaluate if agility mediates, fully or partially, the relationship between alignment and firm performance (Benaroch et al., 2006).

Summary of the study

The conceptual model has been used in conducting the research. First, despite differences in approaches and conceptualizations, the evidence indicates, with few exceptions, a strong positive association between alignment and firm performance. Alignment has been found to improve performance in general and in critical areas such as market growth, financial performance, innovation, and reputation, growth and income, and cost control. Second, moderators are playing an increasingly important role in the study of alignment (Benaroch et al., 2006). For example, research has found important differences in alignment based on the type of strategy adopted by firms. Based on recent research on the resource-based view of the firm, attention has also turned to considerations of IT resources. Hardware, software, and networking decisions can vary significantly from company to company even if the extent of fit between IT and ...