Assessing Business-it Alignment in Networked Organizations

Concerns such as identifying ways to control costs, improve quality, increase effectiveness, and manage risk have become increasingly important for organizations as they face more and more pressure to gain and maintain their competitive edge. Business-IT alignment (B-ITa) is recognized as a solution to these concerns. Aligning IT with the business remains one of the top priorities for both business practitioners and researchers. Interest in B-ITa is stimulated by cases of organizations that have successfully aligned their IT to gain competitive advantage and to improve organizational performance. There is a considerable literature on B-ITa in single organizations. Within this broad scope of literature, a number of authors have stressed the importance of assessing B-ITa in order to plan B-ITa improvement actions. In support of this, these authors have developed maturity models (MMs). MMs describe the development of a specific domain over time. Based on maturity assessments, organizations know the extent to which processes in such domains are predictable. That is, organizations can be aware of whether a specific area is sufficiently refined and documented so that the activities in such area now have the potential to achieve their desired outcomes. However, B-ITa in collaborative networked organizations (CNOs) has hardly been studied. Yet, this is important because improved B-ITa entails a more efficient use of IT in the CNO supporting the integration of information systems and processes across organizational boundaries. CNOs form the core of a new discipline that focuses on the structure, behavior, and dynamics of networks of independent organizations that collaborate using IT to better achieve common goals. Notwithstanding the effective application of current B-ITa MMs for single organizations, to the best of our knowledge at the time of writing this dissertation, there is no MM that specifically addresses the processes needed for achieving alignment between business and IT in CNOs. In response, this dissertation introduces the ICoNOs MM, a MM to assess B-ITa in CNOs. The ICoNOs MM presents a roll up of recommendations – e.g., coordination mechanisms, implementation strategies and organizational changes, in the form of process areas, specific goals and practices. Through its maturity levels, the ICoNOs MM provides improvement routes for those domains that are the most important for achieving alignment in CNOs. We believe that achieving B-ITa in CNOs is more complex than in single organizations because in collaborative settings, B-ITa is driven by goals of different independent organizations commonly with no centralized decision-making processes. Throughout this dissertation, we present the results of four literature surveys, one focus group, and six case studies. Based on these conceptual and empirical research activities, we designed and validated the components underlying the ICoNOs MM and the model itself.