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.

Review: information technology and organizational performance: an integrative model of it business value

E-learning is emerging as the new paradigm of modern education. Worldwide, the e-learning market has a growth rate of 35.6%, but failures exist. Little is known about why many users stop their online learning after their initial experience. Previous research done under different task environments has suggested a variety of factors affecting user satisfaction with e-Learning. This study developed an integrated model with six dimensions: learners, instructors, courses, technology, design, and environment. A survey was conducted to investigate the critical factors affecting learners' satisfaction in e-Learning. The results revealed that learner computer anxiety, instructor attitude toward e-Learning, e-Learning course flexibility, e-Learning course quality, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and diversity in assessments are the critical factors affecting learners' perceived satisfaction. The results show institutions how to improve learner satisfaction and further strengthen their e-Learning implementation.

http://water-msc.org/en/knowledge_base/successful_e_learning.pdf

What drives a successful e-Learning? An empirical investigation of the critical factors influencing learner satisfaction

As software migrates from local PCs to distant Internet servers, users and developers alike go along for the ride.

Cloud computing

Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature and the resource-based theory, this paper develops an integrative research model for assessing the diffusion and consequence of e-business at the firm level. Unlike the typical focus on adoption as found in the literature, we focus on postadoption stages, that is, actual usage and value creation. The model thus moves beyond dichotomous "adoption versus nonadoption" and accounts for the "missing link"--actual usage--as a critical stage of value creation. The model links technological, organizational, and environmental factors to e-business use and value, based on which a series of hypotheses are developed. The theoretical model is tested by using structural equation modeling on a dataset of 624 firms across 10 countries in the retail industry. To probe deeper into whether e-business use and value are influenced by economic environments, two subsamples from developed and developing countries are compared. The study finds that technology competence, firm size, financial commitment, competitive pressure, and regulatory support are important antecedents of e-business use. In addition, the study finds that, while both front-end and back-end capabilities contribute to e-business value, back-end integration has a much stronger impact. While front-end functionalities are becoming commodities, e-businesses are more differentiated by back-end integration. This is consistent with the resource-based theory because back-end integration possesses the value-creating characteristics of resources (e.g., firm specific, difficult to imitate), which are strengthened by the Internet-enabled connectivity. Our study also adds an international dimension to the innovation diffusion literature, showing that careful attention must be paid to the economic and regulatory factors that may affect technology diffusion across different countries.

/pdf/post-adoption-variations-in-usage-and-value-of-e-business-by-5fanihfetc.pdf

Post-Adoption Variations in Usage and Value of E-Business by Organizations: Cross-Country Evidence from the Retail Industry

A burning question for information systems (IS) researchers and practitioners is whether and how IT can build a competitive advantage in turbulent environments. To address this question, this study focuses on the business process level of analysis and introduces the construct of IT leveraging competence---the ability to effectively use IT functionalities. This construct is conceptualized in the context of new product development (NPD). IT leveraging competence is shown to indirectly influence competitive advantage in NPD through two key mediating links: functional competencies (the ability to effectively execute operational NPD processes) and dynamic capabilities (the ability to reconfigure functional competencies to address turbulent environments). Environmental turbulence is also shown to moderate the process by which IT leveraging competence influences competitive advantage in NPD. Empirical data were collected from 180 NPD managers.

Through the construct of IT leveraging competence, the study shows that the effective use of IT functionalities, even generic functionalities, by business units can help build a competitive advantage. The study also shows that the strategic effect of IT leveraging competence is more pronounced in higher levels of environmental turbulence. This effect is not direct: It is fully mediated by both dynamic capabilities and functional competencies. Taken together, these findings suggest that IS researchers should look beyond the direct effects of firm-level IT infrastructures and focus their attention on how business units can leverage IT functionalities to better reconfigure and execute business processes. In turbulent environments, focusing on these aspects is even more vital.

From IT Leveraging Competence to Competitive Advantage in Turbulent Environments: The Case of New Product Development

As information technology has grown in power and ubiquity, companies have come to view it as ever more critical to their success; their heavy spending on hardware and software clearly reflects that assumption. Chief executives routinely talk about information technology's strategic value, about how they can use IT to gain a competitive edge. But scarcity, not ubiquity, makes a business resource truly strategic--and allows companies to use it for a sustained competitive advantage. You only gain an edge over rivals by doing something that they can't. IT is the latest in a series of broadly adopted technologies--think of the railroad or the electric generator--that have reshaped industry over the past two centuries. For a brief time, as they were being built into the infrastructure of commerce, these technologies created powerful opportunities for forward-looking companies. But as their availability increased and their costs decreased, they became commodity inputs. From a strategic standpoint, they became invisible; they no longer mattered. that's exactly what's happening to IT, and the implications are profound. In this article, HBR's editor-at-large Nicholas Carr suggests that IT management should, frankly, become boring. It should focus on reducing risks, not increasing opportunities. For example, companies need to pay more attention to ensuring network and data security. Even more important, they need to manage IT costs more aggressively. IT may not help you gain a strategic advantage, but it could easily put you at a cost disadvantage. If, like many executives, you've begun to take a more defensive posture toward IT, spending more frugally and thinking more pragmatically, you're already on the right course. The challenge will be to maintain that discipline when the business cycle strengthens.

N.G. Carr

Papers

IT doesn't matter