Hajer Kefi

Bio: Hajer Kefi is an academic researcher from Paris School of Business. The author has contributed to research in topics: Organizational performance & Social network analysis. The author has an hindex of 14, co-authored 44 publications receiving 898 citations. Previous affiliations of Hajer Kefi include University of Paris & Paris Descartes University.

Managing culture creep: Toward a strategic model of user IT culture

Abstract: This article describes a framework of IT user culture that has implications for organizational IT strategy. The research was conducted in multiple settings with a grounded theory approach. The resulting framework is anchored to nine archetypal IT user profiles and encompasses their inter-group dynamics. By adopting a cultural perspective on IT usage, the framework can inform IT adoption and usage strategy with possible cultural antecedents and determinants of usage constructs common in IS research. The proposed framework suggests how management can influence the migration of IT user culture (culture creep). This framework can also enrich other acceptance models in order to more fully consider the human factor during IT implementation and adoption. The results underscore the importance of culture-customizing organizational IT socialization, training and evolution programs.

A Dynamic Capabilities Approach to Understanding the Impact of IT-Enabled Businesses Processes and IT-Business Alignment on the Strategic and Operational Performance of the Firm

Abstract: For the past two decades, researchers have sought to understand how IT investment leads to organizational success. However, this has proven to be an elusive goal. We posit that a new perspective is needed to better understand IT investment. We must examine how the investment is enacted and reflected within the firm. We will argue that investment is enacted within the technology resources and corresponding business processes and reflected in the IT-business alignment. Based on the literature within Dynamics Capabilities Theory and IT-Business Alignment, we will propose a theoretical model that seeks to understand the impact of IT-enabled business processes and IT-business alignment on the strategic and operational success of a firm and whether the impacts experience a lag effect. Using data from fifty-eight European firms over a two-year period, we will build a structural equation model to test our theoretical model. The results indicate that alignment is important for strategic and operational success in year 1 but not in year 2. Furthermore, of the two, alignment has a stronger impact on strategic than operational success. In contrast, business process performance has an impact on organizational performance in year 1 and year 2. For both years, the impact on operational success is stronger than the strategic one. We also notice that the impact of business process performance on operational success decreases between year 1 and year 2, whereas the impact on strategic success is stronger in year 2 than in year 1.

Trust as an organizing principle in offshoring intercultural relationships

Abstract: In this paper, we propose to investigate the role played by trust in structuring and shaping offshoring processes and to explore how cultural differences interfere within this interfim relationship. We have built upon the conception of trust as an organizing principle to address the two levels : the individual level and the organizational level. A case study has been conducted within a European Information Services Provider, its Tunisian offshore unit, and some European clients. Our findings indicate that trust is perceived as an influencing factor when it is situated at the interorganizational level and not at the interpersonal level. The role of culture has not been perceived in the same way by the two offshoring partners. While cultural differences are identified as an enabling factor in shaping and enhancing the inter-firm relationship by individuals belonging to the offshore unit (Tunisian culture), it has been considered as a constraining factor by the global vendor and the clients (European culture).