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

Since DeLone and McLean (D&M) developed their model of IS success, there has been much research on the topic of success as well as extensions and tests of their model. Using the technique of a qualitative literature review, this research reviews 180 papers found in the academic literature for the period 1992–2007 dealing with some aspect of IS success. Using the six dimensions of the D&M model – system quality, information quality, service quality, use, user satisfaction, and net benefits – 90 empirical studies were examined and the results summarized. Measures for the six success constructs are described and 15 pairwise associations between the success constructs are analyzed. This work builds on the prior research related to IS success by summarizing the measures applied to the evaluation of IS success and by examining the relationships that comprise the D&M IS success model in both individual and organizational contexts.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fejis.2008.15.pdf

Measuring information systems success: models, dimensions, measures, and interrelationships

https://iranakhlagh.nipc.ir/uploads/m099_12051.pdf

Behavioral Ethics in Organizations: A Review:

This review summarizes and critiques the empirical ethical decision-making literature from 1996–2003. One hundred and seventy-four articles were published in top business journals during this period. Tables are included that summarize the findings by dependent variable – awareness, judgment, intent, and behavior. We compare this review with past reviews in order to draw conclusions regarding trends in the ethical decision-making literature and to surface directions for future research.

A Review of The Empirical Ethical Decision-Making Literature: 1996–2003

We draw on the resource-based theory to examine how information systems (IS) resources and capabilities affect firm performance. A basic premise is that a firm's performance can be explained by how effective the firm is in using information technology (IT) to support and enhance its core competencies. In contrast to past studies that have implicitly assumed that IS assets could have direct effects on firm performance, this study draws from the resource complementarity arguments and posits that it is the targeted use of IS assets that is likely to be rent-yielding. We develop the theoretical underpinnings of this premise and propose a model that interrelates IS resources, IS capabilities, IT support for core competencies, and firm performance. The model is empirically tested using data collected from 129 firms in the United States. The results provide strong support for the research model and suggest that variation in firm performance is explained by the extent to which IT is used to support and enhance a firm's core competencies. The results also support our proposition that an organization's ability to use IT to support its core competencies is dependent on IS functional capabilities, which, in turn, are dependent on the nature of human, technology, and relationship resources of the IS department. These results are interpreted and the implications of this study for IS research and practice are discussed.

Effect of Information Systems Resources and Capabilities on Firm Performance: A Resource-Based Perspective

Stakeholder theory provides a framework for investigating the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance. This relationship is investigated by examining how change in CSP is related to change in financial accounting measures. The findings provide some support for a tenet in stakeholder theory which asserts that the dominant stakeholder group, shareholders, financially benefit when management meets the demands of multiple stakeholders. Specifically, change in CSP was positively associated with growth in sales for the current and subsequent year. This indicates that there are short-term benefits from improving CSP. Return on sales was significantly positively related to change in CSP for the third financial period, indicating that long-term financial benefits may exist when CSP is improved.

An empirical investigation of the relationship between change in corporate social performance and financial performance: A stakeholder theory perspective

Investment in strategic information systems (SIS) is advocated by numerous authors as an important way for firms to seek competitive advantage. Yet there is still little empirical evidence that implementation of SIS results in long-term competitive advantages. This is primarily due to the difficulty of isolating economic benefits attributable to SIS implementation. In this research, thirty-five sample firms identified in the media for successful employment of SIS are analyzed for evidence of long-term financial success. This analysis is conducted over a thirteen-year period, centered around the year in which firms were identified for employment of SIS to either support growth, control costs, form alliances, differentiate products, or provide innovation of products/processes. Results show that the stock market reacted favorably to announcements that firms were using SIS, and in subsequent years those firms tended to be more productive and more profitable than their industries and than firms in their respective industries. The greatest profitability differences occurred in the years after SIS firms were initially recognized as successfully employing SIS or investing in SIS. Further, a subsample analysis revealed that the positive results were primarily driven by those firms employing SIS to support growth.

Strategic information systems and financial performance

This study provides empirical evidence on how dashboard measures are utilized in the evaluation of organizational performance. A hypothetical case, complete with dashboard measures, was presented to MBA students and graduate accounting students. Participants were asked to identify the importance of various measures and evaluate the organization's performance. Evidence gathered through the use of principal components analysis provided insight into the number of perspectives or components utilized in evaluating an organization's performance and the relative weight placed on each of those components by users of dashboard measurement systems. The evidence suggests that the number of performance measurement components and their relative composition is situational. They depend heavily on strategies of the organization. Bottom-line financial measures like return on invested capital and net profit, while perceived as more important than their nonfinancial counterparts, were not part of the extracted components suggesting that they were viewed as outcomes to be achieved by controlling more significant nonfinancial measures.

Components and relative weights in utilization of dashboard measurement systems like the Balanced Scorecard

Recent stories of corporate insiders avoiding losses and, in some cases, generating enormous personal profits as their companies crumbled have led investors to question the integrity of American business and the fairness of the United States stock markets. The SEC tries to ensure the fairness of the stock markets by making and enforcing laws against unfair practices such as insider trading. In the United States, when insiders trade stock based on non-public information, they have broken the law and betrayed the trust that has been placed in them. This study used student subjects to test the rela- tionship between the likelihood of trading based on insider information and subjective probabilities of deterrents and motivations for insider trading. Expected gain, guilt, cynicism, and fairness of laws were the determinants that had a significant relation- ship with the intent to trade based on insider infor- mation. This study also found support for prospect theory with regard to insider trading. The results indicate that subjects are more likely to trade based on insider information to avoid a loss than to achieve an abnormal gain. The study also finds evidence of social desirability response bias. Additional findings of the study were that subjects did not view the determinants for themselves in a manner consistent with how they viewed those same deterrents and motivations for other people. Also, a test of the effects of gender found that certainty and social stigma were significantly higher for female respondents than for male respondents.

An Experiment Testing the Determinants of Non-Compliance with Insider Trading Laws

Case studies in the information systems literature provide evidence that strategic information systems (SIS) have been used to gain a competitive advantage. In the organizational behaviour and strategic management literature, links have been shown to exist between environmental factors, organizational variables, strategic choice, and firm innovation. This study combines and extends these areas of research by examining relations among the innovative climate of organizations and the SIS strategies implemented, the perceived success of investments made in SIS, and general end-user involvement. The analysis reveals that the innovative thrust of an organization significantly affects the aggressiveness of the firm's strategy for investment in information technology, the perceived success of investments in SIS, and the involvement of end-users in application development. Additionally, there are significant relations between investment strategies selected and perceived success.

Robert M. Brown

Papers

An empirical investigation of the relationship between change in corporate social performance and financial performance: A stakeholder theory perspective

Strategic information systems and financial performance

Components and relative weights in utilization of dashboard measurement systems like the Balanced Scorecard

An Experiment Testing the Determinants of Non-Compliance with Insider Trading Laws

Organizational innovativeness, competitive strategy and investment success