Impact of IT governance process capability on business performance: Theory and empirical evidence

Abstract

In the digital economy, firms' IT resource investments represent a significant portion of their capital investments. IT governance processes are critical for companies to decide what and how to deploy IT resources and measure and achieve the expected business benefits. This study introduces and measures the concept of IT governance process capability, which is defined as the firm's ability to identify, design, implement and leverage the following IT governance processes: IT decision-making, IT planning, IT infrastructure modernization, IT services delivery, and IT monitoring. We propose that IT governance process capability can improve IT performance, which in turn can improve business performance. Using a unique dataset from 881 global companies, we found support for the proposed research model. This paper contributes to the Information Systems (IS) literature on business value of IT by conceptualizing, evaluating, and introducing the construct of IT governance process capability and theorizing and proving how this core IT capability positively affects IT performance to enhance business performance.