Special Issue on Leveraging the IS Organization for Business Value Creation

Abstract

e are pleased to introduce this special issue of theJournal of Information Technology on Leveraging theIS Organization for Business Value Creation. Whileorganizations continue to seek ways to leverage informationtechnology (IT) to create business value (Petter et al., 2012),an ever-increasing rate of IT innovation combined with newservice delivery models presents unprecedented challenges(Yoo et al., 2010) and opportunities. The IS organization findsit very difficult to keep up with, let alone to lead, rapiddevelopment of mobile computing, social media, cloud com-puting, virtualization, business analytics, artificial intelligence,and the internet of things. The increased complexity of ITapplications and infrastructure forces organizations to spendmore resources in keeping the lights on and to allocate lessresources in creating new business value (Xia and Lee, 2005).Outsourcing, offshoring, and Software as a Service arechanging the traditional role and expectation of the ISorganization in delivering business value (Gregory et al.,2013). In-house proprietary systems have been largelyreplaced by standardized, off-the-shelf, open systems. Withthe commoditization of IT, every organization has access tothe same technology. Consequently, a sustainable source ofcompetitive advantage does not lie in technology per se but inthe business–IS collaboration that facilitates the realization ofthe potential value of technology. An organization createsbusiness value not only through its internal business–ISdialog, but also co-creates greater value by collaborating withother organizations, customers, and even the public through abroader business–IS dialog (Grover and Kohli, 2012).Creating the business value through IT has been one of themajorresearchtopicsintheISfield.Overthelastdecade,therehas been an important debate on whether or not IT matters asasource ofcompetitiveadvantage (Carr, 2003;DeJarnett etal.,2004). Furthermore, researchers and practitioners have beenengaged in a related debate on whether the IS organization is acost center or a value creator. While empirical evidencegenerally supports a positive effect of IT on organizationalperformance (Aral and Weill, 2007; Han et al., 2011; Kimet al., 2011), some of the fundamental questions aboutIT-value creation remain unaddressed or only partiallyaddressed. For example, the definition of business value ofIT is still ambiguous (Oz, 2005) and we have limitedunderstanding about the process by which IT contributesto business value and the role of the IS organization inthe process (Schryen, 2013). Furthermore, despite the long-standing interest in the digital government (Lee and Kwak,2012), little is understood about how IT creates value in thepublic sector and about the role the IS organization plays inthe value creation process.This special issue recognizes the continuing challenges andopportunities facing the IS organization in terms of creatingthe value for a variety of stakeholders. The special issue aimsto identify effective strategies, governance structures, capabil-ities, social actions, and business and technical processes thatenable IS organizations and teams to successfully delivermeaningful value to its stakeholders. It investigates the rolesthat IS professionals, managers, and teams play in creatingand co-creating value not only for commercial organizationsbut also for governments. Thirty-eight submissions werereviewed and five papers were eventually selected for thisspecial issue.The first paper by Anne Quaadgras, Peter Weill, and JeanneW. Ross, based on literature reviews and evidence from 20case studies, proposes a framework of management commit-ments consisting of strategic choice-making, development ofdigital platforms, working smarter with information, andaction-oriented assessment. This paper suggests that commit-ment is an overarching concept that brings together many oftheimportantmanagementpracticesidentifiedintheIT-valueliterature. The proposed framework, tested via a survey of 210firms, demonstrated that firms that have been more effectivein making such commitments have shown a higher businessimpact of IT on financial performance. The frameworkprovides a comprehensive understanding of the role ofmanagement commitment in terms of influencing the impactsof IT on organizations. Indeed, the framework would helppractitionersaswellasresearchers gain abetter understandingof the factors that influence the successful adoption and