Effective IT Governance Research Articles

Antecedents of IT Governance Effectiveness: An Empirical Examination in Brazilian Firms

ABSTRACTAlthough some authors have stated that effective IT governance is crucial for any organization to achieve its corporate goals, little empirical research is available supporting the assumptions regarding the factors that determine the effectiveness of IT governance. This paper analyzes the main IT governance domains (i.e., IT strategic alignment, IT risk management, IT value delivery, IT resource management, and IT performance management) and the presence of several IT governance mechanisms that constitute antecedents of IT governance effectiveness. We used partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling to test our hypotheses based on survey data from 87 large Brazilian companies. Our results show IT strategic alignment, IT value delivery, IT risk management, and IT performance management have a positive and significant impact on the effectiveness of IT governance. Further, we found associations of structural, procedural, and relational mechanisms with the main IT governance domains suggesting their adoption can improve IT governance within organizations.

An Examination of Effective IT Governance in the Public Sector Using the Legal View of Agency Theory

In the private sector, research on information technology (IT) governance has frequently applied the classical view of agency theory and focused on the controlling role played by the board of directors in constraining a potentially opportunistic manager/agent. However, in the public sector, the board of directors does not exist and there may be less need to focus on the controlling aspect of governance and more need to focus on the politically challenging distribution of state resources. In this U.S.-state–based study, we adopt, apply, and extend the legal view of agency theory past its sole focus on the board of directors as the solitary mediating hierarch in order to examine the strategic mediating hierarch role played by the state legislature and then conceptualize and test for the existence of a tactical mediating hierarch played by the IT steering committee and the production role of an independent Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) in using a fee-for-service funding model. We apply these concepts to extend theory to examine the combination of roles that lead to superior outcomes for the state (the principal) versus those necessary for the IT department (the agent). Our results show that by shifting from the control-oriented view of governance in the private sector to a more mediating view in the public sector, important practices may be portable between the public and private sector, despite their widely differing structures.

Corporate governance and information technology in fraud prevention and detection

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the role of corporate governance and information technology in fraud prevention and detection within the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Design/methodology/approach This study uses a survey of financial accountants and internal and external auditors to assess their perceptions of the effectiveness of IT and corporate governance as measured in terms of the audit committee’s effectiveness, internal audit functions, external audit functions, culture of honesty and employee training programmes in preventing and detecting fraud in the UAE. Findings The results indicate that corporate governance has a moderate role in preventing and detecting fraud in the UAE and that IT has the same role as traditional fraud prevention and detection techniques. The results also show no significant difference between internal and external auditors in their use of technological and traditional techniques during the course of audits. Research limitations/implications The findings suggest that the senior management and boards of directors must better understand the importance of their oversight function. The finding that a culture of honesty has a low positive impact on fraud prevention and detection in the UAE indicates that chief executive officers and boards of directors must make more efforts to set the “tone at the top” to improve the corporate environment in terms of integrity and ethics, among other factors. Furthermore, as IT and traditional techniques provide the same function, senior management and boards of directors must be alerted to the importance of developing systematic approaches to fraud investigation that involve greater reliance on technological approaches. Practical implications The moderate role of corporate governance suggests that senior management and boards of directors must better understand the importance of their oversight function to meet their obligations and fiduciary responsibilities to stakeholders. Furthermore, greater adoption of IT to detect and prevent fraud contributes to developing a systematic approach to fraud investigation, capable of identifying unusual activity using effective software. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on the role of corporate governance and IT in preventing and detecting fraud, particularly for Middle Eastern countries and other emerging nations. The study may provide insights to academics and practitioners in the UAE and their international counterparts.

Successful IT governance in SMES: An application of the Technology–Organisation–Environment theory

Background: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the bedrock of most economies of the world. Due to global competition, SMEs are making significant investments in information technology (IT) to improve their business processes. However, a study of extant literature on the subject of IT governance in SMEs has highlighted the fact that the implementation of structural controls to enable effective IT governance is often difficult, resulting in project failures and loss of income.Objectives: This paper seeks to examine ways by which SMEs can successfully adapt a suitable IT governance framework to manage its IT investments.Method: A content analysis of extant literature was done in this paper. The Technology–Organisation–Environment theory forms the theoretical basis of the proposed key pillars for an SME to evaluate its capability to embark on an IT governance initiative in order to obtain the desired results.Results: From the content analysis of relevant literature, the paper proposed three key pillars which should be in place before an SME adapts any IT governance framework to manage its IT investments. The key pillars are considered an important link between strategic IT governance plans and measurable successful outcomes.Conclusion: It was concluded that an SME would be better positioned for successful IT governance if it were to conduct a careful analysis of the components of these key pillars before embarking on the implementation of any IT governance framework.

Perceptions of Information Technology Processes Among IT Decision Makers in Thailand

Information technology (IT) has become an essential part of organizations and a pervasive element in all business processes. Because IT is so critical to business in today’s dynamic environment, it is essential that organizations align their business processes with IT strategy in order to facilitate business changes and to cope with other developments in the global economy. Complete synchronization calls for a business-IT alignment that can be achieved through effective IT governance. The adoption of proper IT governance processes can enhance an organization’s strategic gain. Among businesses in Thailand, however, fewer than half have fully adopted IT governance processes. This study explores the concerns of IT decision makers in Thailand with regard to these processes, using four stages of the perceptual process: exposure, attention, interpretation, and response. The study used a semi-structured interview to solicit the opinions of IT decision makers with experience in IT management and with the authority to make decisions relating to IT governance. The results indicate that, although not all governance processes are implemented because of time and cost factors, the governance processes that are implemented are those with a high impact and high importance level. The results show, furthermore, that the four factors influencing an organization’s selection processes are organization size, strategy, structure, and industry.

IT Governance-An Integrated Framework and Roadmap: How to Plan, Deploy and Sustain for Improved Effectiveness

The issues, opportunities and challenges of effectively managing and governing an organization’s Information Technology (IT) demands, investments and resources has become a major concern of the Board and executive management in enterprises on a global basis. A rapidly growing number of organizations have become increasingly dependent on a broad array of technologies to manage and grow their businesses. IT is an integral part of most organizations today and will certainly become more critical in the future. This paper proposes a comprehensive and integrated IT governance framework and roadmap which identifies the appropriate current and emerging best practices methodologies for each of the major IT Governance components that must be addressed in any approach and is critical for companies to achieve more effective alignment and management of IT. The framework can serve as a guideline for any organization to select and customize the appropriate approach applicable to its environment, plans, priorities, capabilities and available resources. The findings and implications are based on extensive primary and secondary research and are grounded in a review of current and emerging industry and government best practices and select case studies of leading global and regional organizations based on the recently published book by the author entitled, “Implementing Effective IT Governance and IT Management,” published by Van Haren Publishers, 2015.

IT Governance Mechanisms in Higher Education

Information technology (IT) has become essential in supporting the growth and sustainability of all types of organizations. Higher education institutions are a special type of organization where technological infrastructure consists of a variety of applications, different platforms, academic systems, cloud applications and heterogeneous technologies. All these technologies for supporting the research, teaching and administrative processes require an effective IT governance framework. The framework of IT governance is composed of structures, processes and relational mechanisms. Each one of these mechanisms has a function and when implemented, should affect the organization positively. The process of identifying the right mechanisms to a specific context is a complex endeavor. This paper looks at the IT governance mechanism that higher education institutions have implemented. We did an extensive literature review making use of databases such as Web of Science, IEEE, SCOPUS, or AIS eLibrary for selecting case studies. We discuss these practices in the context of higher education. To continue this research and improve the IT governance body of knowledge for higher education institutions, future works are pointed out.

An analysis of Cobit 5 as a framework for the implementation of it governance with reference to King III

Owing to the complexity and general lack of understanding of information technology (“IT”), the management of IT is often treated as a separately managed value-providing asset. This has resulted in IT rarely receiving the necessary attention of the board, thus creating a disconnect between the board and IT. The King Code of Governance for South Africa 2009 (hereafter referred to as “King III”) provides principles and recommended practices for effective IT governance in order to create a greater awareness at board level. King III, however, provides no detailed guidance with regard to the practical implementation of these principles and practices. It is worth noting that numerous international guidelines are recommended within King III that can be adopted as frameworks to assist in the effective implementation of IT governance. COBIT 5 provides, as part of its governance process practices, related guidance activities linking it to the seven IT governance principles of King III, thus making it a practical framework for the implementation of King III recommendations. This study sought to establish the extent to which the governance processes, practices and activities of COBIT 5 are mapped to the recommended practices of IT governance as highlighted in King III in order to resolve COBIT 5 as the de facto framework for IT governance in terms of King III. The study found that though King III principles and practices may be interpreted as vague with regard to how to implement IT governance principles, COBIT 5 succeeds in bridging the gap between control requirements, technical issues, information systems and business risk, which consequently results in a better facilitation of IT governance. The study also revealed that COBIT 5 contains additional activities to assist the board in more transparent reporting of IT performance and conformance management to stakeholders as well activities which enable the connection of resource management with human resources and financial planning.

IT Governance Landscape: Toward Understanding the Effective IT Governance Decision-Making

In recent years, IT governance has made it possible for organizations to meet and realize their IT business value, and mitigate the risk associated with IT to fulfill different strategic objectives. However, the challenges for effectively governing an organization’s Information Technology (IT) remain a major concern for the Board and executive management in many organizations today. A number of researchers have attempted to develop holistic IT governance frameworks but there is still much room for improvement in fusing IT governance into one process. More considerable work is needed to further the understanding of IT governance, and to develop a successful holistic instrument of IT governance. The aim of this paper is to provide an understanding of IT/ Business decision-making based on IT governance perspective and offers more precise insights into how the decision of IT and IT governance correlate to investment. Most organizations are currently searching for methods and practices for the solution of decision-making, optimization of IT processes with a key of IT governance component. We proposed an instrument of ITG decision-making called ‘Effective ITG landscape’. It can help managers to have a good understanding of IT governance and provides guidance for IT governance implementing.

Making Cybersecurity Effective: The Five Governing Principles for Implementing Practical IT Governance and Control

With any complex project deployment, a clearly understood and reliable infrastructure can only be substantiated through a rational and explicit planning process. This planning process is often described as information technology (IT) governance. Governance-based control infrastructures are valuable and can provide the basis for control over every form of organizational resource. Given the level of sophistication of malicious agents, an information and communication technology management control system with even one hole in it is a business catastrophe waiting to happen. Strong executive sponsorship is the prerequisite for effective IT governance and the proper way to establish information security is to engineer an array of interlocking best practices, from a commonly accepted model of best practice. Organizations must define substantive policies, assign roles and responsibilities, educate employees and describe and enforce accountability. This paper presents an understanding and mastery of five strategic principles of cybersecurity best practices based on the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (CSF).

How Information Technology Governance Mechanisms and Strategic Alignment Influence Organizational Performance: Insights from a Matched Survey of Business and IT Managers

Previous research has proposed different types for and contingency factors affecting information technology governance. Yet, in spite of this valuable work, it is still unclear through what mechanisms IT governance affects organizational performance. We make a detailed argument for the mediation of strategic alignment in this process. Strategic alignment remains a top priority for business and IT executives, but theory-based empirical research on the relative importance of the factors affecting strategic alignment is still lagging. By consolidating strategic alignment and IT governance models, this research proposes a nomological model showing how organizational value is created through IT governance mechanisms. Our research model draws upon the resource-based view of the firm and provides guidance on how strategic alignment can mediate the effectiveness of IT governance on organizational performance. As such, it contributes to the knowledge bases of both alignment and IT governance literatures. Using dyadic data collected from 131 Taiwanese companies (cross-validated with archival data from 72 firms), we uncover a positive, significant, and impactful linkage between IT governance mechanisms and strategic alignment and, further, between strategic alignment and organizational performance. We also show that the effect of IT governance mechanisms on organizational performance is fully mediated by strategic alignment. Besides making contributions to construct and measure items in this domain, this research contributes to the theory base by integrating and extending the literature on IT governance and strategic alignment, both of which have long been recognized as critical for achieving organizational goals.

The Contingent Role of Centrality in IT Network Governance: An Empirical Examination

Since the importance of collaboration across organizational boundaries for firms’ competitive success continues to grow dramatically, research on inter-organizational relationships has become prominent in business and information systems (IS) research. Particularly inter-organizational networks have been widely recognized by both academics and practitioners as an important form of multi-organizational governance. Those networks rely heavily on integrated information systems in order to generate value from co-creation, co-development, and co-innovation. Therefore, the integration of IS across partnering organizations has become the backbone of collaboration in inter-organizational networks. Despite the efforts invested in the field of IT governance arrangements, research still lacks empirical evidence on the relationship between governance choices and different internal and external network factors and their influence on governance effectiveness. Thus, this study sets out to expand the understanding of how network organizations can effectively develop and manage IS integration in order to co-create value. It contributes with a characterization of IT network governance arrangements along the dimension from highly centralized to highly decentralized IT related decision making in networks. Moreover, by drawing on contingency theory this paper develops a theoretical model proposing effective governance arrangements according to six contingency variables. A multiple case study methodology is applied in order to validate the theoretical relationships, and the data supports the basic structure of the research model. Our findings suggest that network size, network structure centralization, functional diversity, network trust, IT infusion, and IT competence are important factors for the understanding of effective IT governance arrangements in inter-organizational networks. The paper offers insights into the causal mechanisms behind the theoretical relationships and is a first step towards a more differentiated perspective on contingent governance structures in inter-organizational networks.

IT Governance in a Public Organization in a Developing Country: A Case Study of a Governmental Organization

Abstract The application of Information Technology Governance (ITG) was motivated by the private sector in the 90s, as a way to achieve excellence, provide new services, and increase profitability of IT investments. Therefore the organizations from the public sector has shortly followed those from the private sector realizing the benefits of having an effective ITG implementation that could better serve the implementation of IT plans, projects and programs in their organizations. Reviewing the research literature in this field, we have found a shortage of studies regarding ITG implementation into the public sector organizations in developing countries. Research has been conducted mainly in organizations from the private sector and specifically in the developed countries and very few in the public sector organizations in developing countries. Therefore this research has focused on the application of ITG in a public organization particularly in a governmental organization in a developing country by analysing ITG practices in place. The research method used in this study was interpretive case study and the data collection was done through interviews as primary data together including secondary data collected from progress reports, policies and procedure reports of the governmental organization. The results of this research concluded, that there was an unintentional implementation of ITG in the studied governmental organization and that there is a need to improve the ITG structures, processes and relational mechanisms that will promote accountability of the IT projects and contribute to an effective ITG implementation in this organization.

GOVERNANÇA DE TI EM ORGANIZAÇÕES PÚBLICAS: COMO A EFETIVIDADE PERCEBIDA SE RELACIONA COM TRÊS MECANISMOS CLÁSSICOS

Information technology (IT) governance has received a lot of attention lately, with a growing strategic importance currently being given to IT by both public and private organizations. This justifies the existence of a body of scientific literature on IT governance, to which this paper belongs and makes an attempt to contribute to. Towards that end, an empirical study was performed involving 57 public organizations of the Brazilian federal administration, examining the relationship between three governance mechanisms – IT steering committee, IT solution manager, and IT investment portfolio management process and IT governance effectiveness. Based on the literature review, a conceptual model was developed to express the causal relations that these constructs were expected to hold with one another. Through a custom-designed questionnaire submitted to over 180 federal public employees, the causal model was tested using mediation analysis and mostly confirmed. Results indicate that Portfolio Management should always be taken into account for analyses that aim to evaluate the effects of IT steering committees and solution managers on IT governance effectiveness. This means that a nonexistent or an underperforming Portfolio Management Process can lead to a reduction or cancellation of the potential positive contributions of the other two mechanisms to IT governance. By informing decision makers and public managers at some of the main federal public organizations in the country on how to plan and deploy IT to promote a more effective governance, the conclusions presented herein fill a previous knowledge gap in the complementarity and the joint effectiveness of three IT governance mechanisms on the IT dynamics of key public organizations.

Business Value through Controlled IT: Toward An Integrated Model of IT Governance Success and Its Impact

Owing to increasing regulatory pressure and the need for aligned information technology (IT) decisions at the interface of business and IT, IT governance (ITG) has become important in both academia and practice. However, knowledge of integrating the determinants and consequences of ITG success remains scarce. Although some studies investigate individual aspects of ITG success and its impact, none combine these factors into a comprehensive and integrated model that would lead to a more complete understanding of the ITG concept. To address this gap, our research aims at understanding what factors influence and result from successful ITG, and at determining how they can be translated into a model to explain ITG success and the impact thereof. Therefore, we conducted interviews with 28 IT decision makers in 19 multinational organizations headquartered in Europe. Our study synthesizes the fragmented previous research, provides new empirical insights gathered on the basis of a clear ITG conceptualization, and suggests three innovative constructs heretofore not related to ITG. Moreover, we elucidate in a holistic model the factors that make ITG successful, how ITG contributes to an IT organization's success, and how it eventually unfolds throughout the overall organization. The resulting model allows organizational decision makers to develop an effective ITG implementation and to explain the implications of successful ITG, thus providing a justification for the respective investments.

Effective IT Governance in the Albanian Public Sector – A Critical Success Factors Approach

AbstractThis research grew out of the work of Nfuka & Rusu (2010), who identified eleven critical success factors (CSFs) that need to be considered for effective information technology (IT) governance in the public sector. It is motivated by the limited literature on CSFs for effective IT governance, especially from the point of view of a developing country. Our objective is to advance our understanding on CSFs for effective IT governance in the Albanian public sector. Adopting a holistic approach, we propose a new construct of analysis for CSFs. This construct blends in two components. The first is IT governance as an ongoing process and encompasses IT Governance Institute (ITGI) defined focus areas (ITGI 2003). The second is related to business‐IT alignment and consists of three dimensions: human, social, and intellectual (Schlosser et al. 2012). Using case study research method, we gather data from five government organizations. Our results supports those of Nfuka & Rusu (2010). From the Albanian public sector perspective, they indicate a greater emphasis on CFSs related to resource management focus area and human dimension. Limitations on IT resources, knowledge and culture (Nfuka & Rusu 2010) and insufficient IT resource management (Yahya 1993) provide the explanation for such results. In addition, IT departments are viewed as service providers. This perception further motivates the emphasis on resource management.

Intelligent IT governance decision-making support framework for a developing country's public university

Decision support systems DSS can be helpful tools in university's planning and management. Decision support systems can contribute to efficient exchange of information between experts, stakeholders, decision makers and laypeople. However, intelligent Information technology IT governance decision support system for public universities is yet to be thoroughly investigated. This is because IT governance ITG is just evolving as a new paradigm to take care the stakeholders' expectations in leveraging IT with business goals. This study explores issues of IT governance and the suggestion for ITG Intelligent decision making support system IDMSS in a public university in Malaysia. The interviews and documents were analysed to generate themes. The findings show the need for effective IT governance in the university. This will enable optimal usage of IT resources, which are expected to have an impact on the university's performance. The findings is aligned to Control Objectives for Information and related Technology COBIT framework and then several proposals from extant researches on IDMSS are described to form a basis for an intelligent ITG DMSS framework suitable for adoption in the context of public Institutes of Higher learning in Malaysia.

Culture Influence on IT Governance

Managers face enormous challenges today to plan the decision rights and responsibilities in order to reach desired IT behaviors which are aligned with business objectives of organizations. This is known as IT governance and is ranked as one of the firms' top concerns. Not surprisingly, it is crucial for organizations to find the affecting factors on IT governance and solve the problems associated with it. Culture in national, organizational or group level is an affecting factor in organizations that can play a role in IT governance and this role is rarely explored in academic research. This paper provides a literature review investigating the influence of culture on IT governance. The research purpose is to identify how culture and IT governance in the companies can be linked together and promote this area for future research. The literature review is done systematically and the findings are classified by using an IT governance framework with three main components of structures, processes and relational mechanisms. The results indicate there is an influence from national and organizational culture on IT governance. However, the number of studies is very few and there is still a lack of knowledge on how culture can influence IT governance. This research calls upon a further research on culture impact on achieving an effective IT governance implementation in organizations.

정부통합전산센터의 IT 거버넌스 핵심성공요인 도출에 관한 연구

정부통합전산센터는 정부부처별로 운영 중인 정보시스템을 통합하여 공동 활용체계를 구축하기 위해 2005년에 설립되었다. 정부통합전산센터의 구축과 운영 과정에서 다양한 IT 거버넌스 이슈들이 잠재되어 있다. 조직이 효과적인 IT 거버넌스를 구현하기 위해서는 이슈별 핵심성공요인들(CSFs)을 확인하는 것이 중요하다. 그러나 공공부문에서 IT 거버넌스의 핵심성공요인을 다룬 연구들은 많지 않다. 본 연구에서는 문헌고찰과 전문가 패널의 의견수렴을 통해 정부통합전산센터의 IT 거버넌스 핵심성공요인들을 도출한 후 실무적인 시사점을 제공하였다. 본 연구의 결과는 정부통합전산센터의 효과적인 IT 거버넌스 구현에 기여할 수 있을 것으로 사료된다. The Korean Government Integrated Data Center (GIDC) was established as a comprehensive solution to integrate information systems spread across each government agency in 2005. In the process of building and operating the GIDC, various IT governance issues are potential. To implement the effective IT governance in an organization, it is important to confirm some critical success factors (CSFs) of each issue. However, there are few studies on this subject in the public sector. This study tried to draw several CSFs through literature review and expert panel opinions and provide some practical implications. The results of this research are expected to contribute to the establishment of good IT governance in the GIDC.

IT Governance Issues in Korean Government Integrated Data Center

Korean government established the GIDC (Government Integrated Data Center) as a comprehensive solution by integrating information systems spread across each government department. It has played a crucial role to expedite the growth of Korean e-Government. It has a variety of IT governance issues because it is essentially involved with conflicts among the stakeholders. However, there are few studies on the IT governance issues within the GIDC. This paper explores some of the existing IT governance issues through literature review and derives the most important IT governance issues by collecting data from an expert panel. Then, this paper provides some practical implications. The results of this study are expected to be able to contribute to the establishment of effective IT governance in the public sector.