IT Business Value Research Research Articles

The Effects of Information Technology in Retailer Performance and Survival: The Case of Store-Based Retailers

This research aims to empirically examine the effects of Information Technology (IT) in the performance and survival of store-based retailers. In particular, we investigate how two types of IT resources—Overall IT investment and Human IT resources—respectively influence retailer performance and survival. We draw on the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities, and IT business value research to develop the hypotheses. Our study employs a longitudinal panel dataset at the firm level obtained from secondary sources from 2010 to 2021. Our sample includes 95 store-based public retailers in the U.S. and has 654 firm-year observations in total. We employ the dynamic panel model and binary logistic regression method to investigate the effects of IT resources on retailer performance and survival, respectively. Our empirical results indicate that while overall IT investment has a positive effect on a retailer’s survival, human IT resources positively influence performance. In addition, stronger performance leads to greater survival likelihood. The findings provide important theoretical, managerial and policy implications concerning the business value of IT in the retailing context.

Lost in translation: IT business value research and resource complementarity—an integrative framework, shortcomings and future research directions

Despite longstanding research efforts, there is still ambiguity surrounding the business value created by IT. To approach this conundrum, research focus has progressed from an isolated investigation of IT to the assessment of complementarity between IT and different non-IT resources such as work practices or decision structures. However, incoherence around the characteristics and scope of these complementary non-IT resources has created a fragmented body of research, preventing a sustainable knowledge creation. Thus, in this paper we synthesize the dispersed research efforts, identify shortcomings in the extant literature, and derive opportunities for future research. Specifically, we present a converging definition of complementary non-IT resources and specify their role in the value creation process from IT by viewing it through three distinct lenses: microeconomic theory, resource-based view, and contingency theory. We structure current research efforts by organizing complementary non-IT resources into distinct categories, namely strategy, structure, practices, processes, and culture (organizational resources), top management support, internal relations, and external relations (relational resources), worker skill (non-IT human resources), non-IT physical resources, as well as internal funds and external funds (financial resources). Finally, we highlight five important shortcomings in the current literature, such as the predominant use of reductionist approaches or monolithic IT measures, and make actionable recommendations to resolve them.

Data analytics in small and mid-size enterprises: Enablers and inhibitors for business value and firm performance

A critical question arises as to whether data analytics (DA) can bring value and improve organizational performance. The benefit offered by DA can be achieved only when organizations are able to direct their attention on the conditioning factors that amplify business value. At the same time, organizations should cautiously resolve the issues that dampen DA business value. This study applied resource-based view (RBV) and the dual factor concept to understand such factors within the Small and Mid-size Enterprises (SMEs) context. The results revealed that information and systems qualities were the catalysts for data analytics business value, whereas lack of understanding and concerns over data security and privacy were the most salient predictors that could prevent SMEs from realizing DA business value. Our study highlights the importance of understanding both enablers and inhibitors in IT business value research. We also offer strategies to stakeholders to help SMEs realize DA business value.

Does Industry Classification Matter in IT Business Value Research?

Studies which examine the effect of IT on firm performance make the implicit assumption that the choice of industry classification (e.g., SIC instead of NAICS) and the level of aggregation (e.g., 2-digit SIC instead of 4-digit SIC) is unlikely to affect the results. Given that practically none of the studies in our literature review has tested the robustness of their results to an alternative industry classification method, we do not know whether this choice matters (i.e., we don’t know whether the evidence generated from this stream of research is robust). To answer this question, we replicated three studies (Bharadwaj 2000; Chae et al. 2014; Santhanam and Hartono 2003) and found that results are likely to differ if we change the classification method and/or the level of aggregation within a given industry classification method. We encourage IT researchers to replicate prior studies to assess the sensitivity of their results to such choices as well as encouraging future studies to consider implementing robustness checks. The need to consider such robustness checks spans all fields (e.g., accounting, strategic management, and marketing) that use statistical analysis which requires control for role of industry.

Differential effects of information technology on competitive positioning

PurposeInformation technology (IT), combined with complementary resources, can contribute to companies' competitive positioning. However, to assess the contribution of IT to value with respect to the contribution of complementary resources, it is crucial to understand the means by which IT creates value.Design/methodology/approachThis paper synthesizes empirical research on the inherent capabilities of IT and their moderating role to build an integrative model.FindingsWe found that IT creates value through three inherent capabilities: transactional, exchange and codification capabilities. These capabilities can be regarded as moderators of the relationship between IT and competitive advantage. This moderating role of IT in competitive positioning is illustrated by examples from previous empirical publications.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper contributes to IT business value (ITBV) literature by developing an integrative model that (1) conceptualizes an aspect of IT value creation, which, thus far, has received only limited attention (namely, inherent capabilities) and (2) illustrates the moderating role of these capabilities in competitive positioning.Practical implicationsInherent capabilities provide the theoretical foundation for a nuanced understanding of IT contribution with respect to complementary resources. This understanding may support IT executives in deriving adequate measurements and, thus, account for the differential effects of IT.Originality/valueCompared to the literature, the proposed model represents a more coherent and holistic perspective of ITBV. Thus, the model may constitute a foundation for future ITBV research and promote more detailed analytic perspectives of ITBV.

Big data analytics capabilities: a systematic literature review and research agenda

With big data growing rapidly in importance over the past few years, academics and practitioners have been considering the means through which they can incorporate the shifts these technologies bring into their competitive strategies. To date, emphasis has been on the technical aspects of big data, with limited attention paid to the organizational changes they entail and how they should be leveraged strategically. As with any novel technology, it is important to understand the mechanisms and processes through which big data can add business value to companies, and to have a clear picture of the different elements and their interdependencies. To this end, the present paper aims to provide a systematic literature review that can help to explain the mechanisms through which big data analytics (BDA) lead to competitive performance gains. The research framework is grounded on past empirical work on IT business value research, and builds on the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities view of the firm. By identifying the main areas of focus for BDA and explaining the mechanisms through which they should be leveraged, this paper attempts to add to literature on how big data should be examined as a source of competitive advantage. To this end, we identify gaps in the extant literature and propose six future research themes.

A Theoretical Framework of IT-Enabled Operations Strategy: A Multi-Method Approach

The pervasiveness of information technology (IT) forces organizations to develop capabilities in order to leverage IT-oriented resources and processes in operations. However, the system of IT-oriented resources and processes that organizations need to develop to achieve operational competency remains unclear. Using a multi-method approach that combines quantitative and qualitative data analyses, this paper presents a theoretical framework of IT-enabled operations strategy that conceptualizes the role of IT capability in leveraging resources and processes for operational agility. Drawing on operations and IT business value research, we advance that IT enables operational agility through two dimensions: resource leveraging and process enhancing. From the perspective of resourced-based operations strategy, we explore the role of IT in resource leveraging by investigating the nonlinear relationship between IT infrastructure and IT reconfiguration. From the perspective of process-oriented operations strategy, we explore the role of IT in process enhancing by investigating the nonlinear relationship between IT coordination and IT integration. Our PLS results, based on a sample of 113 organizations in Europe, Asia and North America, show that the interaction between IT infrastructure and IT reconfiguration positively influences operational agility, hence showing complementarity between the two constructs, while the interaction between IT coordination and IT integration negatively affects operational agility, hence indicating substitutability between the two constructs. A series of 56 interviews were further conducted to validate the PLS results, and to provide finer grained explanation of the research model and quantitative findings. Our findings offer an alternative explanation of the inconsistent relationship between IT capability and operational agility found in the literature.

Assessing business value of Big Data Analytics in European firms

In the strategic management field, dynamic capabilities (DC) such as organizational agility are considered to be paramount in the search for competitive advantage. Recent research claims that IT business value research needs a more dynamic perspective. In particular, the Big Data Analytics (BDA) value chain remains unexplored. To assess BDA value, a conceptual model is proposed based on a knowledge-based view and DC theories. To empirically test this model, the study addresses a survey to a wide range of 500 European firms and their IT and business executives. Results show that BDA can provide business value to several stages of the value chain. BDA can create organizational agility through knowledge management and its impact on process and competitive advantage. Also, this paper demonstrates that agility can partially mediate the effect between knowledge assets and performance (process level and competitive advantage). The model explains 77.8% of the variation in competitive advantage. The current paper also presents theoretical and practical implications of this study, and the study's limitations.

Causality in information technology business value: a review

Purpose – Through a detailed review of Literature, the purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the state-of-the-art research about the process of information technology business value (ITBV) creation, a less-traversed direction in ITBV research, from the perspective of causality since a lack of causal reasoning may be disastrous for ITBV creation. Design/methodology/approach – With the help of eight keywords, ten databases were searched which fetched about 415 articles of which 22 were selected based on their relevance and proved as the base papers for classifying available literature. A further forward and reverse search fetched an additional 34 articles, resulting in a total of 56 articles which were reviewed in detail. Findings – The five main categories of literature which emerged are ITBV (General), ITBV benefits, mediating factors and synergy (which use of organization dynamic capability (ODC) as first stream of ITBV research), and IT-enabled organizational transformation (ITOT as second stream). ODC is fairly mature, however, ITOT will benefit from a further research. Research in the ITBV (General) category suggests the development of dynamic models as opposed to the prevalent static models of ITBV creation. Research limitations/implications – For the period 1990-2008, only the most important articles were included in the study and hence certain pre-2008 articles’ view might have been overlooked. Practical implications – The literature review will give practitioners a perspective to look at specific areas in the context of their organization to develop capabilities which will lead to enhanced ITBV creation. Originality/value – This review focusses on ITBV creation and helps move toward building of a dynamic holistic model of ITBV creation by providing only a bird’s eye view is provided of the most important articles from 1990 to 2008 but a comprehensive view of literature from 2008 to mid-2014.

Success of IT Deployment

IT business value (ITBV) research generally state that various “good” IT management and IT governance practices influence positively IT deployment success and organizational performance. This has proved hard to verify empirically. For this study, the authors analyzed factors that influence IT deployment success. First, the authors identified potential factors, then hypothesized about the relationships among and between the factors and finally integrated the hypotheses into a research model. The authors then empirically evaluated the hypotheses and the entire research model. Special attention was placed on the Business-IT alignment, IT management and the consistency of IT investments in relation to the cyclical behavior of the economy. The consistency of IT investment is a novel factor introduced in this study to the ITBV research. The authors used survey data of 212 responses collected from CxOs during an economic recession. Empirical results confirmed that all research model factors impacted positively on IT deployment success.

The business value of IT applications in CHJ: a cognitive study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to elicit the rich implications of IT business value for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the perspective of IT leaders. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses case study and the repertory grid technique to explore cognition of IT business value of the IT leader in Guangdong CHJ Industry Co., Ltd (CHJ), a fast-growing jewelry company in China. The paper further examines this cognitive structure of IT business value by using cluster analysis technique. Findings – This paper develops a six-category framework of IT business value from IT leaders' perspective, which provides insights for future research of IT applications in SMEs. Originality/value – This study contributes to IT business value research by providing empirically grounded insight from perspectives of IT leaders in SMEs. The identified IT business value framework can also serve as a practical tool to help managers comprehensively assess and evaluate IT applications in SMEs.

Exploring the Important Role of Organizational Factors in IT Business Value: Taking a Contingency Perspective on the Resource‐Based View

Despite the importance to researchers and practitioners of how information technology (IT) contributes to organizational performance, there is an ongoing debate about the extent of IT business value (ITBV) and how to measure ITBV. Recently, a number of researchers have applied resource‐based view (RBV) and contingency theory to investigating ITBV, with mixed results. Researchers have started to recognize that ITBV is closely associated with the synergies created from IT and a variety of complementary organizational factors, which might be an alternative way to explain these mixed results. Through a review of the literature, this paper assesses the current level of knowledge in ITBV research. It identifies that significant progress has been made in the research domain, but that in‐depth inquiry into ITBV is still needed. Based on RBV and contingency theory, a research framework has been developed. The framework suggests that firms might be able to gain significant performance improvements if IT resources are in alignment with additional organizational factors (i.e. organizational strategy, organizational process, organizational culture, organizational structure). The authors believe that this framework will be valuable in assisting researchers and practitioners in understanding the complex ITBV process.

The Impact of IT Resources on the IT Business Value

Recently, the Resource-based View (RBV) attracts more attention in IT business value research, as it serves as a theoretical framework for the identification of IT resources impacting firm performance. Although numerous empirical studies applying the RBV can be found, systematic research structuring the obtained knowledge is hardly available. Therefore, the authors conduct an evidence-based literature review to structure and consolidate empirical evidence from studies using the RBV as a theoretical foundation. The authors illustrate how different IT resources can be distinguished and classified by considering their operationalization. With the means of a research map, they illustrate the findings and evidence, pointing out contradictory results of how different classes of IT resources affect the IT business value in terms of the competitive advantage. The authors then discuss direct effects of IT resources on the competitive advantage as well as research gaps. Finally, they present implications regarding the RBV in IT business value research.

Analyzing IT business values – A Dominance based Rough Sets Approach perspective

The impact of information technology (IT) on the business value of a cooperation has been an active research area for more than two decades. Although it is widely agreed that IT has a positive impact on the business values of cooperations an in-depth understanding of the underlying structures is still missing. Especially due to the huge investments in IT, there is still a need to better understand how IT influences the performance of cooperations and business values. Generally, the data collected in IT business value research to be quantitative as well as of qualitative nature. While quantitative data can be examined by classic econometric methods the analysis of qualitative data requires special methods. In the case of ordinal data DRSA – Dominance based Rough Sets Approach has been proposed. DRSA can be applied to induce rules out of a decision table containing ordinal data. This method has already successfully applied to such diverse areas like customer relationship management and satisfaction analysis, or the technical diagnostic of a fleet of vehicles besides others. In this article we apply it for the first time to the analysis of IT business value. We use ordinal data of a survey on IT management strategies of Australian firms conducted by the Australian Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. The induces rules are interpreted and provide important insights into the impact of information technology on the business values of cooperations. Furthermore our study shows the potential of DRSA for information systems research where questionnaire are a widely applied technique to collect ordinal data.

Returns to IT excellence: Evidence from financial performance around information technology excellence awards

The resource-based view has been used in IT business value research to theorize and investigate the impact of unique IT capabilities on sustainable competitive advantages. Prior research has empirically documented a positive association between superior IT capabilities and firm performance. However, such analyses have focused on IT capabilities of firms in the early 1990s. In this study, we examine the impact of superior IT capabilities on firm performance over the 1988–2007 period, which allows us to consider the structural shifts in the return of IT capability over time. Our results suggest that firms with superior IT capabilities are able to attain higher firm performance levels until 1999. However, such performance advantage disappears in the post-1999 time period. We also find that a subset of firms that sustain high levels of IT capabilities during the period 1988 to 2007 continue to perform better than their peers. We conclude that managers are able to achieve superior firm performance if they are able to maintain high levels of IT capability over time.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN THE VALUE SHOP: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF POLICE INVESTIGATION PERFORMANCE

IT business value research examines the organizational performance impacts of information technology. In this paper, we apply the value configuration of the value shop to describe and measure organizational performance. The value shop consists of the five primary activities of problem understanding, solutions to problems, decisions on actions, implementation of actions, and evaluations of actions in an iterative problem-solving cycle. Police investigation work is defined as value shop activities. Our empirical study of Norwegian police results in significant relationships between information technology use and investigation performance for all primary activities. The most important primary activities for IT use are problem understanding and implementation of actions, as both significantly improve value shop performance.

Stages of knowledge management technology in the value shop: the case of police investigation performance

Abstract:This paper is concerned with relationships between the use of information technology at different stages of the knowledge management technology stage model and the performance of police investigation units. The model consists of four stages: officer‐to‐technology systems, officer‐to‐officer systems, officer‐to‐information systems, and officer‐to‐application systems. The model was applied for information technology business value research, which examines the organizational performance impacts of information technology. In this paper we applied the value configuration of the value shop to describe and measure organizational performance. Based on an empirical study of Norwegian police investigation units, this research found that officer‐to‐technology systems and officer‐to‐information systems are the most important systems to improve police investigations in the value shop.