Investigating sustainable strategic alignment of IT-business and organisational performance: the role of business excellence in Jordan

Abstract

Researchers have called for more research on the causal relationships between IT investments and organizational performance. The findings of empirical studies have been inconclusive alongside the existence of the mixed conclusions on the relation between IT investment and organizational performance; this is partly caused by the neglecting of the role of sustainable strategic IT-business alignment as a construct supports the organizations in improving the positive effect of IT on organizational performance. Also, the lack of empirical attention to the antecedent factors affecting sustainable strategic IT-business alignment. Moreover, the elusive relationship between strategic IT-business alignment and performance requires more research into intermediate variables that could impact organizational performance. Although there is respectable literature on antecedents and consequences of strategic alignment; insignificant progress has been made in developing an overall theoretical understanding of the way organizations can leverage strategic alignment to impact performance positively within the dynamic business environment. This research develops a theoretical framework by using the theory of dynamic capability and Resource based view theory to investigate the impact of antecedent factors (i.e. shared domain knowledge between IT and business, and strategic IT flexibility) on sustainable strategic alignment. Also, the impact of sustainable strategic IT-business alignment on organizational performance through business excellence enablers (i.e. leadership excellence, process excellence, employees’ excellence, partnership and resources excellence, and policy and strategy excellence) as intermediary variables. This research adopts a quantitative methodology along with the positivist philosophical approach to investigate the hypothesized relationships within the theoretical framework. This research used a survey completed by IT and business managers and applied the structural equation modelling to analyze and validate the data. The result indicates there is a significant relationship between shared domain knowledge and sustainable strategic alignment, while strategic IT flexibility has no impact on sustainable strategic alignment. There are significant relationships between sustainable strategic alignment and business excellence enablers. Business excellence enablers have significant relationships with organizational performance. Thus, sustainable strategic alignment has, both directly and indirectly, a significant relationship with performance. The overall findings of this research indicate that business excellence enablers partially mediated the relationship between sustainable strategic alignment on performance. The contribution to the knowledge of this research is the development of a sustainable strategic IT-business alignment and organizational performance Framework for the IT and business managers, and practical guidelines for its effective implementation. The researcher recommends that future research should conduct a longitudinal investigation of the presented framework to support the theoretical underpinnings of this research. Also, it would be motivating to realize how far the finding is influenced by incorporating a qualitative case study or mixed-method research in a similar context.