Board involvement in Information Technology (IT) governance and the antecedents and consequences of such involvement are examined from both a theoretical and practical perspective. Practitioner and academic IT governance literature highlight the need for increased board involvement in IT governance; however, it seems that many corporate boards do not practice a formalized style of IT governance, while those that do, face significant challenges. A gap clearly is seen as in spite of the potential benefits of board IT governance and the costs of ineffective oversight, there has been little field-based research in this area, nor adequate application of theory. This research addresses this gap by developing and testing an exploratory multi-theoretic framework of board IT governance. Drawing upon strategic choice and institutional theories, and Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety, a model of the antecedents (organization factors and board attributes) of board IT governance and its consequences (financial performance and operational performance) is both developed and tested. Unlike previous studies, board IT governance is designated as a central construct in this model rather than a secondary factor. Constructs of board IT governance and IT competency are explored and multi-item measures for both constructs are developed. Board IT governance is conceptualized as the extent of offensive and defensive board oversight activities, while IT competency is conceptualized as the extent of IT expertise (IT knowledge, experience and training) and IT governance mechanisms (structures, processes and relational mechanisms). Detailed interviews with board members enabled a preliminary examination of the theoretical framework. To further test the propositions in the theoretical framework and to validate the measures for the board IT governance and IT competency constructs, an online survey was administered to corporate directors across Canada. Exploratory Factor Analysis and Ordinary Least Squares multiple regression were used to analyze responses from 188 directors. The board IT governance and IT competency constructs were well supported by the data. In addition, the results show that the organizational factors explain 28% of the variance in board IT governance, and that board attributes explain 39% more of the variance, for a total explained variance in board IT governance of approximately 68%. The results also show that board IT governance has a positive impact on operational performance, explaining 19% of the variance in operational performance. However, the proposed impact of board IT governance on financial performance, and the impacts of ‘fit’ between role of IT and board IT governance approach on financial and operational performance were not supported by the survey results. Overall, this research makes a theoretical contribution by: focusing on the board’s role in IT governance; developing a multi-theoretical model of the antecedents and consequences of board IT governance; developing measures of board IT governance and board IT competency, and; empirically assessing the antecedents and consequences of board IT governance.

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Latterly, ¡§corporate governance¡¨ has become an important idea all over the world. There are many companies around the world went bankrupt. Those are often because that their directors or CEOs did not manage the company for the profit of their shareholders, but for their self. In order to make their benefits, the directors and CEOs even did many things illegally to harm the interest of the company. In order to stop this trend, the administration all over the world attempts to reform their corporate governance system. Although the corporate governance system of Taiwan has also been improved during the recent years, it is hard to say that our system is in the perfect condition. Hence, the purpose of this thesis is to try to analyze the corporate governance system of Taiwan, and to give some suggestion for the governance system in the future. There are six chapters in this thesis. Next segment is the introduction of these chapters. Chapter 1: Descript the incentive, purpose, range and structure of this thesis. Chapter 2: Discuss the agency theory, introduce the idea of ¡§corporate governance¡¨, and realize the capital structure of the company in Taiwan. Chapter 3, 4, 5: Analyze the self-governance mechanisms in Taiwan. The self-governance mechanisms include shareholder, board and supervisory board. At the end of each chapter, the thesis will give some suggestion about our corporate governance in the future. Chapter 6: Summarize all the viewpoints and suggestion in this thesis.

Agency theories suggest that governance matters more when agency conflicts are potentially more severe. However, empirical studies often do not control for the potential severity of agency conflicts. I show that the marginal benefit of governance varies with the free cash flow level, a proxy for the potential severity of agency conflicts. As the free cash flow level increases, higher governance quality becomes incrementally more value-enhancing, and lower governance quality becomes incrementally more value-destroying. This is consistent with the hypothesis that better governance helps resolve the agency conflicts in investment decisions when a firm has more free cash flows (Jensen, 1986). This study highlights the importance of controlling for the potential severity of agency conflicts in governance studies and provides an improved method to estimate the marginal benefit of a governance mechanism.

This research intends to investigate the relationships among governance environment, organizational structure, information technology governance, information technology use, and information technology performance. An empirical study was conducted to collect from Taiwanese companies. The result shows three major findings. First, small positive effect exists between information technology use and the alignment between governance environment and organization structure. Second, information technology use has positive effects on information technology performance. Finally, the relative governance of IT department does not affect IT use. This research helps organizations understand how information technology governance affects IT use and performance. Organizations could adjust their organization governance strategy to fir its structural and cultural environment in order to improve information technology performance.

Univ., Diss.--St. Gallen, 2006.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-215). Also available in print.

This study employs the heuristic of practice to understand a community's experience of participatory governance in India. The purpose of the study was three-fold: 1) understand what the organizing principle of participation means to a community, 2) how participation is enacted in the community, and 2) how participatory sites of governance are conceptualized by the community. The study was based in KMG- a village in western Maharashtra, India where a total of 40-in-depth interviews (n = 40) were conducted. As a part of the Indian constitution, institutions of participatory governance are a part of the process to decentralize governance and devolve power to the people. While the vast body of literature on this topic assesses many different contexts of participatory governance, the literature has not paid adequate attention to what people themselves make of the practice of participation and how it is embedded in the routine of everyday life. The study contributes to the study of governance by identifying how the notion of participation becomes meaningful to people and how it is practiced. Through interviews and field observations, the dissertation constructs a thick ethnographic text that describes the experiences and interactions of the residents of KMG with participation and the governance structures in their village. The data was analyzed using the constant comparative method of grounded theory to identify the different 'acts' of participation that together provide the blueprint for governance in KMG. The three macro themes that came together to inform both the practice and barriers to participating in the KMG's governance were "The Material" -- the built environment of governance, "The Conceptual" -- the imagined nature of governance and the gram panchayat , and "The Personnel" -- the representatives of the governance structure in the village. Together, these themes contribute to the way the residents of KMG spoke about practicing and experiencing participation in their everyday life. Lastly, the study animates and deconstructs the notion of participation through a people-centered interrogation. In the process, it illuminates how the links between existing institutions and organic practices of a community drive the practice of participation and the implications it has for the inclusive governance of a community. / text

Sverige har under många år varit ledande i e-förvaltningsarbetet och har utformat ett flertal handlingsplaner för införandet. E-förvaltningsarbetet har drabbats av svårigheter och problem under åren och år 2008 startades e-förvaltningsarbetet om med en ny handlingsplan. Även denna handlingsplan har utsatts för kritik såsom att det bara en vision som saknar riktlinjer hur e-förvaltningsarbetet skall realiseras. Ledande personer inom forskningsämnet anser att handlingsplanen inte är tillräcklig för att stödja och leda kommunerna i e-förvaltningsarbetet. Studien syftar till att undersöka hur handlingsplanen omvandlas till styrning och strategier i offentliga förvaltningar. Vi gick ut med en kvalitativ ansats och intervjuade respondenter på kommunal nivå. Empirin och analysen lyfter fram att förvaltningarna vill införa e-tjänster och till viss del arbetar mot e-förvaltning. Däremot är inte handlingsplanen förankrad i verksamheterna. Resultatet av studien visar sig att det inte sker någon omvandling av handlingsplanen till styrning och strategier på förvaltningarna. Däremot visar resultatet att förvaltningarna indirekt arbetar mot e-förvaltning men har inga egna riktlinjer för arbetet. Studien avslutas med riktlinjer som regeringen och förvaltningarna bör beakta för att e-förvaltningsarbetet skall ta fart. / Sweden has for many years been a leader in e-government work and has developed several action plans for the implementation. E-Government efforts have suffered from difficulties and problems over the years and in year 2008 the swedish government launched a new action plan for the e-government work. Although this action plan has been criticized as it is only a vision with no guidance of how e-government work should be realized. Leading researchers also criticized that the action plan is not sufficient enough to support and encourage municipalities in the work to become e-governments. The study aims to examine how the action plan translates into management and strategies in public administrations. We had a qualitative approach and interviewed respondents at the municipal level. Empirical data and analysis highlights that the municipalities want to implement e-services and they are working towards e-government. However, the action plan is not rooted in the municipalities. The results of this study show that there is no transformation or translation of the action plan to management and strategies in the public administration. However, the results show that public administrations indirect work towards becoming e-government but has no proper guidelines for that work. The study concludes with guidelines for the government and the municipalities which they should take in account so that e-government work picks up pace.

New information and communication technologies are often viewed as a panacea to thecurrent crisis of representative democracy. The growing number of publications on thedemocratization effects of the use of new information and communication technologies (ICT)in governance focuses on social media and emerging online public spheres. This thesisexamines the democratic potential of ICT from the supply side represented by the concepts ofe-governance and e-government. In the context of destabilization of political communicationsystem, e-governance as a top-down initiative has a better chance to serve as a congregativeforce formalizing institutional procedures between the multi-public spheres and the decisionmakers and, thus, democratizing political communication. The first part of the thesis pullstogether the key concepts of electronic transformation – e-governance, e-government and edemocracy–andanalyzesthemwithinabroadercontextofnewgovernance.Thedemocratictest,based on evaluation against Robert Dahl’s five democratic criteria and democraticdeficits of new governance, indicates numerous negative consequences of e-governance forrepresentative democracy. Moreover, implemented in different institutional settings ofdemocratic and non-democratic regimes, e-governance varies in the level of development andimpact on political communication and political systems in general. To verify theoreticalconclusions empirically, a global study was conducted for two points in time – 2003 and2008; it examined the relationship between e-governance and democracy controlling for theimpact of telecommunication infrastructure development. Hypothesis testing revealed that thelevel of e-governance development and its correlation with democracy strongly varied inrelation to the type of political system. The findings suggest that it is premature to ascribedemocratization effects to e-governance disregarding existing institutional settings.