This study extends our understanding of how information systems impact business value creation by examining the effect of digital enablement of business-to-business exchange on customer outcomes. We shed light on the connection between information technology investment and firm performance by focusing on how information technology is used (Devaraj and Kohli 2003) in an industrial services context and by highlighting the importance of indirect effects (Mittal and Nault 2009). A conceptual model is developed that combines a customer centric perspective (Sheth et al. 2000) with elements from the information systems success framework (DeLone and McLean 1992, DeLone and McLean 2003). Mediating factors are identified in the chain of effects from information technology specific business-to-business service quality characteristics to customer outcomes. In addition, we consider two contextual factors, relationship duration and customer dependence, which are known to alter the nature of buyer-supplier relationships but which have received little attention in research on digital enablement of business-to-business exchange. An empirical test of hypothesized relationships was performed using subjective and objective archival data from business-to-business exchange relationships for a logistics services vendor. All expected main effects were confirmed. Customer satisfaction was found to be a significant mediator in the chain of effects from information technology specific business-to-business service quality characteristics to customer outcomes. In addition, logistics service quality was found to mediate the relationships between system quality and customer satisfaction and between information quality and customer satisfaction. The hypothesized moderating effects, however, were not found to be significant. Robustness of the findings was confirmed by testing model hypotheses using data from exchange relationships with customers in two different industries, manufacturing and wholesale trade. Differences in analysis results are consistent with industry differences. This study contributes to the literatures on interorganizational information systems (Rai et al. 2006) and information technology business value (Melville et al. 2004) by identifying mediating mechanisms in the chain of effects from digital enablement of exchange to customer outcomes. Explication of mediating mechanisms improves our understanding about the indirect nature of impacts from information technology. This study also contributes to the literature on information systems by extending DeLone and McLean's (2003) model of information systems success to the context of business-to-business exchange relationships. In addition, this study contributes to the literature on services marketing (Zeithaml and Bitner 2003, Berry and Parasuraman 1993) by showing how system quality and information quality impact logistics service quality and customer satisfaction in a business-to-business exchange context.

Innovation ecosystem strategy is often adopted by platform technology owners to seek complementary innovation from resources located outside the firm to exploit indirect network effect. In this dissertation I aim to address the issues that are related to the formation and business value of platform innovation ecosystems in the enterprise software industry. The first study explores the role of three factors - increased payoff from access to platform owner's installed base, risk of misappropriation due to knowledge transfer, and the extent of competition - in shaping the decisions of third-party complementors to join a platform ecosystem. The second study evaluates the effect of participation in a platform ecosystem on small independent software vendors' business performances, and how their appropriability strategies, such as ownership of intellectual property rights or downstream complementary capabilities, affect the returns from such partnerships. Built upon resource based view and theory of dynamic capabilities, the third study reveals that users' co-innovation in enterprise information systems, measured by their participation in online professional community networks, constitute a source of intangible organizational asset that helps to enhance firm level IT productivity.

<p>The Chief information officer (CIO) position has been seen as very important to every organization; this includes organizations that have either outsourced   or Insourced their IT function. Various studies have shown that this role emerged as a critical executive position in most organization which helps to shape organizations strategy. CIO has a major responsibility of aligning IT with business strategy that leads to an organization achieving a higher competitive advantage. This  work describeD the various roles of the CIO in organizations with a special focus on IT-business strategy alignment.</p><p>Based on our investigations from previous research, case studies and current interviews with CIOs, we were able to see that the CIO roles are shifting from operational to more strategic one. The CIO is seen to be the bridge between IT strategy and business strategy. As a result of this, they have close collaboration with the CEOs in order to be successful in aligning IT strategy to the business objectives. In view of this, the CIO plays the role of both the chief architect who designs future possibilities for business and the technology provocateur (Intelligent officer) that aligns IT with business.</p>

The Chief information officer (CIO) position has been seen as very important to every organization; this includes organizations that have either outsourced   or Insourced their IT function. Various studies have shown that this role emerged as a critical executive position in most organization which helps to shape organizations strategy. CIO has a major responsibility of aligning IT with business strategy that leads to an organization achieving a higher competitive advantage. This  work describeD the various roles of the CIO in organizations with a special focus on IT-business strategy alignment. Based on our investigations from previous research, case studies and current interviews with CIOs, we were able to see that the CIO roles are shifting from operational to more strategic one. The CIO is seen to be the bridge between IT strategy and business strategy. As a result of this, they have close collaboration with the CEOs in order to be successful in aligning IT strategy to the business objectives. In view of this, the CIO plays the role of both the chief architect who designs future possibilities for business and the technology provocateur (Intelligent officer) that aligns IT with business.

För dagens verksamheter ter sig marknaden allt tuffare och för dess långsiktiga överlevnad måste dess olika delar fungera och tillsammans bilda en väl fungerande helhet. Samverkan (alignment) är en allt mer betydelsefull pusselbit i det som idag utgör en framgångsrik verksamhet. Ur ett strategiskt perspektiv är IT-styrning en stor del i denna framgång. IT-styrning är en av flera komponenter nödvändiga för att åstadkomma samverkan mellan IT och verksamhet och den har därmed en viktig roll i att få denna att fungera. Denna studie tittar närmre på den specifika roll IT-styrning har i att åstadkomma IT/Verksamhetssamverkan. Genom en kvalitativ ansats, bestående av sex djupintervjuer, har 15 framgångsfaktorer och 15 utmaningar som existerar inom IT-styrning identifierats. Hur dessa faktorer påverkar IT-styrningens förmåga att bidra till samverkan mellan IT och verksamhet kommer i denna rapport att presenteras. Med hjälp av styrmodellen PDCA kommer faktorerna på ett tydligare och mer lättöverskådligt sätt att redogöras för. Genom framtaget resultat bidrar studien med värdefull kunskap om de framgångsfaktorer och utmaningar som existerar inom IT-styrning. Denna kunskap kan av verksamheter användas för att uppnå framgångsrik IT-styrning, något som i en förlängning också bidrar till tillfredsställande IT/Verksamhetssamverkan. / Todays businesses are experiencing a tougher market and for their long-term survival the need for their various parts to work as a whole is becoming increasingly important. Alignment is an essential piece of what constitutes a successful business. From a strategic perspective IT governance play a big part in this success. IT governance is one of several components necessary to achieve what is called IT/Business alignment and has therefore an important role to play in making this alignment work. This study takes a closer look at IT governance and its contribution to IT/Business alignment. Through a qualitative approach, consisting of six in-depth interviews, 15 success factors and 15 challenges existing within IT governance have been identified. How these factors affect IT governance and its ability to contribute to the alignment between IT and business will be presented in this paper. With the aid of the PDCA management model these factors will be presented and accounted for in a clearer and more accessible way. The results produced in this study will provide valuable knowledge about existing success factors and challenges within IT governence. This knowledge can be used by businesses to achieve successful IT governance, which in an extension also contributes to satisfactory IT/Business alignment.

Bakgrund: IT-branschen är en viktig del av Sveriges ekonomi och förväntas växastadigt, det gör dessa företag relevanta att studera. Ekonomistyrning är en viktigfunktion och om den inte fungerar kan det leda till skadliga konsekvenser för företaget.Det har konstaterats att det finns ett gap mellan hur ekonomistyrningen ser ut i teorinoch hur den används i praktiken. Dock finns det inte mycket tidigare forskning om hurekonomistyrningen ser ut i små svenska IT-företag och därför blir det relevant attundersöka detta. Syfte: Denna uppsats syfte är bidra med forskning om hur små svenska IT-företagsekonomiska styrning ser ut. Genomförande: Uppsatsen är genomförd genom en flerfallstudie på sex små svenska ITföretag. Den utgår ifrån ett realistiskt forskningsperspektiv med en kvalitativforskningsstrategi och en abduktiv ansats. Empirin har samlats in genom ett målstyrturval där två semistrukturerade intervjuer per företag har genomförts. Den enaintervjurespondenten per företag var en högt uppsatt chef och den andraintervjurespondenten per företag var en lägre anställd inom IT. Slutsats: Uppsatsens resultat kommer fram till slutsatsen att det finns stora likheter i hursmå svenska IT-företags ekonomiska styrning ser ut. Det finns ett betydande fokus påicke-finansiella aspekter och det egna ansvaret är något som verkar dominera, det finnsdessutom en stark användning av företagskultur. / Background: The IT industry is an important part of Sweden’s economy and is expectedto steadily grow, therefore justifying the relevancy to investigate these companies.Management control systems are important functions and if they are not workingproperly it could lead to devastating consequences for the company. It has been statedthat there exists a gap between how management control systems are perceived intheory and how they actually are implemented in practice. Considering the lack ofprevious research on how the management control systems are being used in smallerSwedish IT-companies, it makes this topic relevant to investigate. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to contribute with research about managementcontrol systems in small Swedish IT businesses. Completion: The thesis is completed through a multiple case study on six small SwedishIT businesses. It uses realism as its research perspective with a qualitative researchstrategy and an abductive reasoning. The empirical evidence has been gathered througha targeted selection where two semi-structured interviews per business has beenconducted. One of the interviewees per business was a highly positioned manager andthe other interviewee per business was a lower employee in IT. Conclusion: The results of this thesis indicate that there are large similarities betweenmanagement control systems in small Swedish IT businesses. There is a heavy focus onnon-financial aspects and autonomy in the management control systems. There is also astrong use of corporate culture.

Top executives are interested in more transparent and formalized structures, applicable measurements, and clear justification of alignment. Limited or improper information technology governance (ITG) affects the business strategy that will ultimately influence the overall business alignment in local city government agencies (LCGAs). The problem addressed in this study was the lack of information regarding LCGAs IT/business strategic alignment maturity model (SAMM) level and the LCGAs' employment size. The purpose of this survey study was to evaluate 48 LCGA participants in the Southwestern part of the United States and compare their alignment perceptions with their cities' employment size. The theoretical framework for this study was based on ITG and business strategy as measured by the SAMM instrument. An online survey was used for data collection and data results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and an Analysis of Variance. After using the SAMM instrument, the current snapshot maturity level of LCGAs was 2.49 out of a maximum 5.0 level. Results illustrated no significant relationship between LCGAs alignment maturity levels and a city's size. This study empowers positive social change by providing LCGAs 6 incremental steps to improve the overall alignment maturity level in areas of transparent and formalized structures, applicable measurements, and improved alignment measures.

Nowadays more and more enterprises transform into service-oriented infrastructure to sustain their competitive advantage. Although IT is an enabler of service-orientation, IT must align with business strategies to deliver expected value. In order to ensure the investment of service-oriented IT can improve the quality of customer service effectively, we aim to develop an IT-business alignment framework to assess the quality of alignment in the context of service-oriented enterprises. In our framework we propose three components of IT-business alignment: strategic alignment, operational alignment and social alignment. The strategic alignment is the degree to which the business process and information can support corporate service strategies. The operational alignment is the degree to which information systems fulfill the information and process needs of service orientation. The social alignment is the degree to which a common service climate is shared between IT and business units. Our data is collected from web questionnaires. The total data set constitutes a representative sample of n=300. Among all returned questionnaires, 96 were found to be complete and usable; this represented a response rate of 32 percent. From this research we get four conclusions: (1) Regardless of customer integration level, strategic alignment plays a significant role in improving customer service quality. (2) Strategic alignment is particularly influential to customer service quality when the enterprise is not service-oriented. (3) Operational alignment is not significant; however with the increasing of data integration level, enterprises increasingly emphasize the operational alignment. (4) Regardless of service-orientation; social alignment effectively helps enterprises make good customer service quality and retain customers. / Nowadays more and more enterprises transform into service-oriented infrastructure to sustain their competitive advantage. Although IT is an enabler of service-orientation, IT must align with business strategies to deliver expected value. In order to ensure the investment of service-oriented IT can improve the quality of customer service effectively, we aim to develop an IT-business alignment framework to assess the quality of alignment in the context of service-oriented enterprises. In our framework we propose three components of IT-business alignment: strategic alignment, operational alignment and social alignment. The strategic alignment is the degree to which the business process and information can support corporate service strategies. The operational alignment is the degree to which information systems fulfill the information and process needs of service orientation. The social alignment is the degree to which a common service climate is shared between IT and business units. Our data is collected from web questionnaires. The total data set constitutes a representative sample of n=300. Among all returned questionnaires, 96 were found to be complete and usable; this represented a response rate of 32 percent. From this research we get four conclusions: (1) Regardless of customer integration level, strategic alignment plays a significant role in improving customer service quality. (2) Strategic alignment is particularly influential to customer service quality when the enterprise is not service-oriented. (3) Operational alignment is not significant; however with the increasing of data integration level, enterprises increasingly emphasize the operational alignment. (4) Regardless of service-orientation; social alignment effectively helps enterprises make good customer service quality and retain customers.

Há mais de 50 anos se discute a importância da Tecnologia da Informação (TI) para as organizações e ainda não se chegou a um concenso sobre a sua capacidade de gerar benefícios e nem quais são eles especificamente. Porém, cada vez mais estudos apontam para a capacidade da TI gerar valor para as organizações, logo, acredita-se que ainda é necessário ampliar o conhecimento acerca do tema. Também, porque os investimentos nessa área não páram de crescer e ainda há muita divergência com relação ao tipo de medida de desempenho organizacional que se deve utilizar. O objetivo dessa pesquisa é medir a percepção dos executivos de organizações que fazem uso intensivo de informações nas suas atividades diárias a respeito dos benefícios organizacionais proporcionados pela TI. O método escolhido foi a pesquisa survey, realizada a partir de um instrumento previamente proposto e adaptado, contendo 5 variáveis e 27 itens. A pesquisa survey foi realizada em duas etapas: estudo de pré-teste e estudo final, resultando em um novo instrumento de pesquisa. Diferentes técnicas estatísticas foram empregadas para refinar o instrumento, como Análise de Confiabilidade, Análise de Item-Total Corrigido (CITC), Análise Fatorial Exploratória e Análise Fatorial Confirmatória. Como resultado desse refinamento emergiu um modelo teórico de pesquisa final contendo 4 variáveis, sendo as dimensões de benefícios Estratégicos, Informacionais, Transacionais e Transformacionais, dispostas em 15 itens. Foi verificado que a variável Infra-Estrutura não se confirmou e alguns de seus itens migraram para outras dimensões. Também como contribuição para a área de SI, o modelo teórico de pesquisa final se mostrou adequado para avaliar o valor da TI para organizações usuárias intensivas de informação. A principal contribuição da pesquisa para a prática gerencial é o mapeamento da percepção dos executivos a respeito dos benefícios que a TI proporciona às suas organizações e um novo modelo representando o valor da TI. / For the last 50 years, the Information Technology (IT) organizational importance has been discussed, and so far, there is no common agreement about it‟s capacity to generate organizational benefits and neither which are they, specifically. Despite of that, there are more and more studies mentioning the IT business value, so it‟s still necessary to add knowledge to this subject. Besides, the IT investments are growing and divergence about what kind of organizational performance measure to use still exists. The purpose of this research is to measure the perception about IT business value for the organizations with intensive informational use executives. The chosen method is survey research, conducted with an instrument previously proposed and adapted to measure IT business value, containing 5 dimensions divided in 27 items. Survey research was conducted in two moments: pre-test study and final study, generating a new instrument. Diferent quantitative procedures were used to refine the instrument, like Reliability Analysis, Corrected Item-Total Correlation (CITC) Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. From these refinament emerged a model with 4 organizational benefits factors, being Estratégicos, Informacionais, Transacionais e Transformacionais, disposed in 15 items. The Infrastructure factor was not confirmed in the final model and some of it‟s items migrated to other factors. Also as academic knowledge, the final model is adequated measure de the IT businnes value for organizations with intensive informational use. The main contribution of this research to the business practice is the perception of it‟s executives about the IT organizational benefits to their organizations and a new model representing the IT business value.

Há mais de 50 anos se discute a importância da Tecnologia da Informação (TI) para as organizações e ainda não se chegou a um concenso sobre a sua capacidade de gerar benefícios e nem quais são eles especificamente. Porém, cada vez mais estudos apontam para a capacidade da TI gerar valor para as organizações, logo, acredita-se que ainda é necessário ampliar o conhecimento acerca do tema. Também, porque os investimentos nessa área não páram de crescer e ainda há muita divergência com relação ao tipo de medida de desempenho organizacional que se deve utilizar. O objetivo dessa pesquisa é medir a percepção dos executivos de organizações que fazem uso intensivo de informações nas suas atividades diárias a respeito dos benefícios organizacionais proporcionados pela TI. O método escolhido foi a pesquisa survey, realizada a partir de um instrumento previamente proposto e adaptado, contendo 5 variáveis e 27 itens. A pesquisa survey foi realizada em duas etapas: estudo de pré-teste e estudo final, resultando em um novo instrumento de pesquisa. Diferentes técnicas estatísticas foram empregadas para refinar o instrumento, como Análise de Confiabilidade, Análise de Item-Total Corrigido (CITC), Análise Fatorial Exploratória e Análise Fatorial Confirmatória. Como resultado desse refinamento emergiu um modelo teórico de pesquisa final contendo 4 variáveis, sendo as dimensões de benefícios Estratégicos, Informacionais, Transacionais e Transformacionais, dispostas em 15 itens. Foi verificado que a variável Infra-Estrutura não se confirmou e alguns de seus itens migraram para outras dimensões. Também como contribuição para a área de SI, o modelo teórico de pesquisa final se mostrou adequado para avaliar o valor da TI para organizações usuárias intensivas de informação. A principal contribuição da pesquisa para a prática gerencial é o mapeamento da percepção dos executivos a respeito dos benefícios que a TI proporciona às suas organizações e um novo modelo representando o valor da TI. / For the last 50 years, the Information Technology (IT) organizational importance has been discussed, and so far, there is no common agreement about it‟s capacity to generate organizational benefits and neither which are they, specifically. Despite of that, there are more and more studies mentioning the IT business value, so it‟s still necessary to add knowledge to this subject. Besides, the IT investments are growing and divergence about what kind of organizational performance measure to use still exists. The purpose of this research is to measure the perception about IT business value for the organizations with intensive informational use executives. The chosen method is survey research, conducted with an instrument previously proposed and adapted to measure IT business value, containing 5 dimensions divided in 27 items. Survey research was conducted in two moments: pre-test study and final study, generating a new instrument. Diferent quantitative procedures were used to refine the instrument, like Reliability Analysis, Corrected Item-Total Correlation (CITC) Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. From these refinament emerged a model with 4 organizational benefits factors, being Estratégicos, Informacionais, Transacionais e Transformacionais, disposed in 15 items. The Infrastructure factor was not confirmed in the final model and some of it‟s items migrated to other factors. Also as academic knowledge, the final model is adequated measure de the IT businnes value for organizations with intensive informational use. The main contribution of this research to the business practice is the perception of it‟s executives about the IT organizational benefits to their organizations and a new model representing the IT business value.