1. ¹Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, School of Business and Economics College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, U.S.A.
2. ²Management Information Systems Department, Fogelman College of Business and Economics, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, U.S.A.
3. ³Management Science Department, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, U.S.A.

Correspondence: William J. Kettinger, Management Information Systems Department, Fogelman College of Business and Economics, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, U.S.A.

Received 15 March 2008; Revised 31 July 2008; Re-revised 16 November 2008; Re-revised 18 January 2009; Accepted 18 January 2009; Published online 24 February 2009.

Abstract

Enterprise-level information systems (IS) are fundamental to businesses. Unfortunately, implementing these large-scale systems is a complex and risky endeavor. As a result, these initiatives must tap the expertise and active involvement of both the IS department and the enterprise's functional areas. Past studies focusing on IS implementation teams consistently identify the IS department as the source of technical expertise and leadership, while functional department team members are typically relegated to the role of business experts. However, unlike the past, many business professionals are knowledgeable about information technology (IT) and are increasingly capable of contributing to IS implementations from a technical perspective as well as a business perspective. This study examines how IT competence held by both the IS department and the user department stakeholders contributes to user satisfaction with the enterprise-level system implementation. Specifically, this research introduces a theoretically grounded construct, joint IT competence, which emerges when the IS department and user department stakeholders integrate their individually held IT competences. The study's results empirically demonstrate that joint IT competence is a key driver of user satisfaction in enterprise-level IS implementations. Although not as significant as joint IT competence, results show that partner-based leadership between the IS department and user stakeholders also influences user satisfaction with IS implementations.