The following chart summarizes a literature review of many influential articles on information technology alignment.1 It provides a snapshot of much of the literature to date in this area. Articles are reviewed in alphabetical order and are described based on their research method, theory/concept, and findings. These columns, however, are not mutually exclusive; column content overlaps at times. The research method indicates the type of study conducted by the authors, most commonly a conceptual paper, case study, survey, or other empirical study. Discussion in the theory or conceptual column elaborates on what the authors cite as the basis or starting point for their research. This column represents the article's foundation. The findings column is used to briefly present key points from the article, such as frameworks developed, hypotheses supported, significant relationships, best practices, and directions for future research. The summaries contained in this chart represent the interpretations of the articles produced by the researchers and their research assistants. Alternative interpretations or important subsidiary findings are welcomed by the authors. Should several be received, the Journal of Information Technology has agreed to post a revised version of this table on their website.
Notes
1 With the hundreds of articles available today on IT alignment, it was not possible to cite each article. We acknowledge that we have not recognized every study and apologize for any oversights. We also encourage any researcher whose contribution was overlooked or not appropriately presented to bring it to our attention.
Acknowledgements
We thank research assistants Catherine Shea, Zorana Svedic, and Darius Tadaniewicz, and acknowledge the funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada that made their assistance possible.
About the authors
Yolande E. Chan is a Professor and E. Marie Shantz Research Fellow in MIS at Queen's University in Canada. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario, an M.Phil. in Management Studies from Oxford University, and S.M. and S.B. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT. Prior to joining Queen's, she worked with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Currently she serves as Director, The Monieson Centre. Dr. Chan conducts research on information systems alignment, knowledge management, information privacy, and information systems performance. She has published her findings in journals such as Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly Executive, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Information & Management, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management and The Academy of Management Executive. Dr. Chan is a member of several journal editorial boards and is an officer of the Association for Information Systems.
Blaize Horner Reich is a Professor at Segal Graduate School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada.and is a visitingaAssociate at Templeton College, Oxford University. Before pursuing her Ph.D., Dr. Reich worked for 15 years in the IT industry as a practitioner and consultant, focusing on the financial services and utilities sectors. She is currently an editorial board member for several academic journals and a corporate director of two companies.
Dr. Reich's research has been published in a wide range of journals, including MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal for Management Information Systems and the Project Management Journal. Dr. Reich has two current research programs: (1) IT Project Performance and (2) IT Governance and Risk management. She and colleagues at Oxford and SFU recently received two national grants to extend their IT Project Performance research.
