informatics Article Information Technology Governance for Higher Education Institutions: A Multi-Country Study Isaías Scalabrin Bianchi 1,* , Rui Dinis Sousa 2 and Ruben Pereira 3 1 Institute of Scientific Research and Graduate School, Universidad de Lima, Lima 15023, Peru 2 ALGORITMI Center, Department of Information Systems, University of Minho, 4804-533 Guimarães, Portugal;
[email protected] 3 Department of Information Science and Technology, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), 1649-02 Lisbon, Portugal; ruben.fi
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: Information Technology governance (ITG) calls for the definition and implementation of formal practices at the highest level in the organization, involving structures, processes and relational practices for the creation of business value from IT investments. However, determining the right ITG practices remains a complex endeavor. Previous studies identify IT governance practices used in the health and financial sectors. As universities have many unique characteristics, it is highly unlikely that the ITG experiences of the financial and health industry can be directly applied to universities. This study, using Design Science Research (DSR), develops a baseline with advised practices for the university sector. The analysis of thirty-four case studies from the literature review provides a set of practices as a starting point for the development of the baseline model proposal through multiple case studies involving interviews with IT directors, in ten universities in five countries: eight new practices emerge in this study. The model proposed was evaluated by experts. The result is a baseline Citation: Scalabrin Bianchi, I.; Dinis model with adequate practices for IT governance in universities as well as a set of guidelines for Sousa, R.; Pereira, R.