ournal of the J ssociation for nformation ystems A I S Research Paper ISSN: 1536-9323 Business Process and Information Technology Alignment: Construct Conceptualization, Empirical Illustration, and Directions for Future Research Paul P. Tallon Magno Queiroz Sellinger School of Business, Loyola University Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, Utah State Maryland, USA University, USA
[email protected] [email protected] Tim Coltman Rajeev Sharma School of Management, Operations and Marketing, School of Systems, Management, and Leadership, University of Wollongong, Australia University of Technology Sydney, Australia
[email protected] [email protected] Abstract: Since strategic alignment first rose to prominence with Henderson and Venkatraman’s (1993) seminal paper, research has tended to focus on the extent of fit between IT and business strategy at the firm level. Although useful, a firm-level view of alignment could mask what firms are doing to realize intellectual alignment between business and IT strategy and whether their actions will likely succeed. In this study, we build on an emergent stream of research that considers alignment between IT and business strategy at the process level. Since research tends to view this form of alignment through the lens of IT support for business strategy, this perspective fails to account for how IT can enable the development of new business strategies. Accordingly, we conceptualize alignment between IT and business strategy at the process level using the lens of IT shortfall (a lack of IT support for business activities) and IT slack (having more IT than needed to support current business activities). Using data from matched surveys of IT and business executives at 317 U.S.