Investigating Business and IT strategy Alignment: A Preliminary Study of Consumer IT Product Failures

Abstract

Consumer IT products (henceforth, IT products) are prevalent examples of technological innovations. These products are continuously manufactured and introduced to large fanfares annually. They potentially carry with them great promise for business organizations and consumers. When value is delivered and overall promise is achieved, positive return on assets (RoA) benefits result (Liu, Yeung, Lo & Cheng, 2014). Despite their organizations’ prestigious reputations and vast investments, the frequency and the cost of failed technology products make these occurrences intriguing and concerning (Wong, Lee & Tshai, 2012; Stratopoulos & Lim, 2010). Smart and high-performing organizations such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft face these failures and are unable to prevent them. Our study sought to answer the question: Are consumer IT product failures the result of misalignment of Business and IT domains? We contacted a sample of 25 IT professionals. The data collection included three rounds of questionnaires. Our findings showed shortage of strategy culture. To treat the shortage, we proposed a framework of behavioristic nature. It focuses on the cultural aspects of the relationship between the domains instead of infrastructure and processes. Our proposed framework assumes that strategy has been developed and the alignment is the result of implementation. Each successful Our is that if these responsibilities are owned and executed, they will facilitate the relationship between the two domains. The Business domain is responsible for communication, commitment and IT acumen. acumen,