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Information technology investment methodologies: An investigation into method /technology fit
Abstract
Information technology/information systems (IT/IS) are evolving rapidly, becoming wide spread and an integral part of nearly every facet of today’s organizations. Technology is being used to increase sales, manage operations, produce products and services, manage projects, and improve business processes. Today, networking and communications technologies, such as desktop publishing, e-mail, mobile phones, laptops, workstations, PDAs and networking hardware and software, are extensively used in organizations, as well as various types of software and solutions to support business functions, like scheduling, planning, budgeting, sales, production, and human resources. IT/IS are becoming one of the primary factors for survival of most organizations, as well as a source of competitive advantage for some, which makes IT/IS investment decisions critical for organizations. Organizations are faced with the challenge of selecting IT/IS investments, as well as the selection of an evaluation method. The selection of an evaluation method may be a daunting task as there are more than sixty evaluation methods that have been proposed by researchers and practitioners to assist in the IT/IS investment decision making process. The most familiar methods are those traditionally used for capital budgeting decisions, such as return on investment and net present value analysis. Other popular methods are the balanced scorecard approach and the analytical hierarchy process. This dissertation explores IT/IS investment decisions, the methods used to evaluate these decisions, and the relationship among IT/IS investment type, evaluation method, and IT/IS investment performance. The results of the study show that organizations continue to use traditional financial techniques to evaluate IT/IS projects, while notable numbers of organizations use other evaluation techniques that may be considered more qualitative in nature. The results also show that administrative/production investments are more likely to be evaluated with an effective method than infrastructure investments and that IT/IS investments were perceived more effective when evaluated with non-traditional evaluation methods than traditional evaluation methods. A match or fit was not found between IT/IS investment type and evaluation method on IT/IS performance.
Subject Area
Management
Recommended Citation
Hamaker, Jamie L, "Information technology investment methodologies: An investigation into method /technology fit" (2009). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI3355621.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3355621