Understanding IT Governance Effectiveness in Asia: An Event Study

The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of Information Technology (IT) Governance models for public organizations and presenting an IT Governance model that can be adopted by both practitioners and researchers. A review of the literature in IT Governance has been initiated to shape the intended theoretical background of this study. The systematic literature review formalizes a richer context for the IT Governance concept. An empirical survey, using a questionnaire based on COBIT 4.1 maturity model used to investigate IT Governance practice in multiple case studies from Kingdom of Bahrain. This method enabled the researcher to gain insights to evaluate IT Governance practices. The results of this research will enable public sector organizations to adopt an IT Governance model in a simple and dynamic manner. The model provides a basic structure of a concept; for instance, this allows organizations to gain a better perspective on IT Governance processes and provides a clear focus for decision-making attention. IT Governance model also forms as a basis for further research in IT Governance adoption models and bridges the gap between conceptual frameworks, real life and functioning governance.

This article focuses on the implementation of information technology (IT) governance mechanisms at the Federal University of Reconcavo da Bahia (UFRB), Brazil. In this context, the main objective is to indicate which mechanisms need improvement actions. To do so, a questionnaire was used using the five-point Likert scale to indicate the degree of attitude of university decision-makers about the implementation of IT governance mechanisms. In addition, we sought evidence of implementation in the Institutional Development Plan (MDP) 2015-2019, in the management reports for 2015 and 2016, in the institutional self-assessment report 2015-2017, and on the institution's website. The analysis indicated that the implementation of the mechanisms investigated at UFRB is at an embryonic stage, with the inertia of the strategic IT decision-making structures, and the absence of the definition of IT principles, policies and models, which hinders the implementation of the other categories of IT governance mechanisms. The findings regarding the embryonic stage of the implementation of IT governance mechanisms has led to the conclusion that there is no strategic alignment between IT and business and, consequently, a hindrance to the delivery of value provided by IT to the academic community.

The Department of Education, South Africa, published a white paper on the transformation of the higher education sector in 1997, to ensure that the sector would meet the criteria for the higher education agenda of the country. Governance of the higher education sector in South Africa is defined in an Act of parliament governing the sector, Act 101 of 1997, as amended. The Act defines the governance organs required. Whilst the corporate governance requirements are well defined and practiced, there is no formal requirement for the governance of information technology (IT). This paper investigates the maturity levels of IT governance processes in public higher education institutions in South Africa, using the COBIT 4.1 framework developed by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). Ten of the twenty-three public higher education institutions in South Africa participated in a survey requiring 78 responses each. The empirical results of this survey on the level of IT governance process maturity will be presented and discussed to better understand the factors contributing to IT governance process maturity levels in the public higher education sector in South Africa.

Purpose This paper aims to reveal the potential challenges and opportunities for information technology (IT) governance in higher education institutions (HEIs). Furthermore, the authors extend what the identified determinants mean for Saudi universities. Design/methodology/approach This study pursued a systematic literature review applying the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses strategy protocol. Findings IT governance is both beneficial and challenging to integrate into the higher education setting. This is because most IT Governance frameworks are created and implemented in a traditional organizational setting, which differs from the overall culture of HEIs. As for the context of Saudi Arabia, findings depict a hopeful picture for the future of IT Governance, as HEI stakeholders are primarily aware of IT Governance policies, but Saudi HEIs are yet to work toward this goal systematically. Research limitations/implications Apart from extending the current literature on IT governance, this paper adds the educational perspective and the Saudi context, which is found to be limited in the existing literature. The findings could be used to benchmark the IT Governance scenario in other countries, wherein this study could support the roadmap of effective IT governance adoption in HEIs in various nations. Originality/value This study could support improving the institutional operational performance of HEIs in Saudi Arabia, particularly in terms of electronic monitoring systems, effective monitoring of processing systems, prevention of fraud and reducing the manipulation and wasting of funds. The insights from this study could be beneficial to government policymakers, higher education managers, researchers and academics.

This title provides clear and readily applicable guidance to corporate board members on the involvement of boards of directors in information technology (IT) governance. Specifically, it demonstrates ways in which board members can execute IT duties effectively. Specific tools such as a roadmap towards digital transformation and a board-level dashboard for digital strategy and oversight are also offered. While organizations are increasingly dependent on IT for the creation of business value, the evidence seems to indicate that boards of directors are not as involved in IT-related strategic decision-making and control as they should be. Research shows that high levels of board-level IT governance, regardless of existing IT needs, will improve organizational performance. This book provides unique insights into the inner workings of a specific board of directors group, with a focus on its IT governance structures and processes.

This study provides additional evidence on information technology (IT) governance and its relationship to firm performance in emerging markets. It aims primarily to determine the level of IT governance in Saudi Arabian companies; it also aims at examining the impact of IT governance on the firm performance. The study target sample is 131 companies taken from 20 sectors of the Saudi financial market; during the year 2017. The researchers have used the IT-related backgrounds of the members of the board of directors as an indicator of IT governance. The researchers have also used another group of corporate governance indicators in addition to a set of control variables. The performance of the companies has been referred to as the operational performance which is represented as Return on Assets (ROA) and the financial performance as the Return on Equity (ROE). The descriptive results have been shocking. The study has shown a sharp decline in IT governance in Saudi companies; only 15% of companies have members of the board of directors with IT-related backgrounds, and the IT governance is not adopted or used in many important sectors. However, the regression analysis shows that there is a positive impact on IT governance only on the operational performance of Saudi companies. The results of this study provide a significant indicator of IT governance in Saudi companies. These results can be also used to develop the corporate governance code to focus more on IT governance.

Previous research has proposed different types for and contingency factors affecting information technology governance. Yet, in spite of this valuable work, it is still unclear through what mechanisms IT governance affects organizational performance. We make a detailed argument for the mediation of strategic alignment in this process. Strategic alignment remains a top priority for business and IT executives, but theory-based empirical research on the relative importance of the factors affecting strategic alignment is still lagging. By consolidating strategic alignment and IT governance models, this research proposes a nomological model showing how organizational value is created through IT governance mechanisms. Our research model draws upon the resource-based view of the firm and provides guidance on how strategic alignment can mediate the effectiveness of IT governance on organizational performance. As such, it contributes to the knowledge bases of both alignment and IT governance literatures. Using dyadic data collected from 131 Taiwanese companies (cross-validated with archival data from 72 firms), we uncover a positive, significant, and impactful linkage between IT governance mechanisms and strategic alignment and, further, between strategic alignment and organizational performance. We also show that the effect of IT governance mechanisms on organizational performance is fully mediated by strategic alignment. Besides making contributions to construct and measure items in this domain, this research contributes to the theory base by integrating and extending the literature on IT governance and strategic alignment, both of which have long been recognized as critical for achieving organizational goals.

Information technology plays a significant role enabling organisations to achieve their objectives. Accordingly, the governance mechanisms over the organisation’s IT resources must be in place and operating effectively if the organization is to achieve its objectives. The concern with IT governance is not only evident in the private sector but also in the public sector. This study attempts to examine empirically the individual IT governance mechanisms that influence the overall effectiveness of IT governance in Australian public sector organisations. Using sample data from auditors who currently work in Australian public sector organisations, this study examined the influence of four proposed individual IT governance mechanisms on the overall effectiveness of IT governance. This study found significant positive relationships between the existence of an IT strategy committee and corporate (organisational) communication systems, and the overall level of effective IT governance within Australian public sector organisations.

The practice of information technology (IT) governance entails activities that ensures stakeholder needs are evaluated to determine balanced, agreed upon enterprise objectives to be achieved; setting direction through IT-related prioritisation and decision making, and monitoring performance and compliance against agreed upon direction and objectives. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of IT governance effectiveness in private sector organizations in a developing country such as Malaysia. Based on extant literature review, a research model was developed for analyzing the relationship between the practices for effective IT governance in this environment and their effect on organizational performance. A survey research method was applied for data collection and sample data from Malaysian private sector organizations (this environment) obtained. Subsequently, structural equation modeling technique, namely partial least squares, was applied to test statistically the correlated effects. The results indicate significant small to strong positive correlated effects on IT governance effectiveness. Finally, a model for effective IT governance in this environment was proposed. The findings imply that decision makers can optimize IT-related plans and use of scarce resources by concentrating on the factors that have a significant effect on organizational performance that could lead to an improvement of service delivery.

Contextual determinants of IT governance mechanism formulation for senior care services in local governments

This paper analyses and presents a case study on information technology governance (ITG) practices in a government-linked company (GLC) by looking at the ITG process, accountability and the desirable behaviours of information technology (IT) at the project level of the organization. The study reveals a number of important findings in the context of ITG implementation at the project level. As far as ITG documentation was is concerned, there are numerous standards currently available of which many are continuously undergoing further development by IT professionals. Nonetheless, there is still no one correct way of governing IT in an organization, more specifically, in IT project management. In addition, there is not much known concerning the ITG outcome of ITG practices in Malaysian organizations. Thus, this paper shares the level of readiness and awareness of ITG practices, for this particular case, when it comes to implementing IT projects. Key words: Information technology governance (ITG), information technology governance (ITG) practices, accountability, information technology (IT) outcome.

Information system (IS) implementation can often lead to inherently contradictory issues, standardization, and evolve‐ability, which requires different, sets of information technology (IT) governance mechanisms. Recent research advocate ambidexterity mechanisms which consider the contradictory logic for long‐term success yet it has paid little attention to resource‐constrained settings which is a source of contradiction for the lack of technical and financial resource. Using an interpretative approach, based on institutional logic and dynamic ambidexterity concepts, this study revealed how centralized, systemic, and IT logics shaped IT governance mechanisms toward centralized and ad hoc‐based decentralized structures. Furthermore, the study depicted how the lack of a common vision for IS implementation impeded defining roles, identifying and collaborating with similar initiatives that led the implementation to uncontrolled evolve‐ability. Despite the absence of a common vision in resource‐constrained settings, the study identified the importance of resource‐chasing collaboration among heterogeneous actors to achieve standardization and evolve‐ability at a certain level though not sufficient. The study proposed an ambidextrous implementation framework by combining dynamic ambidexterity and institutional logic concepts to complement the resource‐chased collaboration with major HIS logics‐based collaboration through devising common vision, strategy, and mechanisms which allows sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring the emergent heterogeneous system implementation initiatives to achieve standardization and evolve‐ability simultaneously.

Past research in information technology (IT) governance has shown that strong IT governance results in improved business performance. Despite widespread acceptance that IT governance is important, there are limited studies focusing on IT practitioners in IT governance initiatives. This study aims to examine the extent of commitment, awareness, perceived importance and competency in influencing IT practitioners’ participation in IT governance initiatives. Data analysis using Partial Least Squares reveals that awareness, perceived importance and competency have positive influence on participation in IT governance. However, commitment is not a significant predictor of participation in IT governance. The practitioner-centric approach taken by this study adds knowledge to the existing IT governance literature from organisational perspective. The findings from this study help IT management identify focus areas in increasing to maximise participation of IT practitioners in IT governance initiatives.

Abstract: Information Technology (IT) governance has become animportant topic in information system management because it can affectthe ability of companies/organizations and government agencies toachieve goals. Maturity level assessment in the Information andCommunication Technology Division work unit needs to be carried outin order to determine the current condition of IT governance. Maturitylevel measurement is carried out using the COBIT 2019 framework,namely by mapping organizational goals into COBIT 2019 so that relateddomains are obtained. Measuring the level of maturity in the Div TIKwork unit shows that there are 8 process domains. The EDM01, APO07,APO08, BAI01, and MEA04 domains are at level 3 while the APO04,BAI11, and DSS04 domains are at level 4. Measuring the value of thegap between the current maturity level and the expected maturity level isalso carried out. The biggest discrepancy value is in the APO04 domainwith a value of 1.48, and the smallest is in the APO07 domain with avalue of 0.59. Analysis of improvements that can be carried out toincrease the maturity level include periodically assessing whether theagreed IT governance mechanisms are operating effectively; conductingregular reviews to assess skills evolution; and controlling IT services,assets and resources.

In response to the international trend, in recent years companieshave officially adopted the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and need to perform upgrade or adjustment to their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systemsfor the IFRS conversion. Information technology (IT) governance in an ERP system environment will become akey that cannot be ignored by the management. To investigate the impact of implementing IT governance in an ERP environment on the effectiveness of ERP implementation and IFRS conversion The findings are as follows: Effective IT governance in a company can improve the project performance of ERP implementation; The improvement of the information quality and system qualityofan ERP system candemonstrate the effectiveness of the IFRS conversion through the ERP system; The project performance of ERP implementation can improve the information quality and system quality of the ERP system as well as the effectiveness of the IFRS implementation.