COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH IT
MSCA 686/2 Fall 2005 Department of Decision Sciences and MIS
PROFESSOR
Name: Office: Email:
Dr. Anne-Marie Croteau GM 209-13 croteau@alcor.concordia.ca
Office Hours: By appointment only Office Phone: (514) 848-2424 ext. 2983
REQUIRED READINGS Most of all articles are available electronically through ProQuest or other databases, and must be downloaded by students themselves (D). Others are either available in hard copy at the Webster Library (L), or from your professor (P).
COURSE OVERVIEW This course covers the strategic management of information technology and investigates the potential of information technology to improve organizational competitive advantage. Students will be exposed to topics such as the strategic role of IT, business value of IT, strategic alignment of IT, IT governance, IS capabilities, competencies and leadership. With the knowledge acquired during this course, students will be able to meet the challenges of promoting the use of information technology as an authentic strategic asset.
OBJECTIVE M.Sc. students need to receive a solid foundation in the management of information technology (IT) with a strategic managerial perspective. With the knowledge acquired during this course, they will be able to meet the challenges of promoting the use of IT as an authentic strategic asset. This course will provide students with an overview of academic research that examines how IT is studied by academics, and used and managed in organizations.
COURSE CONDUCT The course is taught as a seminar for which students are asked to read between three and five recent articles each week. Thus, having studied the assigned material, each student will be
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prepared to actively participate in the classroom discussion. Participation is evaluated through the quality of contribution to discussion. Students are expected to abide by university rules on ethical academic conduct. Plagiarism is not tolerated and will be dealt with accordingly. Late assignments are not accepted.
ASSIGNMENTS The formal individual assignments for the course are the following: Critiques: Students will prepare a total of five critiques. Each one will be the analysis of the papers of a particular week. It will include a summary of the topics covered (½ page), an evaluation of the results, research methods, and techniques used in the studies (1 page) and it will conclude on what is still unknown on that issue (~½ page). The critiques will be a two-page paper word-processed (single space, 1” margin all over the page) and ended in at the beginning of the related class. Any extra pages won’t be evaluated. Paper review: During the semester, each student will review a paper that was submitted to a conference or a journal. Participants will have two weeks to hand in their review of that paper. Students shall use the following article available on ScienceDirect (Lee, A. “Reviewing a manuscript for publication,” Journal of Operations Management, (13:1), 1995, pp. 87-92) and visit this website for guidelines http://aom.pace.edu/amjnew/reviewer_guidelines.html. Participation: Students are expected to participate in all class discussions and activities. Participation will be evaluated through their level of attendance and the quality of their contribution in class. Proposed Research Project: Students will write a research project and present it at the end of the semester. The purpose of this project is to allow each student to explore in detail any of the topics covered in class. Students have to select a specific research idea and try to examine a particular issue. Participants will have to submit a short proposal by mid-October (½ page single-spaced max) to their professor in order to discuss it and get it approved.
GRADING Critiques (5) Paper Review Participation Research Proposal Report Total 50% 15% 10% 25% 100%
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CURRICULUM SUMMARY Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Date Sept. 7 Sept. 14 Sept. 21 Sept. 28 Oct. 5 Oct. 12 Oct. 19 Oct. 26 Nov. 2 Nov. 9 Nov. 16 Nov. 23 Nov. 30 Theme Skills for M.Sc. Students Specialized in MIS MIS Research Strategic Role of IT Business Value of IT Strategic Alignment of IT Social Dimensions of Strategic Alignment of IT IT Governance IT Governance Resource-Based Perspective of IT IS Competencies IS Capabilities IS Leadership Research Proposal Presentations
DETAILED CURRICULUM Week 1: Skills for M.Sc. Students Specialized in MIS (D) Petress, K. “How to Be a Good Advisee,” Education (120:3), 2000, pp. 598-599. (D) Lanyon, S.M. “How to Design a Dissertation Project,” BioScience (45:1), 1995, pp. 40-42. (P) Davis, G.B. “The Knowledge and Skill Requirements for the Doctorate in MIS,” Proceedings of the First International Conference on Information Systems, 1980, pp. 174-186. (D) Webster, J., and Watson R.T. “Analyzing the Past to Prepare for the Future: Writing a Literature Review,” MIS Quarterly (26:2), 2002, xiii-xxiii.
Week 2: MIS Research (P) Keen, P.G.W. (1980), “MIS Research: Reference Disciplines and A Cumulative Tradition,” Proceedings of the First International Conference on Information Systems, 9-18 (D) Baskerville, R.L., and M.D. Myers “Information Systems as a Reference Discipline,” MIS Quarterly (26:1), 2002, pp. 1-14. (D) Benbasat, I., and Zmud R.W. “Empirical Research in Information Systems: The Practice of Relevance,” MIS Quarterly (23:1), 1999, pp. 3-16.
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(D) Boudreau, M.C., Gefen, D., and Straub D.W. “Validation in Information Systems Research: A State-of-the-Art Assessment,” MIS Quarterly (25:1), 2001, pp. 1-16.
Week 3: Strategic Role of IT (D) Bergeron, F., Buteau, C., and Raymond, L. “Identification of Strategic Information Systems Opportunities,” MIS Quarterly (15:1), 1991, pp. 89-101. (D) Kettinger, W.J., Grover, V., Guha, S., and Segars, A.H. “Strategic Information Systems Revisited: A Study in Sustainability and Performance,” MIS Quarterly (18:1), 1994, pp. 31-59. (D) King, W.R. and Teo, T.S.H. “Key Dimensions of Facilitators and Inhibitors for the Strategic Use of Information Technology,” Journal of Management Information Systems (12:4), 1996, pp. 35-53. (D) Sambamurthy, V., Bharadway, A. and Grover, V. “Shaping Agility through Digital Options: Reconceptualizing the Role of Information Technology in Contemporary Firms,” MIS Quarterly (27:2), 2003, pp. 237-263.
Week 4: Business Value of IT (D) Brynjolfsson, E. “The Productivity Paradox of Information Technology,“ Communications of the ACM (36:12), 1993, pp. 67-77. (L) Melville, N., Kraemer, K., and Gurbaxani, V. “Information Technology and Organizational Performance: An Integrative Model of IT Business Value,” MIS Quarterly (28:2), 2004, pp. 283-322. (D) Sircar, S., Turnbow, J. L., and Bordoloi, B. “A Framework for Assessing the Relationship Between Information Technology Investments and Firm Performance,” Journal of Management Information Systems (16:4), 2000, pp. 69-97. (D) Davern, M.J., and Kauffman, R.J. “Discovering Potential and Realizing Value from Information Technology Investments,” Journal of Management Information Systems (16:4), 2000, pp. 121-143.
Week 5: Strategic Alignment of IT (D) Henderson, J.C., and Venkatraman, N. “Strategic Alignment: Leveraging Information Technology for Transforming Organizations,” IBM Systems Journal (38:2&3), 1999, pp. 472484. (D) Luftman, J., and McLean, E.R. “Key Issues for IT Executives,” MIS Quarterly Executive (3:2), 2004, pp. 89-104.
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(D) Croteau, A.-M., and Bergeron, F., “An Information Technology Trilogy: Business Strategy, Technological Deployment and Organizational Performance,” Journal of Strategic Information Systems (20:2), 2001, pp. 77-99. (D) Bergeron, F., Raymond, L, and Rivard, S. “Ideal Patterns of Strategic Alignment and Business Performance,” Information & Management (41:8), 2004, pp. 1003-1020.
Week 6: Social Dimensions of Strategic Alignment of IT (D) Reich, B.H., and Benbasat, I.”Factors that Influence the Social Dimension of Alignment Between Business and Information Technology Objectives,” MIS Quarterly (24:1), 2000, pp. 81-113. (L) Ross, J.W., Beath, C.M., and Goodhue, D.L. “Develop Long-Term Competitiveness through IT Assets,” Sloan Management Review (38:1), 1996, pp. 31-42. (P) Chan, Y.E. “Why Haven’t We Mastered Alignment? The Importance of Informal Organizational Structure,” MIS Quarterly Executive (1:2), pp. 97-112. (D) Luftman, J., and Brier, T., “Achieving and Sustaining Business-IT Alignment,” California Management Review (42:1), 1999, pp. 109-122.
Week 7: IT Governance (P) Weill, P. “Don’t Just Lead, Govern: How Top-Performing Firms Govern IT,” MIS Quarterly Executive (3:1), 2004, pp. 1-17. (L) Brown, C.V. “Redesigning the Emergence of Hybrid IS Governance Solutions: Evidence from a Single Case Site,” Information Systems Research (8:1), 1997, pp. 69-94. (D) Peterson R, “Crafting Information Management (21:4), 2004, pp. 7-22. Technology Governance,” Information Systems
(P) Ross, J.W. “Creating a Strategic IT Architecture Competency: Learning in Stages,” MIS Quarterly Executive (2:1), 2003, pp. 31-43.
Week 8: IT Governance (P) Brown, A. E., and Grant, G. G. “Framing the Frameworks: A Review of IT Governance Research,” Communications of the Association for Information Systems (15), 2005, pp. 696-712 (D) Sambamurthy, V., and Zmud, R. “Arrangements for Information Technology Governance: A Theory of Multiple Contingencies,” MIS Quarterly (23:2), 1999, pp. 261-290. (D) Schwarz, A., and Hirschheim, R. “An Extended Platform Logic Perspective of IT Governance: Managing Perceptions and Activities of IT,” The Journal of Strategic Information Systems (12:2), 2003, pp.129-166.
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(D) Weill P., and Ross J. “A Matrixed Approach to Designing IT Governance,” MIT Sloan Management Review (46:2), 2005, pp. 26-34.
Week 9: Resource-Based Perspective of IT (L) Wade, M., and Hulland, J. “Review: The Resource-Based View and Information Systems Research: Review, Extension, and Suggestions for Future Research,” MIS Quarterly (28:1), 2004, pp. 107-142. (D) Bharadwaj, A.S. “A Resource-Based Perspective on Information Technology Capability and Firm Performance: An Empirical Investigation,” MIS Quarterly (24:1), 2000, pp. 169-196. (D) Kears, G.S., and Lederer A.L. “A Resource-Based View of Strategic IT Alignment: How Knowledge Sharing Creates Competitive Advantage,” Decision Sciences (34:1), 2003, pp. 1-29. (D) Helfat, C.E. et M.A. Peteraf, “The Dynamic Resource-Based View: Capability Lifecycles”, Strategic Management Journal (24:10), 2003, pp. 997-1010.
Week 10: IS Competencies (D) Benbasat, I., Dexter, A., and Mantha, R. W. “Impact of Organizational Maturity on Information System Skill Needs,” MIS Quarterly (4:1), 1980, pp. 21-34. (L) Bassellier, G. and Benbasat I. “Business Competence of IT Professionals: Conceptual Development and Influence on IT-Business Partnerships,” MIS Quarterly (28:4), 2004, pp. 673-694. (D) Bassellier, G., Benbasat, I., and Reich, B.H. “The Influence of Business Managers' IT Competence on Championing IT,” Information Systems Research (14:4), 2003, pp. 317-336. (P) Croteau, A.-M., and Raymond, L. “Performance Outcomes of Strategic and IT Competencies Alignment,” Journal of Information Technology (19:3), 2004, pp. 178-190.
Week 11: IS Capabilities (D) Nelson, R. R. “Educational Needs as Perceived by IS and End-User Personnel: A Survey of Knowledge and Skills Requirements,” MIS Quarterly (15:4), 1991, pp. 503-525. (D) Grant, R. “Prospering in Dynamically-Competitive Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration,” Organization Science (7:4), 1996, pp. 375-387. (D) Feeny, D.F. et L.P. Willcocks, “Core IS Capabilities for Exploiting Information Technology,” Sloan Management Review (39: 3), 1998, p. 9-21. (P) Tiwana, A., Bharadwaj, A., and Sambamurthy, V. “The Antecedents of Information Systems Development Capability in Firms: A Knowledge Integration Perspective,” Proceedings of the Twenty Fourth International Conference on Information Systems, 2003.
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Week 12: IS Leadership (D) Armstrong C.P., and Sambamurthy, V. “Information Technology Assimilation in Firms: The Influence of Senior Leadership and IT Infrastructures,” Information Systems Research (10:4), 1999, pp. 304-327. (D) Gottschalk, P. “Information System Executives: The Changing Role of New IS/IT Leaders,” Informing Science (3:2), 2000, pp. 31-39. (L) Earl, M. J., and Feeny, D.F. “Is your CIO adding Value?,” Sloan Management Review (35:3), 1994, pp. 11-21. (D) Feeny, D.F., Edwards, B.R., and Simpson, K.M. “Understanding the CEO/CIO Relationship,” MIS Quarterly (16:4), 1992, pp.435-448.
Week 13: Research Proposal Presentations
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RESEARCH PROPOSAL GUIDELINES
Use the following guidelines to write a research proposal (10 pages, 1½ spaced, 12-point font)
Abstract (not included in the 6 pages) (5 marks) Summarize the project in 300 words maximum Context (5 marks) Briefly explain the context that justifies this research proposal Literature Review (25 marks) Situate the proposed research project by referring to the relevant scholarly literature Research model (30 marks) Indicate the research question Provide and describe the framework Explain and justify the hypotheses Define and operationalize the variables. Methodology (25 marks) Describe and justify the proposed research strategies/key activities, including methodological approaches and procedures for data collection and analysis, that will be used to achieve the stated objectives Propose a calendar spread over less than a year Plan a budget below 3,000$ covering the necessary expenditures (no salary) Contributions (5 marks) Explain the importance, originality and anticipated contribution to knowledge of the proposed research, for both academics and practitioners Bibliography (5 marks) Provide all the literature cited in your document. Properly cite the author(s) and indicate the reference(s) in the bibliography
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